Remembering Justice Cruz Reynoso (1931-2021 - A Life of Righting Wrongs

Remembering Justice

Cruz Reynoso (1931-2021) A Life of Righting Wrongs

By Judge Emily E. Vasquez

Emily E. Vasquez

Judge of the Superior Court, Sacramento County.

Justice Cruz Reynoso Justice Cruz Reynoso, the son of immigrant farmworkers, who labored in the fields as a child and grew up to counsel U.S. Presidents, California Governors and to serve as the first Latino Justice on the California Supreme Court, died on May 7, 2021 at the age of 90. The judiciary, legal profession, our state and nation mourn the loss of this giant civil rights advocate. His contributions to our country and state are indelible. He changed the lives of so many for the better. To those who had the privilege to know him personally, Justice Reynoso was one of the most inspiring and remarkable people that they would ever meet.

Where I come from, Justice Reynoso was a legend and a larger-than-life icon in the judiciary, legal profession and the community-at-large. His “justice bone” led him to a life dedicated to ensuring that all persons are equal before the law and share in the blessings that have been bestowed to our country and state. Born in Brea, California on May 2, 1931, Justice Reynoso was one of eleven children who spent his summers with his family working in the fields of the San Joaquin Valley. He spent his life fighting the inequities and discrimination he first encountered during his childhood. He received a scholarship to attend Pomona College, graduating in 1953. After serving two years in the United States Army Counterintelligence Corps, he enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, where he was the only Latino in his 1958 graduating class. Later in his career, Justice Reynoso would work to increase

Justice Cruz Reynoso performed wedding for Judge Emily E. Vasquez and Ralph Lightstone

the diversity of the student body at his alma mater and other law schools and to guide many minority students toward the law. Many years later in meetings with Berkeley law students, he would joke that if he had been in the La Raza Law Students Association while he was at UC Berkeley, he would have been the president, vice-president, treasurer, and secretary.

After graduation from law school, Justice Reynoso and his wife Jeannene moved to El Centro, in California’s Imperial Valley, where he started his own law practice. In 1968, he became director of California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA), a trailblazing legal services agency and the first statewide federally funded legal aid program in the country, which continues to this day to provide legal services to rural poor communities. As Executive Director for CRLA, he oversaw efforts for farmworkers’ access to sanitation facilities in the fields, to ban the use of the carcinogenic pesticide, DDT, and obtained an injunction that banned schools from administering IQ tests in English to Spanish-speaking students and then placing those Spanish-speaking students in classes for the mentally challenged when the students were simply new English learners.

After leaving CRLA in 1972, Justice Reynoso taught law at the University of New Mexico School of Law before he was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown to the state’s Third District Court of Appeal in Sacramento in 1976. In 1982, Governor Brown appointed him to the California Supreme Court, the first Latino justice in the high court’s history. Governor Brown described him as “the most outstanding candidate I could nominate” . . . [and] “a man of outstanding intellect, superior judicial performance, high integrity, and . . . rare personal qualities.”

He earned respect for his attention to detail, conscientious approach as a jurist, and his compassion during the five years he served on the state’s high court. But in 1986, he along with Chief Justice Rose Bird and fellow Associate Justice Joseph Grodin all failed to win confirmation at the polls, following an intense, divisive, high-profile, and well-funded campaign against them. Kevin Johnson, Dean of the UC Davis School of Law, explained that Justice Reynoso was a “fervent supporter of an independent judiciary and did not believe that justices should run political campaigns and raise money. It was important to him to maintain his integrity and his belief in an independent judiciary. He sacrificed his career on the California Supreme Court for that overarching principle.”

After leaving the bench, Justice Reynoso practiced and taught law at UCLA and later at U.C. Davis where students loved him and bestowed “Professor of the Year” awards on him. He served on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. In 2000, President Bill Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, our country’s highest civilian honor for his significant contributions to public service and our nation. The removal of Justice Reynoso from the California Supreme Court was not a defeat for him because it allowed him to advocate for social justice, civil rights, and the legal representation of the poor, no longer constrained by the limitations placed on judges. Indeed, in 2014, as part of his National Hispanic Hero Award ceremony in Chicago, Justice Reynoso described his longtime commitment to social justice:

“That means real justice, not just legal justice. Are we doing what we should in terms of medical attention to all of our people? Are we doing what we should in terms of educating our young people? Are we doing everything we need to do in terms of making sure the laws truly represent the interest of the people? Do we have real justice for all the people in this state and this country and this world? That’s really what I’ve devoted my life to.”

Justice Reynoso’s legacy has been acknowledged and celebrated widely in our state and nation. In 2010, Abby Ginzberg debuted the award-wining documentary film, Cruz Reynoso: Sowing the Seeds of Justice. In 2016, the “Sacramento La Raza Lawyers Association” changed its name to the “Cruz Reynoso Bar Association” recognizing that Justice Reynoso’s spirit and “justice bone” live on in all of us and to continue his advocacy for social justice.

Justice Reynoso has been a role model and inspiration to many who followed him, including myself. I come from a background similar to Justice Reynoso’s background. My parents were immigrant farm workers; and I remember as a young child, my family and I traveling from town to town in the San Joaquin Valley following the harvest of the crops. It was very inspiring for me to meet Justice Reynoso and know that his challenges did not stop him and that he grew up to be a champion for justice and one of the most distinguished jurists and leaders in our nation. Besides the legend that he will always be, Justice Reynoso was also a generous, thoughtful, collegial and remarkable human being with

Elaine Rowen Reynoso and Justice Cruz Reynoso on their wedding day

a deep understanding and appreciation of all people, no matter their station in life. My story about Justice Reynoso is about one very memorable afternoon 35 years ago, when Justice Reynoso performed the lovely wedding ceremony for my husband and me. Because my parents spoke only Spanish, Justice Reynoso conducted the service in English and Spanish, and then he took the time to talk to my parents at length in Spanish during the reception. Indeed, during the reception, I would glance over at my parents and Justice Reynoso, and they were chuckling and laughing, like old friends. My parents were so touched and impressed with his courtesy and knowledge. They had never met a judge who spoke Spanish. They had never met a judge of Mexican descent like them. He left a lasting impression on them. Years later, my mother would tell me that she cried the night she learned that Justice Reynoso had not been confirmed by the voters to retain his seat on the Cal Supreme Court because she recognized the huge loss for our state.

Many years later in 2008, Justice Reynoso asked me to preside over his wedding to Elaine Rowen, after his first wife passed. It was such an honor for me to reciprocate the huge favor that he had accorded my husband and me many years before. I distinctly remember Justice Reynoso and Rowen coming to my chambers at the court for the ceremony. They were both “dressed to the nines” and they were so in love. I have very fond memories of their wedding.

Let us together celebrate the life and work of this amazing scholar, wise jurist, civil rights advocate, and inspiring role model for generations of judges and lawyers that came after him. He always acted with courage, dignity, humility, and fairness. His shining example reminds us all to bravely lead with integrity in all that we do and together we can move this nation closer to equal justice under law.

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