To replace Justice Stephen Breyer on the nation’s high court, we need a new justice who is a coalition-builder and a neutral arbiter, not another partisan warrior. The court and the nation would most benefit from a justice who will seek consensus on a court that struggles to reach unanimity in half its decisions. One short-list candidate has already proved that she has these qualities: California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger should be the next U.S. Supreme Court justice.

There’s something for everyone in Kruger’s profile. Democrats should be comfortable because no one on the current California Supreme Court is to the right of Breyer—so Kruger will satisfy every liberal litmus test. Her majority opinions somewhat favor the defendant in non-capital criminal cases, and she often agrees with the liberal tiger Justice Goodwin Liu. Yet Republicans will be reassured that Kruger has never dissented from an opinion by California’s Chief Justice (a former prosecutor and Republican appointee), and Federalist Society fans of the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s textualist approach will be satisfied with Kruger’s method of reading statutes narrowly and disfavoring expansive interpretations.