Rose Elizabeth Bird

BIRD, ROSE ELIZABETH

Rose Elizabeth Bird served as the first woman on the California Supreme Court, becoming the chief justice of one of the most prominent appellate courts in the United States. Bird became a controversial figure during the 1980s, as her adamant opposition to CAPITAL PUNISHMENT drew fire from political conservatives. In 1986, these views led voters to remove her from office. In her nine years on the court, however, Bird led a liberal majority that strengthened environmental laws, consumer rights, and WOMEN’S RIGHTS.

Bird was born on November 2, 1936, in Tucson,
Arizona. She spent her childhood in Arizona
and New York, where she graduated from
Long Island University in 1958. She attended
graduate school in political science at the University of California at Berkeley in 1960 but
switched her career path to law when she
entered Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law in
1962. After graduation in 1965, Bird was admitted
to the PRACTICE OF LAW in California.
Following graduation, Bird served a oneyear term as a law clerk for the chief justice of the
Nevada Supreme Court. In 1966 she joined the Santa Clara County, California, public defenders office. Bird remained in the public defenders office until 1974, serving successively as deputy public defender, senior trial deputy, and chief public defender of the appellate division. As head of the appellate division, Bird oversaw all public defender criminal appeals to the California Courts of Appeal and the California Supreme Court. In addition to these duties, Bird served as an adjunct professor of law at Stanford University Law School from 1972 to 1974.

Bird’s eventual rise to the California Supreme Court began when she became the chauffeur during Democrat Jerry Brown’s campaign for the governorship in 1974. Following his election, Brown appointed Bird to his cabinet as secretary of agriculture. She spent most of
her time in that office working to settle a series of ongoing disputes between growers and farm unions. Moreover, she drafted reforms to the state’s farm LABOR LAW and to consumer legislation.
In 1977, after twenty-two months in the cabinet,
Governor Brown appointed Bird, then age
40, as chief justice of the California Supreme
Court. She gained immediate national prominence
because she was the first woman to serve
on the state’s high court. As a member of a liberal
majority, Bird established herself as a brilliant
and combative judge. During her tenure,
the court issued decisions that promoted environmental
regulation and CIVIL RIGHTS for
racial minorities and women. Other decisions
gave tenants more rights and poor women the
right to have a state-funded ABORTION.
Coming from the public defenders office,
the large corporate law firms and influential bar
associations viewed her as an outsider. Bird signaled
her disdain for the “old boys” system of
privilege by selling the chief justice’s Cadillac
and by staying at inexpensive motels rather than
at expensive hotels while on state business. She
also exercised strong leadership over the administration
of the courts. Bird promoted racial and
gender diversity on the bench. During her
tenure, more than one-thousand judges were
appointed who were either persons of color or
female. In addition, she led the court system to
change its rules to allow cameras in the courtroom.
Finally, she initiated a study of gender
bias in the courts, a groundbreaking effort that
was adopted by many other state courts during
the 1980s and 1990s.
It was Bird’s opposition to the death penalty,
however, that had the greatest effect on her judicial career. California reinstated the death
penalty in 1977 over the VETO of Governor
Brown. Thus, Bird took the bench at the same
time that death penalty appeals would return to
the state supreme court. Although Bird never
discussed her personal views while on the court,
she voted to overturn all sixty-four death sentences
under her consideration.
By the mid-1980s, conservative political
leaders began attacking Bird and members of
the liberal majority who regularly voted against
the death sentence. In 1986, Republican Governor
George Deukmejian, along with local prosecutors,
led a hard-hitting campaign to remove
Bird and fellow justices Cruz Reynoso and
Joseph Grodin from the court. They became the
first judges in state history to be removed from
office in a retention election. A retention election
allows citizens to vote to retain or oust the
judge in which there are no opposing candidates.
Governor Deukmejian then appointed
three justices to fill the vacancies.
Following her defeat, Bird dropped from the
public scene. She volunteered at a Palo Alto legal
aid office, doing clerical work because she let her
bar registration dues lapse. She also worked at a
local food bank, taught for a short time in Australia
at the University of Sydney, and lectured
occasionally around the country. She died on
December 4, 1999, in Palo Alto from complications
related to breast cancer.

FURTHER READINGS
Beck, Susan. 1998. “Justice on the Run.” American Lawyer
(September): 76.
Cooper, Claire. 2000. “Rose Bird: The Last Interview.” California
Lawyer 20 (February): 38.