At the Lectern

Former Justice Grodin dies [Updated]

April 6, 2025

Former Supreme Court Justice Joseph Grodin died today, his family has reported. He was 94.

Justice Grodin was appointed to the court by Governor Jerry Brown and served from December 1982 until January 1987.

Grodin left the court after he and Chief Justice Rose Bird and Justice Cruz Reynoso were defeated in a 1986 retention election. Justice Grodin spoke about the election at a 2016 program that can be viewed here. Bird died in 1999. Reynoso died in 2021.

More on this story to come.

[Update: Former Justice Grodin: “a brilliant jurist,” “an individual indefatigably dedicated to bettering the world he lived in,” “one of the outstanding justices on the California Supreme Court,” “one of the greatest men I’ve known”]

Justice Grodin oral history

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