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EARL WARREN A Life of Truth and Justice D. J. HERDA 19_0756-Herda.indb 1 9/18/19 11:57 AM Published 2019 by Prometheus Books Earl Warren: A Life of Truth and Justice. Copyright © 2019 by D. J. Herda. All rights reserved. No part of this p ublication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, digital, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or conveyed via the internet or a website without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Cover image © Library of Congress Cover design by Liz Mills Cover design © Prometheus Books Trademarked names appear throughout this book. Prometheus Books recognizes all registered trademarks, trademarks, and service marks mentioned in the text. The internet addresses listed in the text were accurate at the time of publication. The inclusion of a website does not indicate an endorsement by the author or by Prometheus Books, and Prometheus Books does not guarantee the accuracy of the information presented at these sites. Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Herda, D. J., 1948-, author. Title: Earl Warren: a life of truth and justice / D. J. Herda. Description: Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 2019. | Includes index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019019046 (print) | LCCN 2019020364 (ebook) | ISBN 9781633885813 (ebook) | ISBN 9781633885806 (hardback) Subjects: LCSH: Warren, Earl, 1891-1974 | Judges—United States—Biography. | Governors—California—Biography. | United States. Supreme Court—Officials and employees—Biography. | BISAC: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Lawyers & Judges. | POLITICAL SCIENCE / Government / Judicial Branch. | BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Political. Classification: LCC KF8745.W3 (ebook) | LCC KF8745.W3 H475 2019 (print) | DDC 347.73/2634 [B]–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019019046 19_0756-Herda.indb 2 9/18/19 11:57 AM To Judge James Warren (Jimmy Lee) for his invaluable input of personal family history and for sharing his intimate knowledge of his grandparents, Papa and Mama Warren. Also, to Faye Swetky of the Swetky Literary Agency for believing in this book and in me and for supporting my writing for the past twenty years. 19_0756-Herda.indb 3 9/18/19 11:57 AM 19_0756-Herda.indb 4 9/18/19 11:57 AM CONTENTS Author’s Note: Sources and Acknowledgments vii Introduction: Life, Death, Love, Etc. 1 1 Upon This Rock 7 2 Long and Winding Road 34 3 Mr. Attorney General 59 4 New Life 90 5 Prime Time 114 6 On the Road 121 7 SCOTUS Meets Brown 128 8 One Man, One Vote 154 9 Under Every Bed 170 10 JFK and the Court 183 11 Tragedy in Dallas 204 12 Facing Down Miranda 228 13 All the King’s Horses 240 Notes 253 Index 273 v 19_0756-Herda.indb 5 9/18/19 11:57 AM 19_0756-Herda.indb 6 9/18/19 11:57 AM Author’s Note SOURCES AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS F or the resources used in creating this book, I relied upon both written and oral documentation provided by researchers, archivists, editors, fellow authors, interviewers, and the keepers of a wide range of historical materials repositories. In addition, I reviewed numerous historic radio and television tapes and transcripts, as well as various magazine and newspa- per articles and personal correspondence written and published over the past several decades. I found the correspondence between Warren Court justices, their friends and associates, and their coworkers and staff to be particularly enlightening, and I utilized the notes, diaries, memoranda, and draft opinions of members of the court to provide details that otherwise may have been unavailable to me. I am grateful for the papers and other documentation furnished by the Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Libraries, as well as the Library of Congress with its accommodating and endlessly patient staff. Particularly helpful in researching and writing this book were the oral history projects undertaken and maintained by the Bancroft Library, Regional Oral History Office, at the University of California, Berkeley, to whose interviewers, miscellaneous staff, transcriptionists, and editors everyone is grateful. The library is a rich larder of unedited, raw, histori- cally valuable source material for which researchers and writers around the world are thankful. I would also like to acknowledge the tremendously generous act by Judge Earl Warren Jr., who, in 1995, broke with a lifelong policy of never commenting on anything written about his father, the chief justice. In praising my young adult book Earl Warren: Chief Justice for Social Change, he awakened in me a fervor to discover more about this extraordinary man, the cases over which his court presided, and the Supreme Court in general. vii 19_0756_00e_Note.indd 7 9/19/19 6:25 AM viii Author’s Note Finally, I am most grateful for the selfless sharing of family history by the grandson of Earl and Nina Warren, Judge James Warren (Jimmy Lee), without whose cooperation much of the original material in this book— from photographs to little-known and less-reported family facts, traditions, and insights—may have been lost to the world. For his gracious sharing and his expansion of the knowledge of Earl Warren and his court, I am forever indebted. 19_0756-Herda.indb 8 9/18/19 11:57 AM Introduction LIFE, DEATH, LOVE, ETC. I n the late twelfth century BCE, the Old Testament prophet Samuel ap- pointed the tribe of Benjamin to elect a new monarch. They chose from within the clan of Matrites a man named Saul, whose reign marked Israel’s transformation from tribal society to statehood. After Saul led his army to victory over the Ammonites, the people congregated at Gilgal to crown him king. The newly elected monarch proclaimed as his first act that he would not rain retribution against those who had contested his authority.1 Just as the prescient biblical king, Earl Warren, too, was a prophet—but of a different sort. Climbing the ladder of political ascendancy culminated with his crowning as chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, he ascended the highest judicial position in the land. And he promptly found himself mired in controversy, disunity, and fractious dissension. As with Saul, Warren, too, forbade retribution against his opposing armies—not by decree but rather by the stealth of his intellect and his time-tempered statesmanship. It worked. For the first time in decades, harmony sprang from chaos, and the US Supreme Court came together as one. Born of Scandinavian immigrants, Warren led a sober, studied life of temperance, tolerance, and justice. His parents taught him these attributes, directing him and his sister toward the stewardship of truth. Only through truth, they believed, could justice be achieved. It was a lesson in which the boy placed his faith, and he carried it to his grave eighty-three years later. On his long and winding journey through life, Warren—ostensibly a conservative Republican—created the most liberal Supreme Court in modern history, best known for outlawing segregation in public schools and transforming several areas of American law. In particular, he established the rights of the accused, ended sponsored prayers in public schools, and re- quired “one man, one vote” rules for apportionment of election districts. He 1 19_0756_00f_Intro.indd 1 9/19/19 6:25 AM