Morey Stanley Mosk (September 4, 1912 – June 19, 2001) was an American jurist, politician, and attorney. He served as

Associate Justice Associate justice or associate judge (or simply associate) is a judicial panel member who is not the chief justice in some jurisdictions. The title "Associate Justice" is used for members of the Supreme Court of the United States and some sta ...

of the

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

for 37 years (1964–2001), the longest tenure in that court's history. Before sitting on the Supreme Court, he served as

Attorney General of California The attorney general of California is the state attorney general of the Government of California. The officer's duty is to ensure that "the laws of the state are uniformly and adequately enforced" (Constitution of California, Article V, Section ...

and as a trial court judge.

Early life and career

Mosk was born in

San Antonio, Texas ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

. His family moved to Rockford, Illinois when he was three years old. His parents Paul and Minna (née Perl) Mosk were Reform Jews (of Hungarian and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

origin, respectively) who did not believe in strict religious observances. Since Rockford sits next to the

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

border, Mosk's parents followed Wisconsin politics and were strong supporters of Progressive Wisconsin Senator Robert M. La Follette. Mosk's life was strongly affected by the Great Depression. Mosk graduated from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

in 1933 with a bachelor's degree in philosophy.Mosk Oral History Interview, p. 8. Because his father's business in Rockford was floundering, his parents and brother relocated to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

, and Mosk followed them after graduating from college, as they could not afford to support him in further studies in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

. At the time, it was possible to use the last year of a bachelor's degree as the first year of a three-year law degree program, so while living with his parents, Mosk was able to obtain a law degree in two years. He earned a LL.B from Southwestern University School of Law in 1935 and was admitted to the bar that same year. Mosk opened a solo practice, sharing an office with four other separate solo practices. During those difficult years, Mosk was a general practitioner who took whatever walked in the door.

Entry to politics

While practicing law, Mosk occasionally assisted Democratic politician

Culbert Olson Culbert Levy Olson (November 7, 1876 – April 13, 1962) was an American lawyer and politician. A Democratic Party member, Olson was involved in Utah and California politics and was elected as the 29th governor of California from 1939 to 1943. ...

. In 1938, Olson was elected Governor of California and Mosk was hired as Olson's executive secretary the next year. After Olson lost the 1942 election to Republican Earl Warren, Olson made a lame-duck appointment of Mosk to the

Los Angeles County Superior Court The Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, is the California superior court with jurisdiction over Los Angeles County, which includes the city of Los Angeles. It is the largest single unified trial court in the United States. The L ...

. At the age of 31, Mosk became the youngest judge in the state. He faced opposition at his first retention election but prevailed. In March 1945, Mosk left the Superior Court to volunteer for service in the U.S. Army during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

as a private, but spent most of the war in a transportation unit in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point ...

did so in ''

Shelley v. Kraemer ''Shelley v. Kraemer'', 334 U.S. 1 (1948), is a landmark United States Supreme Court case that held that racially restrictive housing covenants cannot legally be enforced. The case arose after an African-American family purchased a house in St. ...

''.

Attorney General of California

In 1958, Mosk was elected

by the largest margin of any contested election in the state that year. Upon his inauguration in 1959, Mosk became the first

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

to serve as a statewide executive branch officer in California. In 1962, he was re-elected by a large margin. As Attorney General, Mosk issued approximately two thousand written opinions, handled a series of landmark cases, and on January 8, 1962, appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court in '' Arizona v. California''. Mosk established the Attorney General's Civil Rights Division and successfully fought to force the

Professional Golfers' Association of America The Professional Golfers' Association of America (PGA of America) is an American organization of golf professionals that was founded in 1916. Consisting of nearly 29,000 men and women members, the PGA of America's undertaking is to establish ...

to amend its bylaws denying access to minority golfers. He also established Consumer Rights, Constitutional Rights, and Antitrust divisions. As California's chief law enforcement officer, he sponsored legislation creating the California Commission on Peace Officers' Standards and Training. Mosk also commissioned a study of the resurgence of right-wing extremism in California, which famously characterized the secretive

John Birch Society The John Birch Society (JBS) is an American right-wing political advocacy group. Founded in 1958, it is anti-communist, supports social conservatism, and is associated with ultraconservative, radical right, far-right, or libertarian ideas. ...

as a "cadre" of "wealthy businessmen, retired military officers and little old ladies in tennis shoes." He served as the California National Committeeman to the

Democratic National Committee The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the governing body of the United States Democratic Party. The committee coordinates strategy to support Democratic Party candidates throughout the country for local, state, and national office, as well ...

and was an early supporter of John F. Kennedy for president. He remained close to the Kennedy family.

California Supreme Court

While an early favorite to be elected to the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and ...

after the death of incumbent

Clair Engle Clair Engle (September 21, 1911July 30, 1964) was an American politician who served as a United States Senator from California from 1959 until his death in 1964. A member of the Democratic Party, he is best remembered for participating in the vo ...

, Mosk was appointed to the California Supreme Court in September 1964 by Governor

Pat Brown Edmund Gerald "Pat" Brown (April 21, 1905 – February 16, 1996) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 32nd governor of California from 1959 to 1967. His first elected office was as district attorney for San Francisco, and he w ...

to succeed Roger J. Traynor, who had been elevated to chief justice. Mosk was retained by the electorate in 1964 and re-elected to three twelve-year terms beginning in 1974.Uelmen, Gerald F. (1999)
"Justice Stanley Mosk"
65 ''Albany Law Review'' 857, fn. 1. Retrieved September 25, 2017. Although Mosk was a self-described liberal, he often displayed an independent streak that sometimes surprised his admirers and critics alike. For example, in ''Bakke v. Regents of the University of California'', Mosk ruled that the minority admissions program at the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The inst ...

violated the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution. This decision was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in '' Regents of the University of California v. Bakke'', 438 U.S. 265 (1978), which, unlike Mosk's opinion, held that race could be factored in admissions to promote ethnic diversity. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed with Mosk in rejecting racial quotas. He also voted to uphold the constitutionality of a parental consent for abortion law — a law ultimately struck down by a majority of the court. Despite his liberalism, he was not a close ally of controversial Chief Justice Rose Bird. He won reelection in 1986 with 75% of the vote while Bird and two other justices closely allied with her were defeated for reelection. In November 1998, at age 86, Mosk was retained by the electorate for another twelve-year term. Although personally opposed to the death penalty, Mosk voted to uphold death penalty convictions on a number of occasions. He believed he was obligated to enforce laws properly enacted by the people of the state of California, even though he personally did not approve of such laws. A typical example of how Mosk articulated his beliefs is his concurrence in ''In re Anderson'', 69 Cal. 2d 613 (1968): Mosk served on the high court until his death in 2001, having surpassed Justice

John W. Shenk John Wesley Shenk (February 7, 1875 – August 3, 1959) was a city attorney in Los Angeles, California, a Superior Court judge and a member of the California Supreme Court. Early life and education Shenk was born on February 7, 1875, in Shel ...

to become the longest-serving justice in the history of the Court in 1999. As of 2021, Mosk is the last Justice of the California Supreme Court to have served in non-judicial elected office before his appointment to the bench.

Personal life

Mosk married three times. On September 27, 1936, he married Helen Edna Mitchell in

Beverly Hills, California Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. ...

, and they had one son, Richard. After her death on May 22, 1981, he remarried on August 27, 1982, to Susan Jane Hines in

Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the c ...

, who was more than 30 years his junior. They divorced and on January 15, 1995, Mosk married Kaygey Kash, a long-time friend. His son,

Richard M. Mosk Richard M. Mosk (May 18, 1939 – April 17, 2016) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the California Courts of Appeal, Second District. Early life, education, and military service Mosk was born in Los Angeles, Cali ...

, became an attorney and justice of the

California Court of Appeal The California Courts of Appeal are the state intermediate appellate courts in the U.S. state of California. The state is geographically divided along county lines into six appellate districts.

, Second District.

Legacy

In 1999,

Albany Law School Albany Law School is a private law school in Albany, New York. It was founded in 1851 and is the oldest independent law school in the nation. It is accredited by the American Bar Association and has an affiliation agreement with University at A ...

Professor Vincent Martin Bonventre described Mosk as "an institution, an icon, a trailblazer, a legal scholar, a constitutional guardian, a veritable living legend of the American judiciary, ... one of the most influential members in the history of one of the most influential tribunals in the western world." One of Mosk's contributions to

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning ...

was development of the constitutional

doctrine Doctrine (from la, Wikt:doctrina, doctrina, meaning "teaching, instruction") is a codification (law), codification of beliefs or a body of teacher, teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the essence of teachings in a given ...

of independent state grounds. This is the concept that individual rights are not dependent solely on interpretation of the U.S. Constitution by the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal courts, but also can be found in state constitutions, which often provide greater protection for individuals.

Honors and memorials

The

Stanley Mosk Courthouse The Stanley Mosk Courthouse is a courthouse in Los Angeles, California home to the Los Angeles County Superior Court. It is located at 110 N. Grand Avenue and 111 N. Hill Street between Temple and First streets, lining Grand Park in the Civic Ce ...

, housing the

, is named after him. It is located at 111 North Hill Street in Los Angeles. The Stanley Mosk Library & Courts Building is located on the Capitol Mall in Sacramento, California and is the home of the

for the Third District.Dedication of the Stanley Mosk Library and Courts Building
California State Courts. Retrieved July 24, 2017.

In popular culture

A billboard for Mosk's reelection campaign for Attorney General is featured during the final car chase scene in the 1963 film ''

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World ''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World'' is a 1963 American comedy film produced and directed by Stanley Kramer with a story and screenplay by William Rose and Tania Rose. The film, starring Spencer Tracy with an all-star cast of comedians, is ...

'', which was filmed in

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

in 1962.

Selected publications

Books

Articles

* * *

References

External links

Stanley Mosk
California Supreme Court Historical Society.
Stanley Mosk, Oral History interview
(PDF). Regional Oral History Office, University of California, Berkeley, 1998.
Opinions authored by Stanley Mosk
Courtlistener.com.
Stanley Mosk
at U.S. Supreme Court. Oyez.com.

California State Courts.

Video

Oral argument before the California Supreme Court
(October 11, 1991), on the constitutionality of Proposition 140 which would impose term limits on elected officials. C-SPAN. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mosk, Stanley 1912 births 2001 deaths 20th-century American judges California Attorneys General California Democrats Jewish American attorneys Jewish American people in California politics Justices of the Supreme Court of California Lawyers from Los Angeles People from Rockford, Illinois Southwestern Law School alumni Superior court judges in the United States United States Army soldiers American scholars of constitutional law University of California regents University of Chicago alumni United States Army personnel of World War II