Justice Cuéllar began serving on the Supreme Court of California in January 2015. A scholar of public law and institutions, he was previously the Stanley Morrison professor of Law at Stanford and director of the University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. In the federal government, Justice Cuéllar served as special assistant to the President at the White House, with responsibility for civil and criminal justice, public health, and immigration (in 2009 and 2010); co-chair of the Department of Education’s Equity and Excellence Commission (from 2011 to 2013); and earlier, co-chair of the Presidential Transition Task Force on Immigration (in 2008 and early 2009). Justice Cuéllar is currently on the governing boards of Harvard University, the Hewlett Foundation, the American Law Institute, and (as chair) the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.