Rose Bird

Rose Elizabeth Bird (November 2, 1936–December 4, 1999) served for 10 years as the 25th Chief Justice (and first female Justice & only female Chief Justice) of the California Supreme Court until removed from that office by the voters. Bird was targeted by well-funded conservative and pro death penalty groups whose withering attacks painted her as a soft-on-crime liberal. After being outspent two to one, she lost her reconfirmation bid and left office in 1987.

Early life and experience

Bird was born near Tucson, Arizona. Her father died when she was five, so her mother Anne moved with Rose and her two older brothers to New York, where they grew up in poverty. Bird earned her bachelor's degree Magna Cum Laude from Long Island University and went on to graduate from UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall in 1965.

Her career was marked by several firsts: prior to becoming the first female Chief Justice of 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 woman to hold a cabinet-level job in California (as Secretary of Agriculture). In 1966 Rose Bird had joined the Santa Clara County Public Defender's Office where, between 1966 and 1974, she held the positions of deputy public defender, senior trial deputy, and chief of the appellate division. In addition to arguing cases before California's Supreme Court, Courts of Appeal, and in federal court, Bird taught at Stanford Law School from 1972 through 1974.

Her tenure on the Supreme Court was controversial. She was widely criticized by conservatives as a rigid ideologue who substituted her personal liberal bias over the law and state Constitution. Her supposed personal opposition to the death penalty was a particular sore point for her conservative critics. She was first up for confirmation in 1978. There was a campaign waged against her, which she did not respond to. However, shortly before the vote, it was charged that the court decided to withhold the publication of a controversial ruling until after the 1978 vote [http://209.85.215.104/search?q=cache:axpwgHtxmDEJ:cschs.org/02_history/images/cschs_2007-brown.pdf+rose+bird+1978+investigated&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=us&ie=UTF-8] . The ensuing uproar brought bad press and Bird was confirmed by a surprisingly narrow 52% to 48% margin.

As of 1986, six of 15 Chief Justices in U.S. Supreme Court history, including Earl Warren, had had no previous judicial experience,Olson, Lynne, "Rose Bird," Working Woman, October 1984, p. 117 as cited by [http://www.rosebirdprocon.org/pop/Experience.htm Chief Bird's Judicial Experience at RoseBirdProCon.org] ] but Bird's lack of prior judicial experience, when originally appointed by former Governor of California Jerry Brown, led to the assertion that she was unqualified for the position in campaign literature by Republican Associates of Southern California, directed by Gene Wibert of Glendale, CA.Wibert, Gene as cited by [http://www.rosebirdprocon.org/pop/Experience.htm Chief Bird's Judicial Experience by RoseBirdProCon.org] ]

Removal from office

Bird was the first Chief Justice 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.Chen, Edwin. "California court fight; Bird runs for her life." "The Nation", 18 Jan 1986, p. 43-46.]

She was removed in the November 4, 1986 election by an overwhelming margin after a high-profile negative campaign that cited her categorical opposition to the death penalty.Lindsey, Robert. "Deukmejian and Cranston Win As 3 Judges Are Ousted." "New York Times", 6 November 1986, sec. A, p. 30.] She had voted against the death penalty in all 61 cases that came before her.Purdum, Todd S. "Rose Bird, Once California's Chief Justice, Is Dead at 63." "New York Times", 6 December 1999, sec. B, p. 18.] 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. 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. Critics and even some supporters could not find any justification for making this law unconstitutional. 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. In addition to Bird, Reynoso and Grodin were also voted off the bench. Justice Stanley Mosk, who often 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 more conservative justices (including new Chief Justice Malcolm Lucas) and move the court to a more pro-business and pro-law enforcement judicial philosophy.Culver, John H. "The transformation of the California Supreme Court: 1977-1997." "Albany Law Review" 61, no. 5 (Mid-Summer 1998): 1461-1490.] 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 Roger Traynor, and Bird was compounding the liability crisis with opinions that were muddling previously-settled aspects of contract law.

According to labor writer Dick Meister, antipathy toward Bird dated back to her support of farmworkers during her tenure as Brown's secretary of agriculture and for what employer interests and their Republican allies claimed to be her "anti-business" stand while on the court later. They cited Bird's leading role in decisions that upheld the right of state employees to bargain collectively and for public employees generally to strike as long as they didn't endanger public health and safety.Fact|date=June 2007

The California State Library is the repository for the archive of Californians to Defeat Rose Bird. [The [http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=tf8f59n9bn&doc.view=entire_text&brand=oac Guide to the Californians to Defeat Rose Bird] can be found at the the California State Library.]

Career after ouster

Bird appeared as a family court judge in an episode of the 1984-85 TV series "Pryor's Place" starring Richard Pryor. In 1987, Bird appeared as a judge on a television program called "Superior Court" (a show somewhat similar to "The People's Court").

In her later years, she withdrew from public life and became a recluse.Fact|date=May 2008She volunteered at the East Palo Alto Community Law Clinic, a clinic for the poor. This clinic was run by Stanford law students and when Bird showed up to volunteer, no one recognized her, so they asked her if she knew how to file. She did filing at the clinic until she was noticed by a visiting Stanford Law professor who asked the students if they knew who they had doing their filing.

Death and tributes

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) at the age of 63. . The California Public Defender's Association established an award in her honor, as did the California Women Lawyers.

References

External links

* [http://www.cschs.org/02_history/images_c/02_c_bird.html 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)]
* [http://www.rosebirdprocon.org/ Detailed Profile of decision]