Brief Remembrances: My Appointment and Service on the California Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, 1976-1987

Outside the weather was warm as it usually is in Sacramento in August. However, we were all inside the courtroom of the Library and Courts Building. The building itself is grand. It was built in the 1920s to be the home of the California Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal. It is one of two imposing public buildings located directly in front of the Capitol. But the courtroom in which we found ourselves was even more grand. I considered it the most beautiful and inviting courtroom that I had ever seen. My observation surprised me, since Chief Justice Earl Warren had sworn me in as a member of the United States Supreme Court Bar in that impressive courtroom in our nation's capital. In the Sacramento courtroom, the columns, chairs, and bench have a wood-on-wood motif built during a time when state prisoners spent countless hours finishing fine wood. The bench where the judges sit is high enough to be dignified, but low enough to permit the judges to have a conversation with the appellate lawyers who appear before them. The ceiling is set high, giving the courtroom a cathedral sense of the dignity of the law. However, the setting on that particular August day in 1976 was not a hearing. I was being sworn in as the newest associate justice for the Third District Court of Appeal. I was later told that no prior investiture had been so celebratory. It was an uplifting and joyful day. My wife, Jeannene, and my four children were in the front row. My father was there, as were eight of my ten brothers and sisters. Other relatives as well as countless friends and acquaintances filled the courtroom. Several individuals spoke on my behalf. The representative of the bar association summarized my life as an American dream come true. He spoke of my modest roots as a son of a farm worker who had begun his own life's work as a farm worker. He spoke of my education my undergraduate and graduate schooling. He spoke of my work representing farm workers when I was director of California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA) and of my recent professorship at the University of New Mexico Law School. I could hardly believe that he was speaking about me. Then there was Mario Obledo, the Secretary of Health and Welfare for the state of California. I had known him since the late 1960s when he had been appointed the first president and general counsel of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He painted my character and background in glowing terms. Annie Gutierrez followed. She had been appointed a justice court judge, though she was not then a lawyer. She became so interested in the law that she eventually