Warren Olney Jr. (October 15, 1870 – March 25, 1939) was an American lawyer who served as an 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 March 1, 1919, to July 1921.

Early life and education

Olney was the second of six children born to Mary Jane Craven (January 30, 1842 – 1928) and

Warren Olney Warren Olney, Sr. (March 11, 1841 – June 2, 1921) was an American lawyer, conservationist, and politician, in California. He was a founding member, alongside John Muir and the young botany professor, Willis Linn Jepson of the University of ...

Sr. (March 11, 1841 – June 2, 1921), an attorney in San Francisco. Olney Sr. co-founded the

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an American environmental organization with chapters in all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded in 1892, in San Francisco, by preservationist John Muir. A product of the Pro ...

in his law office with naturalist

John Muir John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the national park, National Parks", was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologi ...

, and others, but was later expelled from the organization because he supported the flooding of

Hetch Hetchy Hetch Hetchy is a valley, reservoir, and water system in California in the United States. The glacial Hetch Hetchy Valley lies in the northwestern part of Yosemite National Park and is drained by the Tuolumne River. For thousands of years before ...

Valley to supply water to San Francisco. Olney Sr. was

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

from 1903 to 1905. Olney Jr. was educated in the public schools in Oakland. History of the Bench and Bar of California
Bates, Joseph Clement, ed. Bench and Bar Publishing Company, 1912. pg 453. In 1891, he was graduated with an A.B. at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, where he played on the football team. He then studied at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

for a postgraduate year, receiving an A.B. in 1892, and returned to San Francisco."Two 'Square' Railroad Lawyers"
The California Outlook. Vol 12. March 30, 1912. p. 16. Retrieved June 29, 2017. In 1894, Olney received his

LL.B. A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

degree from the

University of California, Hastings College of Law The University of California College of the Law, San Francisco (abbreviated as UC Law SF or UC Law) is a public law school in San Francisco, California, United States. It was known as the University of California, Hastings College of the Law (a ...

, and was admitted to the bar.Justice Warren Olney Jr.
Supreme Court of California Resources, Robert Crown Law Library, Stanford Law School. Retrieved June 29, 2017.

Legal and judicial career

Olney entered into practice with his father in Olney & Olney, and then Olney, Pringle & Mannon. He also from 1895 to 1904 taught law classes at Hastings and when Berkeley opened its law school he lectured on evidence there from 1904 to 1907. In 1907, he joined the firm of Page, McCutchen, Knight and Olney, later known as McCutchen, Olney, and Willard (1913-1919). His clients included

Western Pacific Railroad The Western Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was formed in 1903 as an attempt to break the near-monopoly the Southern Pacific Railroad had on rail service into northern California. WP's Feather River Route dire ...

. From 1911 to 1919, he was counsel for the regents of the University of California. Beginning July 1, 1932, he served as president of the alumni association for two years, and thus sat as a regent. Olney was appointed Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court by Governor William Stephens, and served from March 1919 to July 1921. In November 1920, he was re-elected but left the court after a time to resume private practice with McCutchen, Olney, Mannon, and Greene (1921-1939)(later known as McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen and then

Bingham McCutchen Bingham McCutchen LLP was a global law firm with approximately 850 attorneys in nine US offices and five international offices. It ceased operations in late 2015, when several hundred of its partners and associate lawyers left the firm to join Phi ...

, until its collapse in 2014). In 1930 to 1932, he was a special assistant to the

Attorney General of the United States The United States attorney general is the head of the United States Department of Justice and serves as the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government. The attorney general acts as the principal legal advisor to the president of the ...

in antitrust litigation concerning the

Radio Corporation of America RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...

Bar and civic activities

In 1917, Olney had charge of registration in California for the draft for World War I. He served the

Bar Association of San Francisco The Bar Association of San Francisco (BASF) was established in 1872 as a nonprofit legal membership organization that provides San Francisco legal professionals with networking, educational and pro bono opportunities in order to better serve the co ...

as president from 1926 to 1927, as his father had from 1901 to 1902. From 1935 to 1937, he was a member of the

U.S. Supreme Court 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 turn on question ...

's advisory committee on

rules of civil procedure Civil procedure is the body of law that sets out the rules and regulations along with some standards that courts follow when adjudicating civil lawsuits (as opposed to procedures in criminal law matters). These rules govern how a lawsuit or case ...

for

U.S. District Courts The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one fede ...

Personal life

In 1899 he married Mary M. McLean (July 25, 1873 – August 12, 1965) of Alameda, California, who graduated from the University of California and taught at

Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...

and

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalists ...

. They had two sons and a daughter: John McLean Olney, Warren Olney III, and Constance S. Olney. The youngest son, Warren Olney III (February 25, 1904 – December 23, 1978), became an attorney and practiced in his father's law firm. He was appointed by President

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...

as an Assistant Attorney General to oversee the

Criminal Division In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Cane ...

of the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...

. From 1956 to 1966, Warren III was Director of the

Administrative Office of the United States Courts Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. ** Administrative assistant, traditionally known as a s ...

. He was appointed by Chief Justice

Earl Warren Earl Warren (March 19, 1891 – July 9, 1974) was an American attorney and politician who served as the 30th governor of California from 1943 to 1953 and as the 14th Chief Justice of the United States from 1953 to 1969. The Warren Court presid ...

, whom Warren III had served under in the

California Attorney General The attorney general of California is the state attorney general of the government of California. The officer must ensure that "the laws of the state are uniformly and adequately enforced" (Constitution of California, Article V, Section 13). The ...

's Office. His son,

Warren Olney IV Warren Olney IV is an American broadcast journalist. He was the host and executive producer of the nationally syndicated Public Radio International weekday afternoon program ''To the Point'', which originated at Santa Monica, California public rad ...

, is a broadcast journalist in Los Angeles.

References

External links

Portraits and photographs from the Olney family papers
Online Archive of California. Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley.
Warren Olney, Jr.
California Supreme Court Historical Society.
In Memoriam: Warren Olney, Jr.
13 Cal. Rpts. 2d 767-778 (1939). California Supreme Court Historical Society.

California State Courts. Retrieved July 19, 2017.