There is no shortage of praise today for former Supreme Court Justice Joseph Grodin, who died yesterday at 94. Grodin — also a Court of Appeal justice, labor lawyer, author, and law professor — was lauded by jurists and colleagues.
Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero issued this statement:
“Justice Joseph R. Grodin was a brilliant jurist whose contributions to California’s legal system—as a labor lawyer, Supreme Court justice, and professor—continue to resonate. Throughout his distinguished career, he exemplified a dedication to justice, fairness, and the rule of law. His thoughtful opinions and commitment to civil rights shaped the landscape of our state’s jurisprudence. As we mourn his passing, we honor his enduring legacy and the profound impact he had on our judiciary.”
Senior Ninth Circuit Judge Marsha Berzon was a colleague of Grodin’s as a labor lawyer and appeared before him when he was a Supreme Court justice, but knew him best as a co-teacher for 10 years in a constitutional law seminar class at UC Law San Francisco (then Hastings College of Law). Judge Berzon said:
“Justice and Professor Joseph Grodin was a creative legal thinker, an erudite legal scholar, an energetic public servant, and an individual indefatigably dedicated to bettering the world he lived in — and, to the degree one can in a single lifetime, succeeding at doing so. He transformed California labor and employment law in several respects as a lawyer and member of the first Agricultural Labor Relations Board, and as a Court of Appeal and California Supreme Court Justice. After he left the court, he was a treasured teacher of and mentor to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of students at then-Hastings Law School, always challenging the up-and-coming lawyers with his deep insight into legal theories and history, while respecting their ideas and encouraging them to see around the legal bend at the assumptions behind their assertions. I was extraordinarily lucky to have had Joe Grodin as a co-teacher and dear friend, and will miss him enormously. Teaching with him was a great privilege.”
Beth Jay, who had a 33-year Supreme Court career before her 2012 retirement, including serving as the principal attorney to Chief Justices Malcolm Lucas, Ronald George, and Tani Cantil-Sakauye, remembered carpooling with Grodin, former Justice Otto Kaus, and a Kaus staff attorney. She said, “It was a wonderful experience: educational, funny, dangerous (they both would forget about driving when deep in a discussion).” She views Grodin as “one of the outstanding justices on the California Supreme Court.”
Jake Dear is a 40-year Supreme Court veteran, including, before his 2022 retirement, spending his last 15 years as the court’s Chief Supervising Attorney under Chief Justices George and Cantil-Sakauye. He was a staff attorney to Grodin for the last two years of Grodin’s term. Dear called Grodin “one of the greatest men I’ve known — brilliant, articulate, and a fabulously perceptive thinker and writer.” He added, “Yet at the same time, his character was loving, tender and gentle — such a rare and winning combination.”
And a personal remembrance. In 2016, I moderated a program about judicial elections with former Justices Grodin and Cruz Reynoso and Dean Erwin Chemerinsky (video here). When Grodin first spotted Reynoso, whom he hadn’t seen in a while, Grodin’s exclamation of “Cruz!” was so warm and his pleasure at meeting up again with his former colleague was so genuine as to remain memorable after many years.
One other point: Justice Grodin authored the opinion in Hernandez v. County of Los Angeles (1986) 42 Cal.3d 1020, the first Supreme Court case I briefed and argued.
[April 11 update:
An excellent 2015 video biography of Justice Grodin is here.
Obituaries in the San Francisco Chronicle by Bob Egelko and in The Recorder by Cheryl Miller.
UC SF Law has a statement with additional resources.]
Related:
Former Justice Grodin: “a great darkness has descended upon the” U.S. Supreme Court
Former Justice Grodin is one of many amici curiae in the Prop. 22 case
Former Justice Grodin is an amicus in the U.S. Supreme Court’s Trump ballot disqualification case
Judges Association to honor former CJ Bird and former Justices Grodin and Reynoso
