Cruz Reynoso, who was a Supreme Court associate justice for almost five years during the 1980’s, has died at the age of 90. Reynoso served on the court from 1982 — after his appointment by Governor Jerry Brown — until he and two other justices were defeated in an election for new terms.
Former Justice Joseph Grodin, who served on the court with Reynoso and was one of the other two justices who lost in the November 1986 election (the third, Chief Justice Rose Bird, died in 1999), told At The Lectern, “I remember Cruz, on and off the court, as a gentle giant, always respectful of the views of others but always determined in his own vision of what is right. ‘Justice’ was more than a title; it defined his being.”
Before joining the California Supreme Court as its first Latino Justice, Reynoso was the director of California Rural Legal Assistance and a justice on the Third District Court of Appeal. After his tenure on the Supreme Court, Reynoso served as the Vice-Chair of the United States Commission on Civil Rights, taught at UC Davis’s law school, and, among many awards, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nation’s highest civilian honor.
Current Supreme Court Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar — the fourth Latino justice (after Reynoso, John Arguelles, and Carlos Moreno) — said in a statement:
Cruz Reynoso was a giant for the judiciary and the legal profession in California and across the country. As a civil rights lawyer practicing in California’s vast rural heartland, he was an able and eloquent advocate for those who lacked a voice. He taught law students to venerate our country’s commitment to law and justice. He embodied that commitment as the first Latino ever to serve on California’s Supreme Court, and continued it during more than a decade of service on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. His accomplishments were as remarkable as his humility. His memory and deeds will continue to inspire so many of us across California and the rest of our country.
During a 2016 program with Justice Grodin and Dean Erwin Chemerinsky that I
moderated, Justice Reynoso discussed the 1986 election that cost him his Supreme Court seat. He said, “I was very reluctant to even appoint a committee to defend me because it seemed to me that that would be getting involved in politics and judges should not be involved in politics.” He did, however, eventually have a committee.
Reynoso also spoke of the unfairness of his election opponents. He related that, during the campaign, he had said, “If I believed half the things they are saying about me, I’d vote against me.” He nonetheless added, “I never took it personally. I took it as a political campaign. I felt that it had nothing to do with the merit of my being a judge on the supreme court.”
Reynoso was the subject of a 2010 documentary: “Cruz Reynoso: Sowing the Seeds of Justice.” (Trailer here.)
Fuller discussions of Reynoso’s life are in his son’s reflections and in obituaries in the Los Angeles Times and the Sacramento Bee.
Related:
Judges Association to honor former CJ Bird and former Justices Grodin and Reynoso
PBS to air documentary about former California Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso