American judge (1936–1999)

Rose Elizabeth Bird (November 2, 1936:– December 4, 1999) was the 25th Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court. Her career was marked by firsts. She was the first female clerk of the Nevada Supreme Court, the first female deputy public defender in Santa Clara County, the first woman to serve in the California State Cabinet, and the first female Chief Justice of California.

She was also notable as the first, and to date only, Chief Justice in California history to lose a retention election.

Contents

• 1 Early life and education
• 2 Legal and political career
• 3 Chief Justice of California
  • 3.1 Tenure
  • 3.2 Noted opinions
  • 3.3 1978 retention
  • 3.4 1986 removal
• 4 Death
• 5 Legacy
  • 5.1 In popular culture
• 6 See also
• 7 References
• 8 Further reading
• 9 External links

Early life and education

Bird was born near Tucson, Arizona on November 2, 1936. Her father Harry Bird was the grandson of English immigrants and her mother Anne (née Walsh) was Irish American. She had two older brothers.

Her father deserted her family and died when she was five. Her mother moved the family to New York City, where Bird and her brothers grew up in poverty. She was a standout scholar in high school and won a scholarship to Long Island University, where she earned her bachelor's degree magna * laude. She later graduated from the UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall) in 1965.

Legal and political career

After graduating from University of California, Berkeley School of Law, Bird became the first female law clerk in the Supreme Court of Nevada.

Between 1966 and 1974, she held the positions of deputy public defender, senior trial deputy, and chief of the appellate division at the Santa Clara County Public Defender's Office. Bird also taught at Stanford Law School from 1972 to 1974.

Bird volunteered with Jerry Brown's 1974 campaign for governor, and was considered a trusted advisor. After Brown won the election, he appointed Bird to the position of Secretary of Agriculture.

In February 1977, Governor Brown appointed Bird as Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court.

Chief Justice of California

Tenure

Bird's tenure on the Supreme Court was controversial. She drew opposition due to her strongly liberal views, lack of judicial experience, and temperament. She was vigorously and publicly attacked by her critics as a rigid ideologue who subs*uted her personal views over the law and the state cons*ution.

Bird was also controversial among the *ociate Justices on her own court. In a 1998 oral history interview, fellow liberal Stanley Mosk said that Bird was a bright and articulate lawyer, but a terrible administrator (one of the Chief Justice's major responsibilities). Mosk claims Bird required the *ociate Justices to make appointments to talk to her for any reason.

Noted opinions

Her consistent opposition to the death penalty was a particular sore point for her critics. Bird reviewed a total of 65 capital cases appealed to the court. In every instance, she issued a decision overturning the death penalty that had been imposed at trial. She was joined by at least three of the seven members of the court in 61 of those cases.

In 1981, Bird ruled that the State Cons*ution required that the state provide free abortions for poor women.

In 1982, Bird argued in dissent that the proposed California Proposition 8, known as the Victims' Bill of Rights, should not be allowed on the ballot.

In 1984, Bird and a majority of the court granted the American Federation of Labor's 1984 original pe*ion to block a balanced budget amendment proposition from appearing on the ballot.

In addition, the Bird court struck down California's "use a gun, go to jail" law that made a prison term mandatory for any crime in which the use of a gun was involved.

1978 retention

Bird was first subject to a retention election in 1978. A campaign was waged against her, to which she did not respond. On election day, it was charged that the court decided to withhold the publication of a controversial ruling until after the 1978 vote. The ensuing controversy generated considerable press coverage but, by then, Bird had been retained by a 52% to 48% margin.

1986 removal

In 1985, Bird said in interviews that opposition to her rulings was based on sexism, bigotry, and right-wing ideology led by U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese. She said, "These are bully boys. Meese is trying it on the Supreme Court." Many Democrats later conceded that the remarks backfired on her and other members of the court appointed by Governor Brown. Her rulings and public statements led Bird's critics to claim that she was subs*uting her own personal opinions and ideas for the law.

The anti-Bird campaign ran television commercials featuring the surviving families of murder victims, whose murderers' sentences Bird and her fellow Justices Cruz Reynoso, Joseph Grodin, and Allen Broussard had voted to reverse. In addition to Bird, Reynoso and Grodin were also voted off the seven-justice California state supreme court bench.

Bird was removed in the November 4, 1986 election by a margin of 67% to 33%.

Justice Stanley Mosk, who often joined Bird, Reynoso, and Grodin, was not challenged. Twelve years later, Mosk explained why he was able to stay and Bird was not:

Rose Bird was pilloried because she generally voted to find some defect in death penalty convictions and to reverse them. I probably don't like the death penalty any more than she does. As a matter of fact, I think the death penalty is wrong, that a person has no right to kill, and the state has no right to kill. But the difference is that I took an oath to support the law as it is and not as I might prefer it to be, and therefore, I've written my share of opinions upholding capital judgments.

As a result of the 1986 election, Governor George Deukmejian elevated Malcolm M. Lucas to Chief Justice and appointed three new *ociate justices. The Lucas Court moved toward a more business-friendly and pro-law enforcement judicial philosophy.

Death

Bird died on December 4, 1999, at Stanford University Medical Center from complications of breast cancer, which she had fought on and off since 1976. She was 63.

Legacy

Bird was the first and remains the only Chief Justice to be removed from that office by a majority of the state's voters. Prior to Bird, no California appellate judge had ever failed such a vote.

After her death, the California Public Defender's *ociation and California Women Lawyers *ociation established awards in her honor. New York Law School annually awards one graduating student the Chief Justice Rose E. Bird Award for Motivation in Pursuing Public Interest Law.

In popular culture

In 1984, Bird appeared as a family court judge in an episode of the television series Pryor's Place.

In 1987, Bird appeared as a judge on the scripted television program called Superior Court.

See also

• List of justices of the Supreme Court of California
• List of female state supreme court justices
• List of first women lawyers and judges in California

References

Further reading

• Harris, Gloria G.; Cohen, Hannah S. (2012). "7. Lawyers – Rose Elizabeth Bird: First Woman Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court". Women Trailblazers of California: Pioneers to the Present. Charleston, SC: The History Press. pp.:108–21 . ISBN:978-1609496753.

External links

• Californians to Defeat Rose Bird, 1985-1986. Collection guide, California State Library, California History Room.
• Text of speeches given in memory of Rose Bird by Justices of the California Supreme Court, from California Supreme Court Historical Society (with high-quality photo of Justice Bird)
• Detailed Profile of decision
• Past & Present Justices. California State Courts. Retrieved July 19, 2017.