Leondra R. Kruger argued 12 cases at the Supreme Court, representing the United States in both Republican and Democratic administrations, and one of them is receiving special scrutiny as President Biden decides whether to nominate her to the bench. The Supreme Court’s 2012 decision in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was a unanimous loss for the Obama administration and a landmark win for religious organizations. The justices for the first time agreed with lower courts and the organizations that the Constitution provides a “ministerial exception” that shields churches and other religious groups from anti-discrimination laws in certain hiring and firing decisions. Kruger, then a lawyer in the solicitor general’s office and now a justice on the California Supreme Court, failed to win even the vote of her recent boss — Justice Elena Kagan, who was confirmed to the court in 2010 after serving as President Barack Obama’s solicitor general. Kagan termed the government’s argument “amazing,” and not in a good way. Kruger, 45, is on Biden’s shortlist to replace retiring Justice Stephen G. Breyer, and conservative groups are promoting Kruger’s role in the case as evidence she might not protect religious rights as a Supreme […]
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