SACRAMENTO, California - Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has nominated Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye as the next Chief Justice of California.If elected, Cantil-Sakauye would be the first Asian and Filipino American Chief Justice of the state.

She would be replacing Chief Justice Ronald M. George, who is retiring in January.

The California governor recently appointed Cantil-Sakauye to head a Judicial Council committee charged with overseeing the operations of the Administrative Office of the Courts, which runs the court system.

Cantil-Sakauye has been a 3rd District Court of Appeals Judge since 2005. She previously worked as a trial court judge for 14 years in Sacramento. She also worked as deputy legislative secretary for former Governor George Deukmejian.

According to several biographies, the 50-year-old Cantil-Sakauye came from a modest background. Her Filipina mother was a farm worker and her Filipino Portugese father worked in the sugar cane and pineapple plantations of Hawaii before moving to Sacramento, California.

She is active in the Methodist Church, Girl Scouts and an Asian athletic foundation in Sacramento. She is a Republican, is married to a Sacramento police lieutenant and has two children.