Benjamin Rey Schauer (May 9, 1891 – March 5, 1977) was an American attorney and Associate Justice of the

Supreme Court of California The Supreme Court of California is the Supreme court, highest and final court of appeals in the judiciary of California, courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly ...

from December 18, 1942, to September 15, 1965.

Biography

Born in

Santa Maria, California Santa Maria (Spanish language, Spanish for "Mary, mother of Jesus, St. Mary") is a city in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Located on the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California, it is approximately northwest o ...

, Schauer received an A.B. from

Occidental College Occidental College (informally Oxy) is a private liberal arts college in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1887 as a coeducational college by clergy and members of the Presbyterian Church, it became non-sectarian in 1910. It is ...

in 1912, and

read law Reading law was the primary method used in common law countries, particularly the United States, for people to prepare for and enter the legal profession before the advent of law schools. It consisted of an extended internship or apprenticeship un ...

to be admitted to the

California State Bar The State Bar of California is an administrative division of the Supreme Court of California which licenses attorneys and regulates the practice of law in California. It is responsible for managing the admission of lawyers to the practice of law ...

in July 1913.California Courts
Benjamin Rey Schauer
He attended the

University of Southern California Law School The University of Southern California Gould School of Law located in Los Angeles, California, is the law school of the University of Southern California. The oldest law school in the Southwestern United States, USC Law traces its beginnings to 18 ...

in 1916, and received a J.D. from

Southwestern University School of Law Southwestern Law School is a private law school in Los Angeles, California. It is accredited by the American Bar Association and enrolls nearly 1,000 students. Its campus includes the Bullocks Wilshire building, an Art Deco National Register o ...

, 1916. He was in private practice from 1913 to 1927, also serving in the U.S. Naval Reserve, where he achieved the rank of Lieutenant Commander. Schauer was appointed by Governor C.C. Young as a judge on the

Los Angeles County Superior Court The Superior Court of Los Angeles County is the California Superior Courts of California, Superior Court located in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County. It is the largest single unified trial court in the United States. The Sup ...

, where he served from August 4, 1927, to November 12, 1941. In November 1938, he overturned a contempt conviction against a 24-year-old woman who appeared in slacks in Los Angeles Municipal Court to testify in a robbery case, and declined the trial judge's request to change into a skirt. On appeal to the Superior Court, Schauer held the slacks were in "good taste" and not a violation of court protocol. Schauer was then a Presiding Justice of the California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division Three, from October 22, 1941, to December 17, 1942. In December 1942, Governor

Culbert Olson Culbert Levy Olson (November 7, 1876 – April 13, 1962) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 29th governor of California from 1939 to 1943. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Olson was previous ...

appointed Schauer as an associate justice of the California Supreme Court, where he remained for 23 years. On the Supreme Court, Schauer was one of three Justices to dissent from the holding in ''

Perez v. Sharp ''Perez v. Sharp'', also known as ''Perez v. Lippold'' or ''Perez v. Moroney'', is a 1948 case decided by the Supreme Court of California in which the court held by a 4–3 majority that the state's ban on interracial marriage violated the Fourtee ...

'' (1948), in which the court held by a vote of 4 to 3 that interracial bans on marriage violated the

Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution The Fourteenth Amendment (Amendment XIV) to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments. Considered one of the most consequential amendments, it addresses Citizenship of the United States ...

and therefore were illegal in California. One month later, Schauer wrote the majority opinion in ''Hughes v. Superior Court'', holding that protesters were making an illegal demand when they sought to have businesses hire employees based on race, solely to achieve a racial balance proportional to that of the patronage of the business. In August 1964, Schauer announced his retirement from the court effective September 15, 1964.

Personal life

On October 21, 1915, Schauer married Eva Elizabeth Summers, a graduate of the University of Southern California. After her death on January 22, 1969, he remarried to Jean Marion Dewsbury in Los Angeles. Schauer was a competitive sailor.

References

External links

B. Rey Schauer
California Supreme Court Historical Society.
B. Rey Schauer
California Court of Appeals, Second Appellate District, Division Three.
Court opinions authored by B. Rey Schauer
Courtlistener.com.

California State Courts. Retrieved July 19, 2017. {{DEFAULTSORT:Schauer, B. Rey 1891 births 1977 deaths 20th-century California state court judges 20th-century American lawyers U.S. state supreme court judges admitted to the practice of law by reading law Superior court judges in the United States Judges of the California Courts of Appeal Justices of the Supreme Court of California Lawyers from Los Angeles People from Santa Maria, California Occidental College alumni USC Gould School of Law alumni Southwestern Law School alumni United States Navy officers Military personnel from California Culbert Olson political appointees

Biography

Personal life

See also

References

External links