Ending months of speculation, Governor Schwarzenegger today nominated appeals court jurist Carol Corrigan to the California Supreme Court.

Corrigan, 57, has served as a justice on the First District Court of Appeal since 1994. If confirmed by the Council on Judicial Appointments, she will fill the vacancy created when Janice Rogers Brown was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals in Washington, DC.

[The official news release is here]

Corrigan was one of 3 finalists whose names the governor sent to the State Bar several months ago. In fact, the guidelines require a decision within 90 days of that submission, and Schwarzenegger's time was about to expire.

His list of 3 quickly became a list of 2, when U.S. District Court Judge Morrison England withdrew his name shortly after the announcement. And in October, newspaper reports mentioned concerns raised by Attorney General Bill Lockyer about some of the opinions written by another of the finalists, Third District Court of Appeal Justice Vance Raye.

In a newspaper interview this fall, Justice Corrigan described herself as a "centrist" who most admired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

And in an interesting sidenote, Corrigan's selection for the California Supreme Court would create a second vacancy on the same appellate court where a longtime Schwarzenegger adviser has applied for appointment: Peter Siggins, the governor's legal affairs secretary.