Kruger Steady, Careful in Mold of Supreme Court Mentor Stevens

Leondra Kruger has called her clerkship for the late Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens during the 2003 term “one of the most significant learning experiences I’ve ever had.”

In many ways, Kruger’s demeanor and approach to deciding matters of law mirrors that of her former boss.

Former colleagues talk about Kruger’s humility, a word she herself applied to Stevens; her polite but pointed questions on the bench, a characteristic also attributed to the late justice; and her tendency to not to tip her hat politically, another trait for which Stevens was known.

“Stevens would often pull facts out of ...