Evelle J. Younger

Evelle Jansen Younger (June 19 1918-May 4 1989) was Attorney General of California from 1971-1979. Prior to that, he was District Attorney of Los Angeles County 1964-1971. In 1978, he ran for Governor of California, but lost to incumbent Jerry Brown. Younger was a member of the Republican Party. Though he was defeated for governor, Younger's ticket-mate, Mike Curb, won the office of lieutenant governor. Curb is the last Republican to have served thus far as California lieutenant governor.

One of Younger's contributions as Attorney General was to the development of the California Environmental Quality Act. Younger advocated for a broad interpretation of its applicability, filing a brief in the landmark case Friends of Mammoth v. Board of Supervisors (1972). The ruling on the case, which included language drawing upon Younger's brief, transformed CEQA from a mild and insignificant statement of policy to a pervasive and transformative regulatory measure by defining "project" to include all private activities requiring public permits. Younger also helped draft legislation that refined and expanded CEQA. [E. Clement Shute, “CEQA Turns Twenty-One.” Land Use Forum 2:2 (1993), 95-98.]

In the 1978 Republican primary, Younger led the balloting with 1,008,087 (40 percent). Former Los Angeles Police Chief Ed Davis trailed with 738,741 (29.3 percent). Finishing third and fourth were the late State Senator Ken Maddy of Fresno with 484,583 (19.2 percent) and Pete Wilson of San Diego, the future governor, who drew only 230,146 ballots (9.1 percent).

Younger served in the United States Army during World War II and then became an FBI agent. He was a municipal judge in California from 1953 to 1958 and a superior court judge in California from 1958-1964, when he became district attorney of Los Angeles County.

References

External links

* [http://caag.state.ca.us/ag/history/26younger.htm Biography on Attorney General site]
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1542057/ IMDB]

Reference:¹ E. Clement Shute, “CEQA Turns Twenty-One.” Land Use Forum 2:2 (1993), 95-98.