Former California Justice Joins Obama Team

The Sacramento Bee
Published Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008

By Niesha Lofing: nlofing@sacbee.com

President-elect Barack Obama has named Cruz Reynoso, a former California Supreme Court justice, to one of his teams.

Reynoso, a UC Davis law professor and internationally recognized civil rights leader, has been appointed to Obama's Justice and Civil Rights Agency Review, according to a university news release.

Reynoso will help lead a review of key federal departments, agencies, commissions and the White House, providing the Obama's transition team with information needed to make policy, budget and personnel decisions before his inauguration in January, the release states.

Reynoso, who joined the UC Davis faculty in 2001, was the first Latino to sit on the California Supreme Court and in 2000 received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

He also has served as the associate general counsel to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunities Commission, as vice chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and as a member of the Select Commission on Immigration and Human Rights, the release states.

Several UC Davis faculty have been tapped to advise Obama, including law school Dean Kevin R. Johnson and law professors Jennifer Chacón and Bill Ong Hing, who served as members of Obama's immigration policy advisory group during his campaign.