Shirley Hufstedler

American politician and judge (1925–2016)

Shirley Ann Mount Hufstedler (August 24, 1925 – March 30, 2016) was an American attorney and judge who served as the first United States secretary of education from 1979 to 1981. She previously served as a U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals from 1968 to 1979.

At the time of her presidential cabinet appointment under President Jimmy Carter , she was the highest ranking-woman in the U.S. federal judiciary .

Early life and education

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Hufstedler was born Shirley Ann Mount on August 24, 1925, in Denver , Colorado . Her mother's side of the family emigrated to the United States from Germany and were pioneers in Missouri . Hufstedler's father worked in construction and during the Great Depression the family had to move frequently so he could find work. As a result, she frequently changed schools and towns starting in the second grade. As a child, she lived in New Mexico , Montana , California , and Wyoming . A friend of her father's and famous war correspondent, Ernie Pyle , became a close friend and mentor of Hufstedler. Hufstedler received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in 1945 from the University of New Mexico and a Bachelor of Laws in 1949 from Stanford Law School .

Career

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Initial attempts to begin her career after graduating proved to be difficult. Her graduating class from law school included only two women, as three of them dropped out, and although she graduated at the top of her class, she was still a woman in a male-dominated profession and she struggled to find employment opportunities. She started writing briefs for other lawyers and picked up other similar tasks. Ultimately, she opened up her own office in Los Angeles in 1951. From there, she managed to make her way to the Attorney General's Office. She served as Special Legal Consultant to the Attorney General of California in the complex Colorado River litigation before the U.S. Supreme Court from 1960 to 1961.

California Superior Court Judge

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In 1961, she was appointed Judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court , by Governor Pat Brown . a position to which she was elected in 1962 as a Democrat . At the time she was appointed to the Los Angeles County Superior Court, she was the only female in a group of 119 men. Judge Shirley M. Hufstedler is widely credited with introducing tentative rulings to American courts while sitting in Los Angeles Superior Court.

In 1966, she was appointed Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeals .

Federal judicial service

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Hufstedler was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 17, 1968, to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals , to a new seat authorized by 82 Stat. 184. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on September 12, 1968, and received her commission on September 12, 1968. Her service terminated on December 5, 1979, due to her resignation.

Selected judicial opinions

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In 1973, a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided in _Lau v. Nichols _ that the San Francisco Unified School District had not violated the Fourteenth Amendment when it provided inadequate supplemental language support for non-English speakers. Hufstedler was not a member of this panel, but she called for the case to be reheard by the entire Ninth Circuit Court, _en banc _. Hufstedler wrote, "access to education offered by the public schools is completely foreclosed to these children who cannot comprehend any of it" and that the decision paralleled similar arguments that were determined to be unconstitutional in _Brown v. Board of Education _. Subsequently, the U. S. Supreme Court agreed with Hufstedler and overturned the Ninth Circuit's decision.

Hufstedler authored the majority opinion in Dietemann v. Time, Inc. (1971) Reporters employed by Life magazine would deceive their way into private homes and then record information and interactions between individuals in the home. Hufstedler affirmed the lower court's decision that such actions were an invasion of privacy. This helped provide clarity on freedom of the press and specifically, the limitations that the First Amendment has on protecting the freedom of the press.

Hufstedler was in the majority for _Warren Jones Co. v. Commissioner _ (1975). In this case, the majority decided that real estate had a certain fair market value which was determinable. Thus, taxpayers were required to include that fair market val

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