Ronald M. George
Encyclopedia
Ronald Marc George is the retired 27th Chief Justice of California, where he headed the Supreme Court of California
and the Judicial Council of California
. Governor
Pete Wilson
appointed George as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in 1991 and elevated George to Chief Justice in 1996.
, George earned his B.A.
from Princeton University
in 1961 and his J.D.
from Stanford Law School
in 1964.
Upon graduating from Stanford, George was a Deputy California Attorney General from 1965–1972. As a Deputy Attorney General, he argued unsuccessfully on behalf of the State of California before the United States Supreme Court
in Chimel v. California
in 1969. The following year, he again represented California before the U.S. Supreme Court, this time successfully defending the death penalty
in McGautha v. California
. In 1971, he represented California as an amicus curiae
in support of the successful argument of the State of Illinois in Kirby v. Illinois
.
In 1972, his final year as a Deputy Attorney General, George unsuccessfully argued in favor of the death penalty
before the California Supreme Court
in California v. Anderson
but was successful in defending the conviction of Sirhan Sirhan
in the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, a U.S. Senator
and 1968 presidential candidate
. The ruling in California v. Anderson resulted in the dismissal of Aikens v. California
as moot; George was to have represented the State of California in this case.
appointed George as a Judge of the Los Angeles Municipal Court on April 20, 1972. George was elected to a full six-year term on November 2, 1976. Governor Jerry Brown
appointed him to the Los Angeles County
Superior Court
on December 23, 1977; George was elected to a full six-year term on November 7, 1978, and re-elected on November 6, 1984.
As a Superior Court judge, George presided over the trial of Hillside Strangler
Angelo Buono
in 1981–1983. George was lauded for his extremely unusual decision to deny the motion by Los Angeles County District Attorney
's office to dismiss all 10 counts of murder
against Buono. However, his unusual decision was speculated to be a result of his earlier decision to separate crucial counts of rape and sodomy, which in themselves would serve as evidence against the defendant, from the murder charges. The prosecutors felt the evidence against Buono was so weak that it did not justify even an attempt to win at trial. Judges rarely second-guess the prosecutors' judgment on such a matter (and George stated that he was "loath" to do so). However, George's review of the evidence in the case caused him to feel so strongly that the prosecutors were in error that he did exactly that. George reassigned the case to the California Attorney General
's office, and that office successfully convicted Buono on nine of the 10 counts. Thus, it was recognized that the judge, through his action to deny the earlier motion to dismiss, had ultimately prevented a serial killer
from going free. Oddly, Los Angeles County District Attorney John Van de Kamp
had been elected California Attorney General in the middle of the lengthy trial, so a Van de Kamp-led District Attorney's office attempted to dismiss the unwinnable case only to have a Van de Kamp-led Attorney General's office win nine convictions in the case.
Governor George Deukmejian
appointed him to the California Second District Court of Appeal on July 23, 1987. George was confirmed and sworn in on August 27, 1987, and was elected to a full twelve-year term on November 6, 1990.
appointed George to the California Supreme Court
on July 29, 1991. George was confirmed and sworn in as an Associate Justice on September 3, 1991. California voters elected him to a full twelve-year term on November 8, 1994. Wilson appointed George as the 27th Chief Justice of California on March 28, 1996. George was confirmed and sworn into office on May 1, 1996. He was elected to a full twelve-year term on November 3, 1998, with 75.5% percent of the vote.
George was occasionally floated as a candidate for justice of the United States Supreme Court as a conservative acceptable to Democrats
, such as when Democratic United States Senator Barbara Boxer
suggested George as a potential nominee for the seat on the Court vacated by Sandra Day O'Connor
's retirement. Boxer described both George and his fellow California Supreme Court Justice Kathryn Werdegar
, as Republicans who "reflect the spirit of Sandra Day O'Connor's tenureindependent and nonideological."
In 2008, George authored the opinion in the Supreme Court's 4-3 ruling in In re Marriage Cases
legalizing same-sex marriage in California
. Citing the court's 1948 decision
legalizing interracial marriage
s, George's opinion found that sexual orientation is a protected class like race and gender, meaning that attempts to ban same-sex marriage would be subject to strict scrutiny
under the Equal Protection Clause
of the California Constitution
. It was the first state high court in the country to do so. Voters would overturn the decision less than six months later by passing Proposition 8
in the November 2008 elections
.
On July 14, 2010, George announced he would not seek to be re-elected in 2010 and would therefore retire at the end of his term: January 2, 2011. He was succeeded by Tani Cantil-Sakauye
.
Supreme Court of California
The Supreme Court of California is the highest state court in California. It is headquartered in San Francisco and regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sacramento. Its decisions are binding on all other California state courts.-Composition:...
and the Judicial Council of California
Judicial Council of California
The Judicial Council of California is the rule-making arm of the California court system. It was created by an amendment to article VI of the California Constitution in 1926...
. Governor
Governor of California
The Governor of California is the chief executive of the California state government, whose responsibilities include making annual State of the State addresses to the California State Legislature, submitting the budget, and ensuring that state laws are enforced...
Pete Wilson
Pete Wilson
Peter Barton "Pete" Wilson is an American politician from California. Wilson, a Republican, served as the 36th Governor of California , the culmination of more than three decades in the public arena that included eight years as a United States Senator , eleven years as Mayor of San Diego and...
appointed George as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in 1991 and elevated George to Chief Justice in 1996.
Education and early career
A 1957 graduate of Beverly Hills High SchoolBeverly Hills High School
Beverly Hills High School is the only major public high school in Beverly Hills, California. Beverly is part of the Beverly Hills Unified School District and located on on the west side of Beverly Hills, at the...
, George earned his B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
from Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
in 1961 and his J.D.
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
from Stanford Law School
Stanford Law School
Stanford Law School is a graduate school at Stanford University located in the area known as the Silicon Valley, near Palo Alto, California in the United States. The Law School was established in 1893 when former President Benjamin Harrison joined the faculty as the first professor of law...
in 1964.
Upon graduating from Stanford, George was a Deputy California Attorney General from 1965–1972. As a Deputy Attorney General, he argued unsuccessfully on behalf of the State of California before the United States Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
in Chimel v. California
Chimel v. California
Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752 , is a Supreme Court of the United States case handed down in 1969. In the case, the Court held that police officers arresting a person in their home could not search the entire home without a search warrant, although they can search the area within immediate...
in 1969. The following year, he again represented California before the U.S. Supreme Court, this time successfully defending the death penalty
Capital punishment in the United States
Capital punishment in the United States, in practice, applies only for aggravated murder and more rarely for felony murder. Capital punishment was a penalty at common law, for many felonies, and was enforced in all of the American colonies prior to the Declaration of Independence...
in McGautha v. California
McGautha v. California
McGautha v. California, 402 U.S. 183 is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that the accused's rights were not infringed by imposition of the death penalty without governing standards....
. In 1971, he represented California as an amicus curiae
Amicus curiae
An amicus curiae is someone, not a party to a case, who volunteers to offer information to assist a court in deciding a matter before it...
in support of the successful argument of the State of Illinois in Kirby v. Illinois
Kirby v. Illinois
Kirby v. Illinois, 406 U.S. 682 , was a case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States that held that the Sixth Amendment right to counsel did not attach during a pre-indictment identification.-Factual background:...
.
In 1972, his final year as a Deputy Attorney General, George unsuccessfully argued in favor of the death penalty
Capital punishment in California
Capital punishment is a legal form of punishment in the U.S. state of California. The first recorded execution in the area that is now California took place on April 11, 1878 when four Native Americans were shot in San Diego County for conspiracy to commit murder. These were the first of 709...
before the California Supreme Court
Supreme Court of California
The Supreme Court of California is the highest state court in California. It is headquartered in San Francisco and regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sacramento. Its decisions are binding on all other California state courts.-Composition:...
in California v. Anderson
California v. Anderson
The People of the State of California v. Robert Page Anderson, 493 P.2d 880, 6 Cal. 3d 628 , was a landmark case in the state of California that outlawed the use of capital punishment...
but was successful in defending the conviction of Sirhan Sirhan
Sirhan Sirhan
Sirhan Bishara Sirhan is a Jordanian citizen who was convicted for the assassination of United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy. He is serving a life sentence at Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, California.Sirhan was a Christian Arab born in Jerusalem who strongly opposed Israel...
in the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, a U.S. Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
and 1968 presidential candidate
United States presidential election, 1968
The United States presidential election of 1968 was the 46th quadrennial United States presidential election. Coming four years after Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson won in a historic landslide, it saw Johnson forced out of the race and Republican Richard Nixon elected...
. The ruling in California v. Anderson resulted in the dismissal of Aikens v. California
Aikens v. California
Aikens v. California, was a decision of the United States Supreme Court where a petitioner was appealing his conviction and death sentence. After oral argument had been made on the case, but before the court decided on it, the California Supreme Court in California v. Anderson, 6 Cal. 3d 628 ,...
as moot; George was to have represented the State of California in this case.
Early judicial career
Governor Ronald ReaganRonald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
appointed George as a Judge of the Los Angeles Municipal Court on April 20, 1972. George was elected to a full six-year term on November 2, 1976. Governor Jerry Brown
Jerry Brown
Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown, Jr. is an American politician. Brown served as the 34th Governor of California , and is currently serving as the 39th California Governor...
appointed him to the Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County, California
Los Angeles County is a county in the U.S. state of California. As of 2010 U.S. Census, the county had a population of 9,818,605, making it the most populous county in the United States. Los Angeles County alone is more populous than 42 individual U.S. states...
Superior Court
Superior Courts of California
The Superior Courts of California are the superior courts in the U.S. state of California with general jurisdiction to hear and decide any civil or criminal action which is not specially designated to be heard in some other court or before a government agency...
on December 23, 1977; George was elected to a full six-year term on November 7, 1978, and re-elected on November 6, 1984.
As a Superior Court judge, George presided over the trial of Hillside Strangler
Hillside Strangler
The Hillside Strangler is the media epithet for two men, cousins Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono, who were convicted of kidnapping, raping, torturing, and killing girls and women ranging in age from 12 to 28 years old during a four-month period from late 1977 to early 1978...
Angelo Buono
Angelo Buono, Jr.
Angelo Buono, Jr. was an American serial killer. Buono and his cousin Kenneth Bianchi together are known as the Hillside Stranglers.-Early life:...
in 1981–1983. George was lauded for his extremely unusual decision to deny the motion by Los Angeles County District Attorney
Los Angeles County District Attorney
The District Attorney of Los Angeles County prosecutes felony and misdemeanor crimes that occur within the jurisdiction of Los Angeles County, California....
's office to dismiss all 10 counts of murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
against Buono. However, his unusual decision was speculated to be a result of his earlier decision to separate crucial counts of rape and sodomy, which in themselves would serve as evidence against the defendant, from the murder charges. The prosecutors felt the evidence against Buono was so weak that it did not justify even an attempt to win at trial. Judges rarely second-guess the prosecutors' judgment on such a matter (and George stated that he was "loath" to do so). However, George's review of the evidence in the case caused him to feel so strongly that the prosecutors were in error that he did exactly that. George reassigned the case to the California Attorney General
California Attorney General
The California Attorney General is the State Attorney General of California. The officer's duty is to ensure that "the laws of the state are uniformly and adequately enforced" The Attorney General carries out the responsibilities of the office through the California Department of Justice.The...
's office, and that office successfully convicted Buono on nine of the 10 counts. Thus, it was recognized that the judge, through his action to deny the earlier motion to dismiss, had ultimately prevented a serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
from going free. Oddly, Los Angeles County District Attorney John Van de Kamp
John Van de Kamp
John Kalar Van de Kamp is an American politician. He served as Los Angeles County District Attorney from 1975 until 1981, and then as 28th Attorney General of California from 1983 until 1991....
had been elected California Attorney General in the middle of the lengthy trial, so a Van de Kamp-led District Attorney's office attempted to dismiss the unwinnable case only to have a Van de Kamp-led Attorney General's office win nine convictions in the case.
Governor George Deukmejian
George Deukmejian
Courken George Deukmejian, Jr. born June 6, 1928) is an Armenian American politician from California who as a Republican served as the 35th Governor of California and as California Attorney General .-Early life:...
appointed him to the California Second District Court of Appeal on July 23, 1987. George was confirmed and sworn in on August 27, 1987, and was elected to a full twelve-year term on November 6, 1990.
Supreme Court
Governor Pete WilsonPete Wilson
Peter Barton "Pete" Wilson is an American politician from California. Wilson, a Republican, served as the 36th Governor of California , the culmination of more than three decades in the public arena that included eight years as a United States Senator , eleven years as Mayor of San Diego and...
appointed George to the California Supreme Court
Supreme Court of California
The Supreme Court of California is the highest state court in California. It is headquartered in San Francisco and regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sacramento. Its decisions are binding on all other California state courts.-Composition:...
on July 29, 1991. George was confirmed and sworn in as an Associate Justice on September 3, 1991. California voters elected him to a full twelve-year term on November 8, 1994. Wilson appointed George as the 27th Chief Justice of California on March 28, 1996. George was confirmed and sworn into office on May 1, 1996. He was elected to a full twelve-year term on November 3, 1998, with 75.5% percent of the vote.
George was occasionally floated as a candidate for justice of the United States Supreme Court as a conservative acceptable to Democrats
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
, such as when Democratic United States Senator Barbara Boxer
Barbara Boxer
Barbara Levy Boxer is the junior United States Senator from California . A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives ....
suggested George as a potential nominee for the seat on the Court vacated by Sandra Day O'Connor
Sandra Day O'Connor
Sandra Day O'Connor is an American jurist who was the first female member of the Supreme Court of the United States. She served as an Associate Justice from 1981 until her retirement from the Court in 2006. O'Connor was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981...
's retirement. Boxer described both George and his fellow California Supreme Court Justice Kathryn Werdegar
Kathryn Werdegar
Kathryn Mickle Werdegar is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California. She was appointed to the Supreme Court by Governor Pete Wilson in 1994. She was retained by the electorate in November 2002, with 74.1% percent of the vote. She earned her B.A...
, as Republicans who "reflect the spirit of Sandra Day O'Connor's tenureindependent and nonideological."
In 2008, George authored the opinion in the Supreme Court's 4-3 ruling in In re Marriage Cases
In re Marriage Cases
In re Marriage Cases 43 Cal.4th 757 [76 Cal.Rptr.3d 683, 183 P.3d 384], was a California Supreme Court case with the dual holding that "statutes that treat persons differently because of their sexual orientation should be subjected to strict scrutiny" and the existing "California legislative and...
legalizing same-sex marriage in California
Same-sex marriage in California
The status of same-sex marriage in California is unique among the 50 U.S. states, in that the state formerly granted marriage licenses to same-sex couples, but has discontinued doing so...
. Citing the court's 1948 decision
Perez v. Sharp
In 1948, in the case Perez v. Sharp, also known as Perez v. Lippold and Perez v. Moroney, the Supreme Court of California recognized that interracial bans on marriage violated the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution....
legalizing interracial marriage
Interracial marriage
Interracial marriage occurs when two people of differing racial groups marry. This is a form of exogamy and can be seen in the broader context of miscegenation .-Legality of interracial marriage:In the Western world certain jurisdictions have had regulations...
s, George's opinion found that sexual orientation is a protected class like race and gender, meaning that attempts to ban same-sex marriage would be subject to strict scrutiny
Strict scrutiny
Strict scrutiny is the most stringent standard of judicial review used by United States courts. It is part of the hierarchy of standards that courts use to weigh the government's interest against a constitutional right or principle. The lesser standards are rational basis review and exacting or...
under the Equal Protection Clause
Equal Protection Clause
The Equal Protection Clause, part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, provides that "no state shall ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws"...
of the California Constitution
California Constitution
The document that establishes and describes the duties, powers, structure and function of the government of the U.S. state of California. The original constitution, adopted in November 1849 in advance of California attaining U.S. statehood in 1850, was superseded by the current constitution, which...
. It was the first state high court in the country to do so. Voters would overturn the decision less than six months later by passing Proposition 8
California Proposition 8 (2008)
Proposition 8 was a ballot proposition and constitutional amendment passed in the November 2008 state elections...
in the November 2008 elections
California state elections, November 2008
The California state elections, November 2008 were held on November 4, 2008 throughout California. Among the elections taking place were those for the office of President of the United States, all the seats of California's delegation to the House of Representatives, all of the seats of the State...
.
On July 14, 2010, George announced he would not seek to be re-elected in 2010 and would therefore retire at the end of his term: January 2, 2011. He was succeeded by Tani Cantil-Sakauye
Tani Cantil-Sakauye
Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye , a Filipina-American jurist, is the 28th Chief Justice of California. Nominated by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for California's highest judicial office on July 22, 2010, and retained in office by California voters on November 2, 2010, she was sworn in on January 3, 2011...
.