October 14th, 2008
Inspiring Women: Rose Elizabeth Bird
As we come into the final weeks before a national election, I wanted to write about an inspiring woman who is not currently seen as controversial; however she was certainly thought as much in her own time. She was the first, and as yet, only woman to be named Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court.
Rose Bird was born on November 2, 1936 outside of Tucson, Arizona. However, she grew up in poverty with her mother and two older brothers in New York after the death of her father when she was only five. While in New York, Bird earned her bachelor’s degree Magna Cum Laude, “with great honor,” from Long Island University and continued on to graduate law school from the University of California Berkeley’s Boalt Hall in 1965.
Rose Bird had many firsts as a woman, which is why I find her to be inspiring. 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.
Now for the controversy: Rose Bird was appointed to the California Supreme Court by Governor Jerry Brown, after having absolutely no experience as a judge. She was known to be very liberal which earned her great criticism from the conservatives in the state, specifically in regards to the death penalty. She voted against the death penalty in each of the 61 cases that came before her. Conservatives felt that she was putting her own personal biases before the laws and constitution of the State of California. 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. This made Bird even more unpopular with conservatives. Add to that the belief by many businesses in the state that the courts were becoming too anti-business.
Another first for Rose Bird was that she was the first Chief Justice for the state to be removed from office by a majority of voters. Television campaigns were waged against her by her opponents across the state. The first time they tried to oust her was in 1978, holding on by a narrow majority of 52% to 48%. They succeeded in removing her in 1986.
After being removed from the court she was on television for a few years. She played a family court justice in a series called Pryor’s Place, and later she was on a program called Superior Court. She ended her career in law as a volunteer, filing for East Palo Alto Community Law Clinic, a clinic for the poor run by Stanford law students. As the story goes, she came to the clinic volunteering to help and they asked her if she could file. She continued to volunteer filing until a visiting Stanford law professor noticed her and asked the students there if they knew who they had filing for them.
Rose Bird died of complications of breast cancer on December 4, 1999, at Stanford University Medical Center.
How amazing must it have been, as a woman to sit in such a position of power? I am inspired by the life and accomplishments of Rose Elizabeth Bird.
