Stanley Mosk

Mosk was born in San Antonio, Texas. 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 origin, respectively) who did not believe in strict religious observances.Hon. Stanley Mosk, Oral History Interview (Berkeley: California State Archives Regional Oral History Office, 1998), pp. 1–3. Since Rockford sits next to the Wisconsin border, Mosk's parents followed Wisconsin politics and were strong supporters of Progressive Wisconsin Senator Robert M. La Follette.Mosk Oral History Interview, p. 3.

Mosk's life was strongly affected by the Great Depression. Mosk graduated from the University of Chicago 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, and Mosk followed them after graduating from college, as they could not afford to support him in further studies in Chicago.{{cite news|last1=Morain|first1=Dan|date=January 26, 1986|title=Stanley Mosk: Will Dean of High Court Hang It Up?|work=Los Angeles Times|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-01-26-mn-119-story.html|access-date=September 25, 2017}}

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.{{cite book |last1=Braitman |first1=Jacqueline R. |last2=Uelmen |first2=Gerald F. |title=Justice Stanley Mosk: A Life at the Center of California Politics and Justice |date=2012 |publisher=McFarland & Co. |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |isbn=9780786468416 |page=23 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ztAzK7_RGggC&pg=PA23 |access-date=March 10, 2024}} He earned a LL.B from Southwestern Law School in 1935 and was admitted to the bar that same year.{{cite news|date=October 23, 1987|title=Supreme Court Justice to Speak at LMC|volume=27|page=1|work=Los Medanos College Experience|publisher=California Digital Newspaper Collection|issue=9|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=Experience19871023.1.1&srpos=6&e=------198-en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22stanley+mosk%22-------1|accessdate=September 25, 2017}}Mosk Oral History Interview, pp. 8-9. Mosk opened a solo practice, sharing an office with four other separate solo practices.Mosk Oral History Interview, p. 9. During those difficult years, Mosk was a general practitioner who took whatever walked in the door.Mosk Oral History Interview, p. 12.

File:Morey Stanley Mosk 1940 Edit.jpg, 1940]]

While practicing law, Mosk occasionally assisted Democratic politician Culbert Olson. In 1938, Olson was elected Governor of California and Mosk was hired as Olson's executive secretary the next year.Mosk Oral History Interview, pp. 13-14.{{cite news|date=13 October 1938|title=Brown Urges Support of Democratic Ticket|page=14|work=San Bernardino Sun|publisher=California Digital Newspaper Collection|issue=45|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SBS19381013.1.14&srpos=6&e=------193-en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22stanley+mosk%22-------1|accessdate=September 25, 2017}}{{cite news|last1=Dunlop|first1=Jack W.|title=Politically Speaking|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=HTES19390810.2.52&srpos=4&e=------193-en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22stanley+mosk%22-------1|accessdate=September 25, 2017|work=Healdsburg Tribune, Enterprise and Scimitar|agency=UPI|issue=99|publisher=California Digital Newspaper Collection|date=10 August 1939|page=4}}{{cite news|title=Secretary Force Gets New Member|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=MT19390819.2.44&srpos=1&e=------193-en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22stanley+mosk%22-------1|accessdate=September 25, 2017|work=Madera Tribune|issue=94|publisher=California Digital Newspaper Collection|date=August 19, 1939|page=4}}

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. At the age of 30, Mosk became the youngest Superior Court judge in the state.{{cite news|title=Olson Has Number of Appointments to Make|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SBS19421112.1.5&srpos=1&e=------194-en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22stanley+mosk%22----1942---1|accessdate=September 25, 2017|work=San Bernardino Sun|agency=Associated Press|issue=49|publisher=California Digital Newspaper Collection|date=November 12, 1942|page=5}}{{cite news|title=L.A. Judges Named|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SBS19430103.1.12&srpos=3&e=------194-en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22stanley+mosk%22----1943---1|accessdate=September 25, 2017|work=San Bernardino Sun|issue=49|publisher=California Digital Newspaper Collection|date=January 3, 1943|page=12}} He faced opposition at his first retention election but prevailed.{{cite news|title=Court Bars Seven Candidates from Using CIO Funds|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SBS19441104.1.1&srpos=11&e=------194-en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22stanley+mosk%22----1944---1|accessdate=September 25, 2017|work=San Bernardino Sun|agency=United Press|issue=51|publisher=California Digital Newspaper Collection|date=November 4, 1944|page=1}}{{cite news|title=FDR Triumphs|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=CRS19441107.2.2&srpos=3&e=------194-en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22stanley+mosk%22----1944---1|accessdate=September 25, 2017|work=Corsair|issue=9|publisher=California Digital Newspaper Collection|date=November 7, 1944|volume = 16|page=1}}

In March 1945, Mosk left the Superior Court to volunteer for service in the U.S. Army during World War II as a private, but spent most of the war in a transportation unit in New Orleans and never went abroad.{{cite news|title=Judge Mosk Resigns|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SBS19450306.1.1&srpos=3&e=------194-en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22stanley+mosk%22----1945---1|accessdate=September 25, 2017|work=San Bernardino Sun|agency=United Press|issue=51|publisher=California Digital Newspaper Collection|date=March 6, 1945|page=1}}Mosk Oral History Interview, 15-16. After an honorable discharge in September 1945, he returned to California and resumed his judicial career.{{cite news|title=In the Shadows|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SBS19450916.1.10&srpos=2&e=------194-en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22stanley+mosk%22----1945---1|accessdate=September 25, 2017|work=San Bernardino Sun|agency=United Press|issue=52|publisher=California Digital Newspaper Collection|date=September 16, 1945|page=10}}

In 1947, as a Superior Court judge, he declared the enforcement of restrictive racial covenants unconstitutional before the Supreme Court of the United States did so in Shelley v. Kraemer.{{cite news|title=Court Refuses to Bar Negroes from Wilshire|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SBS19471024.1.1&srpos=6&e=------194-en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22stanley+mosk%22----1947---1|accessdate=September 25, 2017|work=San Bernardino Sun|agency=United Press|issue=47|publisher=California Digital Newspaper Collection|date=October 24, 1947|volume = 45|page=1}}{{cite news|title=Racial Eviction Suits Dismissed|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SBS19471101.1.1&srpos=7&e=------194-en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22stanley+mosk%22----1947---1|accessdate=September 25, 2017|work=San Bernardino Sun|agency=United Press|issue=54|publisher=California Digital Newspaper Collection|date=November 1, 1947|volume = 54|page=1}}

In 1958, Mosk was elected Attorney General of California by the largest margin of any contested election in the state that year.{{Citation needed|date=August 2020}} Upon his inauguration in 1959, Mosk became the first Jew to serve as a statewide executive branch officer in California.{{cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-jun-20-mn-12547-story.html |title=Stanley Mosk, State's Senior Justice, Dies |last1=Thurber |first1=Jon |last2=Dolan |first2=Maura |date=June 20, 2001 |website=Los Angeles Times|access-date=October 3, 2020}} 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.[http://www.supremecourthistory.org/03_how/subs_how/03_a08.html Arizona v. California] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051115003248/http://www.supremecourthistory.org/03_how/subs_how/03_a08.html|date=2005-11-15}}, 373 U.S. 546 (1963). Retrieved September 25, 2017.

Mosk established the Attorney General's Civil Rights Division and successfully fought to force the Professional Golfers' Association of America to amend its bylaws denying access to minority golfers.{{cite news|date=November 10, 1961|title=PGA opens its doors to Negroes, world golfers|page=4, section 2|newspaper=Florence Times|agency=Associated Press|location=Alabama|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=QP0rAAAAIBAJ&pg=612%2C1259647}}{{cite news|date=November 10, 1961|title=PGA group abolishes 'Caucasian'|page=22|newspaper=Sarasota Herald-Tribune|agency=Associated Press|location=Florida|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=qbcqAAAAIBAJ&pg=7100%2C1775561}} 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.[http://ag.ca.gov/ag/history/24mosk.php Profile] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528125326/http://ag.ca.gov/ag/history/24mosk.php |date=2010-05-28 }}, AG.ca.gov. Accessed December 10, 2022.

Mosk also commissioned a study of the resurgence of right-wing extremism in California, which famously characterized the secretive John Birch Society as a "cadre" of "wealthy businessmen, retired military officers and little old ladies in tennis shoes.""The Harmless Ones", [https://content.time.com/time/magazine/0,9263,7601610811,00.html Time], August 11, 1961. Paid subscription access.{{cite book|last1=California Attorney General|title=Report on the John Birch Society|date=1961|publisher=Worldcat.org|oclc=19652378}}

He served as the California National Committeeman to the Democratic National Committee and was an early supporter of John F. Kennedy for president. He remained close to the Kennedy family.{{Citation needed|date=August 2020}}

File:Stanley Mosk, 1975.jpg

While an early favorite to be elected to the United States Senate after the death of incumbent Clair Engle, Mosk was appointed to the California Supreme Court in September 1964 by Governor Pat Brown to succeed Roger J. Traynor, who had been elevated to chief justice.{{cite news|title=World Wire|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=MT19640303.2.4&srpos=7&e=------196-en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22stanley+mosk%22----1964---1|accessdate=September 25, 2017|work=Madera Tribune|agency=UPI|issue=207|publisher=California Digital Newspaper Collection|date=3 March 1964|page=1}}{{cite news|title=Brown May Tap Mosk For Court|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=MT19640811.2.22&srpos=9&e=------196-en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22stanley+mosk%22----1964---1|accessdate=September 25, 2017|work=Madera Tribune|agency=UPI|issue=64|publisher=California Digital Newspaper Collection|date=11 August 1964|page=2}}{{cite news|title=Brown Names Mosk Attorney General To Supreme Court; Traynor Is Chief|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=DS19640814.2.3&srpos=16&e=------196-en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22stanley+mosk%22----1964---1|accessdate=September 25, 2017|work=Desert Sun|agency=UPI|issue=9|publisher=California Digital Newspaper Collection|date=August 14, 1964|page=1}} Mosk was retained by the electorate in 1964 and re-elected to three twelve-year terms beginning in 1974.Uelmen, Gerald F. (1999). [http://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/facpubs/695 "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.{{cite news|last1=Chiang|first1=Harriet|last2=Egelko|first2=Bob|title=Stanley Mosk / 1912-2001 / State Supreme Court justice dies at 88 Ex-California attorney general, 'a giant in the law', had longest tenure|url=http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/STANLEY-MOSK-1912-2001-State-Supreme-Court-2907870.php|accessdate=September 25, 2017|work=San Francisco Gate|date=June 20, 2001}} For example, in Bakke v. Regents of the University of California,[http://online.ceb.com/CalCases/C3/18C3d34.htm Bakke v. Regents of the University of California], 18 Cal. 3d 34 (1976). Retrieved September 25, 2017. Mosk ruled that the minority admissions program at the University of California, Davis 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.[http://scocal.stanford.edu/opinion/american-academy-pediatrics-v-lungren-31689 American Academy of Pediatrics v. Lungren], 16 Cal.4th 307 (1997). Retrieved September 25, 2017.

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):[http://online.ceb.com/calcases/C2/69C2d613.htm In re Anderson], 69 Cal. 2d 613 (1968). Retrieved September 25, 2017.

{{blockquote|In my years as Attorney General of California (1959–1964), I frequently repeated a personal belief in the social invalidity of the death penalty ... Naturally, therefore, I am tempted by the invitation of petitioners to join in judicially terminating this anachronistic penalty. However, to yield to my predilections would be to act wilfully "in the sense of enforcing individual views instead of speaking humbly as the voice of law by which society presumably consents to be ruled..." (Citation omitted.)

As a judge, I am bound to the law as I find it to be and not as I might fervently wish it to be.|author=|title=|source=}}

Mosk served on the high court until his death in 2001, having surpassed Justice John W. Shenk to become the longest-serving justice in the history of the Court in 1999.{{cite news|title=Stanley Mosk, 88, Long a California Supreme Court Justice|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/21/us/stanley-mosk-88-long-a-california-supreme-court-justice.html|accessdate=September 25, 2017|work=New York Times|agency=Associated Press|date=June 21, 2001}} 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.

Mosk married three times. On September 27, 1936, he married Helen Edna Mitchell in Beverly Hills, California, and they had one son, Richard.{{cite book|last1=Braitman|first1=Jacqueline R.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G7kWXsKpJTEC|title=Justice Stanley Mosk: a life at the center of California politics and justice|last2=Uelmen|first2=Gerald F.|date=2013|publisher=McFarland & Co.|isbn=978-1476600710|location=Jefferson, N.C.|pages=26, 236–237|accessdate=September 25, 2017}} After her death on May 22, 1981, he remarried on August 27, 1982, to Susan Jane Hines in Reno, Nevada, 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, became an attorney and justice of the California Court of Appeal, Second District.{{cite news|last1=Dolan|first1=Maura|date=April 19, 2016|title=Richard M. Mosk dies at 76; California Court of Appeal justice and Warren Commission staffer|work=Los Angeles Times|url=http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-richard-mosk-20160420-story.html|accessdate=September 25, 2017}}

File:LA Superior Court, LA, CA, jjron 22.03.2012.jpg

In 1999, Albany Law School 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."Vincent Martin Bonventre, Editor's Foreword to State Constitutional Commentary, 62 Albany Law Review 1213, 1213 (1999).

One of Mosk's contributions to jurisprudence was development of the constitutional doctrine 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.[http://scocal.stanford.edu/opinion/gerawan-farming-inc-v-lyons-32140 Gerawan Farming, Inc. v. Lyons], 24 Cal.4th 468, 489-496, 510-515 (2000); [http://scocal.stanford.edu/opinion/sands-v-morongo-unified-school-dist-31258 Sands v. Morongo Unified School District], 53 Cal.3d 863, 905-907 (1991) (Mosk, J., concurring); [http://law.justia.com/cases/california/supreme-court/3d/21/231.html People v. Pettingill], 21 Cal.3d 231, 247-248 (1978); [http://scocal.stanford.edu/opinion/people-v-brisendine-22929 People v. Brisendine], 13 Cal.3d 528, 545, 548-552 (1975); Stanley Mosk, [http://www.nyulawreview.org/sites/default/files/pdf/NYULawReview-72-3-MOsk.pdf "Brennan Lecture: States' Rights -- And Wrongs,"] 72 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 552, 559-565 (1997); Stanley Mosk, State Constitutionalism: Both Liberal and Conservative, 63 Tex. L. Rev. 1081, 1087-1093 (1985).

The Stanley Mosk Courthouse, housing the Los Angeles County Superior Court, is named after him. It is located at 111 North Hill Street in Los Angeles.{{cite web|title=Stanley Mosk Courthouse / Los Angeles County Courthouse|url=https://www.laconservancy.org/locations/stanley-mosk-courthouse-los-angeles-county-courthouse|access-date=2015-10-12|quote=}}

The Stanley Mosk Library & Courts Building is located on the Capitol Mall in Sacramento, California and is the home of the California Court of Appeal for the Third District.[http://www.cschs.org/history/special-sessions/special-sessions-stanley-mosk-library/ Dedication of the Stanley Mosk Library and Courts Building]. California State Courts. Retrieved July 24, 2017.

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, which was filmed in Long Beach, California in 1962.

• {{cite book |last1=Mosk |first1=Stanley |date=1995|title=Democracy in America—Day by Day |url=https://archive.org/details/democracyinameri00mosk |url-access=registration |publisher=Vantage Press |location=New York |isbn=0533112044}}

• {{cite journal|last1=Mosk|first1=Stanley|title=Brennan Lecture: States' Rights—and Wrongs|journal=N.Y.U. L. Rev.|date=1997|volume=72|issue=3|pages=552–566|url=https://www.nyulawreview.org/issues/volume-72-number-3/states-rights-and-wrongs/|accessdate=September 25, 2017}}
• {{cite journal|last1=Mosk|first1=Stanley|title=Nothing Succeeds Like Excess|journal=Loy. L.A. L. Rev.|date=1993|volume=26|issue=4|page=981|url=http://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/llr/vol26/iss4/4|accessdate=September 25, 2017}}
• {{cite journal|last1=Mosk|first1=Stanley|title=Gideon Kanner|journal=Loy. L.A. L. Rev.|date=1991|volume=24|issue=3|page=516|url=http://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/llr/vol24/iss3/2|accessdate=September 25, 2017}}

• List of Jewish American jurists
• List of justices of the Supreme Court of California

{{reflist|2}}

• {{cite book|last1=Braitman|first1=Jacqueline R.|last2=Uelmen|first2=Gerald F.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G7kWXsKpJTEC|title=Justice Stanley Mosk: a life at the center of California politics and justice|date=2013|publisher=McFarland & Co. |location=Jefferson, N.C. |isbn=978-1476600710|accessdate=September 25, 2017}}
• Uelmen, Gerald F. (June 22, 2002). [http://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/facpubs/695 "Tribute to Justice Stanley Mosk"], 65 Albany Law Review 857. Retrieved September 25, 2017.

• [https://www.cschs.org/history/california-supreme-court-justices/stanley-mosk/ Stanley Mosk]. California Supreme Court Historical Society.
• [https://archives.cdn.sos.ca.gov/oral-history/pdf/mosk.pdf Stanley Mosk, Oral History interview] (PDF). Regional Oral History Office, University of California, Berkeley, 1998.
• [https://www.courtlistener.com/person/3831/stanley-mosk/?type=p&q=stanley+mosk&type=p&order_by=name_reverse+asc Opinions authored by Stanley Mosk]. Courtlistener.com.
• [https://www.oyez.org/advocates/stanley_mosk Stanley Mosk] at U.S. Supreme Court. Oyez.com.
• [http://www.courts.ca.gov/12523.htm Past & Present Justices]. California State Courts.

• [https://www.c-span.org/video/?21970-1/california-term-limits 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.

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{{s-legal}}

{{succession box |

before= Pat Brown| |

title= Attorney General of California |

years= 1959–1964 |

after= Thomas C. Lynch}}

{{succession box |

before= Roger J. Traynor| |

title= Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California |

years= 1964–2001 |

after= Carlos R. Moreno}}

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{{Attorneys General of California}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mosk, Stanley}}

Category:1912 births

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Category:20th-century American judges

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