Rose Bird
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rose Elizabeth Bird (November 2, 1936–December 4, 1999) served for 10 years as the 25th Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court until removed from that office by the voters. Bird received her undergraduate degree from Long Island University in 1958 and her law degree from Boalt Hall in 1965.
Bird was the first female Chief Justice of the Court, and the first to be removed from that office by a majority of the state's voters. California justices are selected by the governor but must be regularly reconfirmed by the electorate; prior to Bird, no California appellate judge had ever failed such a vote. Prior to becoming the first female Chief Justice in California, she was the first female law clerk in the Supreme Court of Nevada, the first female deputy public defender in Santa Clara County, and the first female to hold a cabinet-level job in California (as Secretary of Agriculture).
Bird, who had no prior judicial experience, was originally appointed by former Governor of California Jerry Brown. Her lack of judicial experience led to the assertion that she was unqualified for the position.[citation needed] She was removed in the November 4, 1986 election after a high-profile, highly partisan campaign which cited her categorical opposition to the death penalty. She had voted against the death penalty in all 61 cases that came before her. This led Bird's opponents to claim that she was substituting her own opinions and ideas for the laws and precedents upon which judicial decisions are supposed to be made. The anti-Bird campaign ran television commercials featuring the children of the victims of the murderers whose sentences Bird and her allies Cruz Reynoso and Joseph Grodin had voted to reverse.
The campaign to oust Bird is considered a triumph for social conservatives. However, the campaign was also supported by business interests, who felt that California's legal system had become too anti-business under prior chief justices like Traynor, and Bird was compounding the liability crisis with opinions that were muddling previously-settled aspects of contract law.
In addition to Bird, Reynoso and Grodin were also voted off the bench. Justice Stanley Mosk, who regularly joined Bird, Reynoso, and Grodin, was not challenged and remained on the court. As a result of the 1986 election, Governor George Deukmejian was able to appoint several conservative justices (including new Chief Justice Malcolm Lucas) and move the court to a more right-leaning, pro-business (and pro-death penalty) judicial philosophy.
One of the most prominent examples of Lucas's eagerness to reverse Bird's pro-consumer legacy in California jurisprudence was the case of Moradi-Shalal v. Fireman's Fund Ins. Companies, 46 Cal. 3d 287 (1988) [5]. In Moradi-Shalal, Lucas overrode an opinion authored by Mosk (and joined by Bird) less than eight years earlier, Royal Globe Ins. Co. v. Superior Court, 23 Cal. 3d 880 (1979) [6]. Mosk, now in the minority, responded in dissent:
- Royal Globe (1979-1988), may it Rest in Peace. During its life it served the people of California well, particularly the victims of unfair and deceptive practices. The majority have now replaced Royal Globe with a "Royal Bonanza" for insurance carriers, i.e., total immunity for unfair and deceptive practices committed on innocent claimants. They have exalted principal over principle. It will be interesting to observe whether this judicial largesse causes insurance premiums to decrease or insurance profits to increase.
In 1987, Bird appeared as a judge on a television program called Superior Court (a show somewhat similar to The People's Court).
Bird died on December 4, 1999, of breast cancer (which she had fought on and off since 1976), at the age of 63. .
| Preceded by Donald R. Wright |
Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court 1977 –1987 |
Succeeded by Malcolm M. Lucas |
[edit] References
^ Chen, Edwin. "California court fight; Bird runs for her life." The Nation, 18 Jan 1986, p. 43-46.
^ Culver, John H. "The transformation of the California Supreme Court: 1977-1997." Albany Law Review 61, no. 5 (Mid-Summer 1998): 1461-1490.
^ Lindsey, Robert. "Deukmejian and Cranston Win As 3 Judges Are Ousted." New York Times, 6 November 1986, sec. A, p. 30.
^ Purdum, Todd S. "Rose Bird, Once California's Chief Justice, Is Dead at 63." New York Times, 6 December 1999, sec. B, p. 18.
