California Supreme Court Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar has served in many roles, including as a professor of law at Stanford University and an official in the Clinton and Obama administrations. He sat down with Jeannine Bell at Indiana University–Bloomington to discuss his experiences as a judge, working in administrative law, and considering current legal issues in the United States. Bell, the author of Policing Hatred: Law Enforcement, Civil Rights, and Hate Crime and Hate Thy Neighbor: Move-in Violence and the Persistence of Racial Segregation in American Housing, began by asking what drew Cuéllar out of the academy and onto the bench. Their conversation has been edited for length and clarity.