The first Asian American chief justice in California is finally beginning to turn around the state’s ailing court system which she inherited, reports the Fresno Bee.
Tani Cantil-Sakauye started her job in full crisis mode in 2011.
Since then, she’s gotten rid of a troubled and expensive case management system and dug the courts out of deep budget cuts and courtroom closures.
Today the court is working with its first budget increase in four years, $63 million.
“We’re in a reactive mode,” she said. “We can’t turn this ship on a dime, but we were forced to.”
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The Filipino American was born in Sacramento, California and graduated from UC Davis School of Law. According to Wikipedia, when she graduated no one would hire her so she took a job as a black jack dealer. She played her cards right and eventually was hired by the Sacramento District Attorney’s office. She had served as a judge in the California court system since 1990 before being appointed by then California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to her current position.
