Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar began serving on the California Supreme Court in January 2015. He was nominated by Governor Jerry Brown, confirmed unanimously by the California Commission on Judicial Appointments, and retained by the voters for a full term in November 2014. Before his service on the Court, he was the Stanley Morrison Professor of Law and Professor (by courtesy) of Political Science at Stanford University. A member of the Stanford Law School faculty since 2001, Cuéllar has written books and articles on administrative law, executive and legislative power, criminal justice, public health law, international law, and immigration.

Between 2004 and 2015, Cuéllar also held leadership positions at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. As Institute director, he supervised twelve centers and programs addressing international affairs, governance and development, food security and the environment, and health policy. During his tenure leading the Institute and, earlier, its Center for International Security and Cooperation, Cuéllar grew the Institute’s faculty, expanded Stanford’s role in nuclear security research, launched university-wide initiatives on global poverty and cyber security, increased support for projects on global health and governance, and broadened opportunities for student and faculty research abroad.

While on leave from Stanford, Cuéllar worked at the White House as Special Assistant to the President for Justice and Regulatory Policy (2009-2010). In this role, he led the Domestic Policy Council staff responsible for civil and criminal justice, public health policy, and immigration. In 2008, he served on the Obama presidential transition team and at the U.S. Department of the Treasury from 1997 to 1999. He was also a presidentially-appointed member of the governing council for the US Administrative Conference (2010-2015), and co-chaired the US Department of Education’s National Equity and Excellence Commission (2011-2013). Currently, Cuéllar chairs the Implementation Task Force on Language Access for the California judiciary and serves on the boards of several not-for-profit organizations.

After graduating from Calexico High School in California’s Imperial Valley, he received a BA from Harvard magna cum laude, a JD from Yale Law School, and a PhD in Political Science from Stanford. A life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Cuéllar clerked for Chief Judge Mary M. Schroeder of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.