Cruz Reynoso
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Cruz Reynoso (May 2, 1931 – May 7, 2021) was an American
civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life ...
lawyer and jurist. Reynoso was the first
Chicano Chicano or Chicana is a chosen identity for many Mexican Americans in the United States. The label ''Chicano'' is sometimes used interchangeably with ''Mexican American'', although the terms have different meanings. While Mexican-American ident ...
Associate Justice 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 Sac ...
, serving from 1982 to 1987. He also served on the California Third District Court of Appeal. In 1986, along with two other liberal members of the California Supreme Court—Chief Justice Rose Bird and Associate Justice Joseph Grodin—Reynoso became one of only three State Supreme Court justices ever recalled and removed by voters under California's judicial-retention election system. He served as vice-chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from 1993 to 2004. After leaving the bench, Reynoso spent ten years on the faculty of the
UCLA School of Law The UCLA School of Law is one of 12 professional schools at the University of California, Los Angeles. UCLA Law has been consistently ranked by '' U.S. News & World Report'' as one of the top 20 law schools in the United States since the inception ...
and five years at the
UC Davis School of Law The University of California, Davis School of Law (Martin Luther King Jr. Hall), referred to as UC Davis School of Law and commonly known as King Hall, is the professional graduate law school of the University of California, Davis. The school rec ...
; he was professor emeritus. In 2000, Reynoso received the
Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, along with the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by the president of the United States to recognize people who have made "an especially merit ...
, the United States' highest civilian honor, for his efforts to address social inequities and his public service.


Early life and education

Reynoso was born in
Brea, California Brea (; Spanish for "tar") is a city in northern Orange County, California. The population as of the 2010 census was 39,282. It is southeast of Los Angeles. Brea is part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The city began as a center of cr ...
on May 2, 1931. He grew up as one of 11 children, and from age eight worked as an agricultural worker in orange groves. His father was a
farmworker A farmworker, farmhand or agricultural worker is someone employed for labor in agriculture. In labor law, the term "farmworker" is sometimes used more narrowly, applying only to a hired worker involved in agricultural production, including harv ...
. When Reynoso was seven, the family moved to a
barrio ''Barrio'' () is a Spanish word that means " quarter" or " neighborhood". In the modern Spanish language, it is generally defined as each area of a city, usually delimited by functional (e.g. residential, commercial, industrial, etc.), social, a ...
outside of
La Habra, California La Habra (archaic spelling of ''La Abra'', ) is a city in the northwestern corner of Orange County, California, United States. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 60,239. A related city, La Habra Heights, is located to the north o ...
. While there, he attended the
Wilson Grammar School Wilson may refer to: People *Wilson (name) ** List of people with given name Wilson ** List of people with surname Wilson * Wilson (footballer, 1927–1998), Brazilian manager and defender *Wilson (footballer, born 1984), full name Wilson Rodr ...
, a racially segregated grade school for children of Mexican descent. His junior high school was integrated, as was
Fullerton Union High School Fullerton Union High School is a public high school located in the Orange County, California city of Fullerton, operated by the Fullerton Joint Union High School District. History In 1893 a special election was held to create Fullerton Union H ...
, from which he graduated. The
United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the ...
refused to provide
Rural Free Delivery Rural Free Delivery (RFD) was a program of the United States Post Office Department that began in the late 19th century to deliver mail directly to rural destinations. Previously, individuals living in remote homesteads had to pick up mail themsel ...
service within the barrio, even though non-minority families living nearby received the service. Reynoso circulated a petition demanding service; the Postal Service responded to his petition and began providing mail delivery to the barrio. He also challenged the local school board about the Wilson School, after which the school was desegregated. After high school, Reynoso attended
Fullerton College Fullerton College (FC) is a public community college in Fullerton, California. The college is part of the California Community Colleges System and the North Orange County Community College District. Established in 1913, it is the oldest communi ...
, a community college, receiving an
associate of arts An associate degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of qualification above a high school diploma, GED, or matriculation, and below a bachelor's degree. The f ...
degree in 1951. A dean from
Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it became t ...
offered him a scholarship if he applied and was admitted to that school. He received his
Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
degree from Pomona College in 1953, after which he joined the
U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
, serving in the
Counterintelligence Corps The Counter Intelligence Corps (Army CIC) was a World War II and early Cold War intelligence agency within the United States Army consisting of highly trained special agents. Its role was taken over by the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps in 1961 and ...
for two years. He was stationed in Washington, D.C., where his assignments included reviewing the
House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative United States Congressional committee, committee of the United States House of Representatives, create ...
files on potential applicants for Federal jobs, a task he found distasteful. He received his
Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Ch ...
degree from the
University of California, Berkeley, School of Law The University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (commonly known as Berkeley Law or UC Berkeley School of Law) is the law school of the University of California, Berkeley, a public research university in Berkeley, California. It is one of 1 ...
in 1958. Under a
Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...
fellowship, he studied constitutional law at the National University of Mexico in 1958–59.


Legal career

Reynoso began his career in private law practice in
El Centro, California El Centro ( Spanish for "The Center") is a city and county seat of Imperial County, California, United States. El Centro is the largest city in the Imperial Valley, the east anchor of the Southern California Border Region, and the core urban ar ...
. He served as a legislative assistant in the
California State Senate The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature, the lower house being the California State Assembly. The State Senate convenes, along with the State Assembly, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. D ...
(1959–60). He was an Associate General Counsel for the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that was established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to administer and enforce civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination ...
in 1967 and 1968. He then served as deputy director of
California Rural Legal Assistance California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc. (CRLA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal service and political advocacy organization created to help California's low-income individuals and communities. CRLA represents all types of individuals and communitie ...
in 1968. Shortly thereafter, internal problems at CRLA led to his assuming the directorship; he was the first Latino to hold the position. His work with CRLA gained him national recognition. Reynoso recalled that, during his tenure, CRLA was "mentioned not infrequently as being the leading legal services program in the country." Then-Governor
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
attempted to cut state funding for the CRLA during Reynoso's tenure, but the agency successfully resisted the challenge.Hager, ''Justice Prevails'', p
7
He was a professor of law at the University of New Mexico School of Law from 1972 to 1976.


Judicial career

In June 1976, Governor
Jerry Brown Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. (born April 7, 1938) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 34th and 39th governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected Secretary of S ...
appointed Reynoso to 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.
as an associate justice. He was the first Latino appointed to the Court. In 1981, Governor Brown elevated Reynoso to the California Supreme Court, succeeding the retiring Mathew O. Tobriner.
George Deukmejian Courken George Deukmejian Jr. (; June 6, 1928 – May 8, 2018) was an American politician who served as the 35th governor of California from 1983 to 1991. Of Armenian descent, Deukmejian was a member of the Republican Party and he also served ...
, then the attorney general and on the commission on judicial appointments, voted against Reynoso's confirmation. In 1982, Reynoso was up for reconfirmation: under a measure adopted in 1934, California voters confirm a governor's appointments, and periodic unopposed elections are held for each justice during general elections, giving voters the opportunity to vote a justice out of office. Deukmejian, running as a
Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
candidate for governor, urged voters to vote against justices
Otto Kaus Otto Michael Kaus (January 7, 1920 – January 11, 1996) was an Austrian-born American lawyer and judge from the State of California. Early life and education Kaus was born in Vienna, Austria, as the first child of the writers Otto F. Kaus and ...
,
Allen Broussard Allen Edgar Broussard (April 13, 1929 – November 5, 1996) was an American attorney who rose to become an associate justice of the California Supreme Court from July 22, 1981, to August 31, 1991. Biography Broussard was born in Lake Charles ...
, and Reynoso; he hoped to replace them with conservative appointees, creating a new majority on the Court. The campaign labelled Kaus, Broussard, and Reynoso "Jerry's Judges". All three justices were retained; Reynoso received the lowest margin of victory, receiving the vote of only 52 percent of voters. A 1988 academic study of this election suggested that, although the retention election was theoretically nonpartisan and intended to retain justices based on their merit, partisan information (such as the affiliation of the governor who appointed the justice) is used by voters to structure their decisions in such elections. Also during the 1980s, Reynoso was a member of the Congressional Select Commission on Immigrant and Refugee Policy. He was appointed by President
Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...
. As part of the court led by Chief Justice Rose Bird, Reynoso was a reliable part of the liberal majority. With that majority, he extended environmental protections, individual liberties, and civil rights. When a case came before the Supreme Court regarding whether or not due process required that a non-English-speaking person charged with a crime be provided with an interpreter, Reynoso drew upon his experiences representing such clients to persuade a majority of his fellow justices that "basic fairness on the constitutional sense require that there be an interpreter for that individual". In May 1985, Reynoso cautioned about the negative effects of politicizing judicial elections.


Removal from the Supreme Court

During the next retention vote in 1986, Bird, Joseph Grodin, and Reynoso were targeted by conservative and victims-rights groups. The 1986 campaign again portrayed the targeted justices as "soft on crime", but this time focused on the court's handling of the state's
death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...
law. Reynoso believed Governor Deukmejian's decision to oppose him, Bird, and Grodin was the most important factor in that election.Hager, ''Justice Prevails'', p
1.
/ref> Deukmejian said that the justices' decisions on death-penalty cases demonstrated a "lack of impartiality and objectivity". Reynoso's advisors told him that it would take three campaign ads to counteract one ad by his opponents;Hager, ''Justice Prevails'', p
2.
/ref> he and the other justices lacked the funds to compete with the campaign, raising a collective $3 million to the opposition's $7 million. Deukmejian allegedly told Grodin and Reynoso that he would oppose their retention unless they voted to uphold more death sentences. The campaign highlighted that the Bird court had overturned 59 consecutive death-penalty cases during Bird's nine-year tenure. Reynoso, who had voted to uphold the state's death-penalty law, voted only once for a death sentence during his seven years on the court. The Oxnard ''Press-Courier'' said in an editorial that Reynoso was Bird's "most consistent ally" and that "he has been second only to the chief justice in supporting decisions that favor criminal defendants over prosecutors". The California District Attorneys Association issued a 78-page report attacking the three justices, mainly over their death-penalty rulings, but dropped their campaign later because of fears a political campaign could affect the group's tax-exempt status. "There's clearly an effort to politicize the court", Reynoso told United Press International during the campaign. He was endorsed by the California Organization of Police and Sheriffs. According to
California attorney general 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 ...
John Van de Kamp John Kalar Van de Kamp (February 7, 1936 – March 14, 2017) was an American politician and lawyer who served as Los Angeles County District Attorney from 1975 until 1981, and then as the 28th Attorney General of California from 1983 until 1991. ...
, the court refused to hear appeals of, or affirmed, 97 percent of convictions in the 1984/85 fiscal year; Reynoso remarked, "That doesn't sound at all like a 'soft on crime' record". Defending his death-penalty votes, he said that "most, but not all" of the reversals stemmed from the 1978 Briggs Amendment, which "does not comport with U.S. Supreme Court law". The campaign to remove the justices succeeded; voters rejected new terms for Bird, Grodin, and Reynoso. Reynoso was rejected by 60 percent of voters. This made Deukmejian the first governor in California history to have the opportunity to appoint three justices to the court at once. The justices left the bench when the court's term ended on January 5, 1987. Afterward, Donald Heller, a former Federal prosecutor who drafted the 1978 death-penalty initiative approved by California voters, disagreed with the campaign to unseat the justices, calling Reynoso "a thoughtful, decent man who got thrown out" and "a very capable judge who tried to do the right thing in cases." Reynoso said of the result, "you can't blame he voterswhen the governor of the state, who is a lawyer, says the justices aren't following the law. If I didn't know better, I would have voted against me, too."


Impact of the removal campaign

The 1986 California Supreme Court retention election started a major trend turning such elections into "an ideological battleground over judicial philosophies and specific decisions", making them "as highly salient as races for overtly political offices", wrote one academic paper. Even before the election, California Supreme Court Justice
Otto Kaus Otto Michael Kaus (January 7, 1920 – January 11, 1996) was an Austrian-born American lawyer and judge from the State of California. Early life and education Kaus was born in Vienna, Austria, as the first child of the writers Otto F. Kaus and ...
remarked "You cannot forget the fact that you have a crocodile in your bathtub", referring to the act of making a judicial decision without regard to the potential political consequences. "You know it's there, and you try not to think about it, but it's hard to think about much else while you're shaving." "You keep wondering whether you're letting yourself be influenced, and you do not know. You do not know yourself that well," he wrote. "You worry about it in two different ways," wrote Reynoso; "First you worry it might influence you improperly. Then you worry because you're concerned you might overcompensate, and not pay enough attention to arguments that are perfectly legitimate."
Erwin Chemerinsky Erwin Chemerinsky (born May 14, 1953) is an American legal scholar known for his studies of United States constitutional law and federal civil procedure. Since 2017, Chemerinsky has been the dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law. Previously, he a ...
, a law professor from the
University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...
, agreed with the ousted Justice Grodin, saying "the legacy of 1986 could be that justices facing retention elections will decide cases with an eye, perhaps subconsciously, on how their rulings will affect their chances at the polls." Chemerinsky called for abolishing judicial-review elections. He wrote, "Largely due to defects in a poorly worded death penalty law, the court had a strikingly one-sided pattern of decisions on the issue", noting that this, Bird's controversial history, the trio's appointments by an unpopular governor, and the realization by their opponents that the court's ideology could be completely changed if the campaign succeeded led to the opposition campaign. Jazon Czarnezki, assistant professor of law at
Marquette University Marquette University () is a private Jesuit research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Established by the Society of Jesus as Marquette College on August 28, 1881, it was founded by John Martin Henni, the first Bishop of the diocese of ...
, attributed Bird's defeat to "her resolute opposition to the death penalty and overturning a series of death sentences". Exit polls indicated that the death-penalty issue was the major reason why voters refused to retain the justices. The justices were also impacted by a lack of support from Democratic legislative incumbents in safe districts. Despite the fact that California Supreme Court justices undergoing a retention election are running uncontested, the median spending for justices' campaigns rose from $3,177 in 1976 to $70,000 in 1994. Campaigns similar to the one expelling Bird, Grodin, and Reynoso have since been mounted against judges in other states, such as Justice Penny J. White of
Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 36th-largest by ...
, who also lost a retention election due to a death-penalty issue. Retired California Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald George advocated eliminating retention elections and appointing justices to single 15-year terms, following an election in
Iowa Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wiscon ...
where three justices were removed from office after that state's high court overturned a ban on
same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...
. The campaign was largely funded by out-of-state organizations; George said that the January 2010
United States 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 involve a point o ...
ruling allowing corporations and unions to contribute unlimited sums to independent political committees was likely to increase the influence of well-funded groups in nonpartisan judicial retention elections like those in Iowa and California.


Post-judiciary

After leaving the Court, Reynoso returned to private law practice and academia. Shortly after his ouster, he was appointed to the California Post Secondary Education Commission. He has worked for the
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
–based firm of Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays & Handler, out of their Sacramento office,Hager, ''Justice Prevails'', p
4.
/ref> where he was a special counsel. He worked on complex civil litigation, as an expert witness on legal ethics, and as a mediator. His agreement with the firm allowed him to spend up to 40 percent of his time on ''
pro bono ( en, 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. In the United States, the term typically refers to provision of legal services by legal professionals for pe ...
'' work.Hager, ''Justice Prevails'', p
5.
/ref> In 1991, he joined the faculty of the
UCLA School of Law The UCLA School of Law is one of 12 professional schools at the University of California, Los Angeles. UCLA Law has been consistently ranked by '' U.S. News & World Report'' as one of the top 20 law schools in the United States since the inception ...
, where he taught until 2001. He was a faculty adviser for the '' Chicano-Latino Law Review''. In 1995, UCLA law students selected him as Professor of the Year. 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 po ...
appointed Reynoso to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in April 1993. He was appointed the vice-chairman of the commission by President
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...
on November 19, 1993. During his tenure, he accused California Governor
Pete Wilson Peter Barton Wilson (born August 23, 1933) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 36th governor of California from 1991 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party, he also served as a United States senator from California betw ...
of generating anti-immigrant sentiments to gain popularity. When the Commission harshly criticized Florida's handling of the presidential election of 2000, Reynoso said "the greatest sin" was the number of people who weren't allowed to vote. He was among the commissioners that looked into complaints that some eligible voters were denied the right to vote, or that votes were improperly counted, in Florida. Reynoso, along with Commission chairwoman
Mary Frances Berry Mary Frances Berry (born February 17, 1938) is an American historian, writer, lawyer, activist and professor who focuses on U.S. constitutional and legal, African-American history. Berry is the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Tho ...
, resigned his commission on December 7, 2004, after President George W. Bush's White House staff announced that their six-year terms had expired on December 5 and announced replacements for them. Berry and Reynoso maintained that their commissions were not due to expire until midnight on January 21, 2005, but said in their resignation letters that it wasn't worth the fight. The move to replace them occurred after the Commission released a draft of a report criticizing Bush's civil rights record. In July 2001, Reynoso joined the faculty at the University of California, Davis, School of Law as the first Boochever & Bird Chair for the Study and Teaching of Freedom and Equality. The chair, established with a gift from UC Davis alumnus Charles Bird, is named in honor of Judge
Robert Boochever Robert Boochever (October 2, 1917 – October 9, 2011) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and a justice of the Alaska Supreme Court. Education and career Born in New York City, Boo ...
and Bird's parents, and is awarded in recognition of outstanding scholarship, teaching, and commitment to preserving and expanding the understanding of "the virtues necessary of a great republic." He retired in December 2006, becoming a
professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
. In 2009, Reynoso spoke with UC Davis law students, noting that he has retired a few times, but was then chairing a citizens' commission investigating the death of Luis Gutierrez, a farm worker shot by police in Yolo County. President-elect
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...
appointed Reynoso to his White House transition team in early 2009, as part of a justice and civil rights sub-team. Following a screening of the
Abby Ginzberg Abby Ginzberg is an independent documentary film director and producer and founder of Ginzberg Productions. For the past 30 years, Ginzberg has been creating films that tackle discrimination and the legal profession. Career She graduated from ...
documentary film ''Cruz Reynoso: Sowing the Seeds of Justice'' in June 2010 in Washington, D.C., Reynoso was injured in a car accident in
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...
, along with his wife, Elaine, and grandson. Reynoso suffered a broken collarbone, a punctured lung, and other injuries when a Hummer struck their rental car at an intersection, hospitalizing him for nine days. His wife suffered "grave injuries" to her brain and internal organs, requiring multiple surgeries. Both were placed into medically induced comas; Elaine remained in a coma after the inducement was stopped. Reynoso was initially cited for pulling out into the path of the Hummer, which had the right of way, but a judge dismissed the case. Elaine Reynoso resigned from her position as a trustee of
Sierra College Sierra College is a public community college in Rocklin, California. It is part of the Sierra Joint Community College District, a district that covers over , serves Placer, Nevada and parts of El Dorado and Sacramento counties. History The co ...
in June 2011 to focus on recovering from her injuries; she has required extensive physical rehabilitation. After the accident, Reynoso said he has re-evaluated his priorities, and will focus on completing his memoirs and legal articles, as well as resuming work on the Yolo citizens' commission probe. The commission's work was put on hold while the Reynosos recuperated. Reynoso served on the boards of directors of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the
Natural Resources Defense Council The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is a United States-based 501(c)(3) non-profit international environmental advocacy group, with its headquarters in New York City and offices in Washington D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Bo ...
, and Children Now. He co-founded the Latino Issues Forum with Bob Gnaizda, and was chairman of its board of directors. He was a trustee of the Garment Workers Trust Fund. Reynoso served as the chair of a task force that investigated the
UC Davis pepper-spray incident The UC Davis pepper-spray incident occurred on November 18, 2011, during an Occupy movement demonstration at the University of California, Davis. After asking the protesters to leave several times, university police pepper-sprayed a group of st ...
of November 18, 2011. The Reynoso Task Force released its report (the "Reynoso Report") in March 2012, and it was made public in April 2012. It concluded that the incident "could and should have been prevented" and faulted police and university officials, determining that the "decision to use pepper spray n demonstratorswas not supported by objective evidence and not authorized by policy." Reynoso died on May 7, 2021, five days after his 90th birthday; the cause of death was unknown.


Awards and honors

On August 9, 2000, President Clinton awarded Reynoso the
Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, along with the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by the president of the United States to recognize people who have made "an especially merit ...
, the United States's highest civilian honor. The medal's citation said "Through his efforts to address social inequity in his rural community, his leadership of the pioneering California Rural Legal Assistance program, his tenure as the first Latino on the California Supreme Court and his service on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, he has been a strong force for change and a passionate voice for our nation's disadvantaged". Reynoso received the Hispanic Heritage Award in Education on September 7, 2000, during a nationally televised presentation at the
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...
. In 2003, UC Davis law students organized the
La Raza The Spanish expression ('the people' or 'the community'; literal translation: 'the race') has historically been used to refer to the Hispanophone populations (primarily though not always exclusively in the Western Hemisphere), considered a ...
Law Students Association; donors established the Cruz Reynoso Social Justice Fellowship. The fellowship helps Latino law students attending Berkeley Law afford the opportunity to work as judicial externs or in social justice during the summer break. He was honored with the University of California Davis Medal of Honor at a lifetime achievement event on September 15, 2007, at the Mondavi Center. The medal is the highest honor bestowed by the university. At the event, UC Davis announced the Cruz and Jeannene Reynoso Scholarship for Legal Access, which helps first-year students with financial needs. Documentary filmmaker
Abby Ginzberg Abby Ginzberg is an independent documentary film director and producer and founder of Ginzberg Productions. For the past 30 years, Ginzberg has been creating films that tackle discrimination and the legal profession. Career She graduated from ...
produced the film ''Cruz Reynoso: Sowing the Seeds of Justice''. It was funded in 2009 in part by the California Documentary Project of the
California Council for the Humanities California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
. The film was screened at film festivals and other institutions in the United States,
Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribb ...
, and
Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
. Ginzberg says she chose to make the film because "I was involved in the effort to save the justices in 1986, and I have always wanted to take a second look at why the campaign to recall them was so successful." It was first screened on March 16, 2010 at the Chicano Resource Center of the East Los Angeles Library. The film was a Gold Winner of the 2010 Davey Awards in the Film/Video/TV category. It also received the Jury Award for Best Feature Documentary at the
Sacramento Film and Music Festival The Sacramento Film and Music Festival (SF&MF) is a large, multi-day, all-genre international film festival held in Sacramento, California in the United States. It has been in operation since 2000. The festival's mission is to celebrate filmmak ...
. The City of
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 ...
passed a resolution honoring Reynoso that was presented to him while he was a visiting distinguished scholar at the John Marshall Law School in 2009. The
State Bar of California The State Bar of California is California's official attorney licensing agency. It is responsible for managing the admission of lawyers to the practice of law, investigating complaints of professional misconduct, prescribing appropriate disciplin ...
gave Reynoso its Bernard E. Witkin Medal in September 2009 for his "significant contributions to the quality of justice and legal scholarship" in California, recognizing him as a "legal giant". In April 2011, the
University of California, Merced The University of California, Merced (UC Merced) is a public land-grant research university and Hispanic-serving institution located in Merced, California, and is the tenth and newest of the University of California (UC) campuses. Establish ...
awarded Reynoso the Alice and Clifford Spendlove Prize in Social Justice, Diplomacy and Tolerance. The prize honors people who exemplify the delivery of social justice, diplomacy, and tolerance in their work. The prize included a $10,000 award. In May 2011,
Chapman University Chapman University is a private research university in Orange, California. It encompasses ten schools and colleges, including Fowler School of Engineering, Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, Fowler School of Law, and Schmid College of Sci ...
conferred an honorary
Doctor of Laws A Doctor of Law is a degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Legum Doctor ...
degree upon him.


See also

*
List of justices of the Supreme Court of California The Supreme Court of California is the highest judicial body in the state and sits at the apex of the judiciary of California. Its membership consists of the Chief Justice of California and six associate justices who are nominated by the Governor ...
*
List of Hispanic/Latino American jurists This is a list of Hispanic/Latino Americans who are or were judges, magistrate judges, court commissioners, or administrative law judges. If known, it will be listed if a judge has served on multiple courts. Other topics of interest * List ...


References


External links


Cruz Reynoso
California Supreme Court Historical Society.
Cruz Reynoso Papers
Catalogue entry at Special Collections Dept., University Library, University of California, Davis.
Court opinions authored by Cruz Reynoso
Courtlistener.com.

California Court of Appeals, Third District.

California State Courts. *
''Cruz Reynoso: Sowing the Seeds of Justice''
IMDB.com. {{DEFAULTSORT:Reynoso, Cruz 1931 births 2021 deaths American politicians of Mexican descent Justices of the Supreme Court of California Hispanic and Latino American judges Judges of the California Courts of Appeal Pomona College alumni People from La Habra, California UC Berkeley School of Law alumni UC Davis School of Law faculty People from Brea, California Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Military personnel from California 20th-century American judges United States Army officers Kaye Scholer