Nor has the court ever seated an openly gay jurist, though Brown’s first and only appointee to the First District Court of Appeal, James Humes, fit that bill, and Brown has recently vetted him for a presiding justice role on the court.
Kennard served in the attorney general’s office and as a research attorney at the Second District Court of Appeal before her appointment to Los Angeles municipal court in 1986. Within three years Gov. George Deukmejian had elevated her to superior court, the Second District Court of Appeal and then the Supreme Court.
