Robert Francis Peckham (November 3, 1920 – February 16, 1993) was a

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district, which each cover o ...

of the

United States District Court for the Northern District of California The United States District Court for the Northern District of California (in case citations, N.D. Cal.) is the federal United States district court whose jurisdiction comprises the following counties of California: Alameda, Contra Costa, Del ...

Education and career

Born in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California 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 ...

, Peckham attended

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

and received an

Artium Baccalaureus 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 years ...

degree from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 1941 and a

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 Chi ...

from

Stanford Law School Stanford Law School (Stanford Law or SLS) is the law school of Stanford University, a private research university near Palo Alto, California. Established in 1893, it is regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world. Stanford La ...

in 1945. He was in private practice in

Palo Alto Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was estab ...

and

Sunnyvale Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwest Santa Clara County in the U.S. state of California. Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real and Highway 101 and is bordered by portions of San Jose to the north ...

, California from 1946 to 1948. He was an

Assistant United States Attorney An assistant United States attorney (AUSA) is an official career civil service position in the U.S. Department of Justice composed of lawyers working under the U.S. Attorney of each U.S. federal judicial district. They represent the federal gove ...

of the Northern District of California from 1948 to 1953. He was the Chief Assistant of the Criminal Division from 1952 to 1953. He was again in private practice in Palo Alto and Sunnyvale from 1953 to 1959. He was a judge of the

Superior Court In common law systems, a superior court is a court of general jurisdiction over civil and criminal legal cases. A superior court is "superior" in relation to a court with limited jurisdiction (see small claims court), which is restricted to civil ...

Santa Clara County Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring Sa ...

, California from 1959 to 1966. He was Presiding Judge of that court from 1961 to 1963 and from 1965 to 1966.

Federal judicial service

Peckham was nominated by President

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

on September 9, 1966, to the

, to a new seat created by 80 Stat. 75. He was confirmed by 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 pow ...

on October 20, 1966, and received his commission on November 3, 1966. He served as Chief Judge from 1976 to 1988. He assumed

senior status Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the Federal judiciary of the United States, federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of servi ...

on November 11, 1988. Peckham served in that capacity until his death on February 16, 1993, in San Francisco.

Notable cases

Peckham was the presiding judge for a lawsuit filed by minorities and women that charged the San Francisco Police Department with discrimination in hiring. In ruling in favor of the plaintiffs in 1979, he ordered the department to hire 50 percent minority applicants and 20 percent women for the next 10 years. He extended the order a decade later after expressing "disappointment and sadness" at the department's progress. He also issued an order in 1985 setting ground rules for the desegregation of the San Jose Unified School District. In a suit by a group of black parents against the California school system, Larry P. v. Riles, he ruled in 1979 that I.Q. tests had a built-in bias against blacks. He prohibited their use statewide because he said they improperly classified some blacks as retarded. He broadened this order in 1986 to forbid use of the tests to identify blacks as being "learning disabled" or to assess their learning disabilities. He withdrew the 1986 order in September 1992 after another group of black parents sued to allow their children to be given I.Q. tests to evaluate learning disabilities. He said further hearings were needed to decide whether a renewed ban was required to keep blacks from being misplaced in classes for the retarded. In 1985, Peckham issued an order for the desegregation of the San Jose Unified School District. He also presided over the federal criminal prosecution of Larry Layton, a former member of the

People's Temple The Peoples Temple of the Disciples of Christ, originally Peoples Temple Full Gospel Church and commonly shortened to Peoples Temple, was an American new religious organization which existed between 1954 and 1978. Founded in Indianapolis, In ...

cult, who was convicted of aiding and abetting in the murder of

United States Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

Leo J. Ryan at a jungle airstrip in

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

in November 1978. Hours after Mr. Ryan and four others were shot to death at an airstrip near Jonestown, which was the headquarters of the cult, the cult's leader, the

Jim Jones James Warren Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was an American preacher, political activist and mass murderer. He led the Peoples Temple, a new religious movement, between 1955 and 1978. In what he called "revolutionary suicide", ...

, and 912 of his followers died by poison and gunfire in mass killings and suicides. Peckham sentenced Layton to life in prison, as well as to three concurrent terms of 15 years each in related charges.

Honor

In 1990, the Robert F. Peckham Federal Building Courthouse in San Jose, California was named in Peckham's honor.

References

External sources

* * "The honorable Robert F. Peckham, 1920-1993 : oral history transcripts : his legal, political, and judicial life" (1995),
Regional Oral History Office University of California
The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California, Northern California U.S. District Court Oral History Series {{DEFAULTSORT:Peckham, Robert Francis 1920 births 1993 deaths California state court judges Judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California United States district court judges appointed by Lyndon B. Johnson 20th-century American judges Stanford Law School alumni Yale University alumni Lawyers from San Francisco People from Sunnyvale, California 20th-century American lawyers Assistant United States Attorneys