Stanley Nelson Barnes (May 1, 1900 – March 5, 1990) was a noted American college football player, an assistant attorney general of the United States, and a

United States circuit judge In the United States, federal judges are judges who serve on courts established under Article Three of the U.S. Constitution. They include the chief justice and the associate justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, the circuit judges of the U.S. ...

of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: * District ...

Early life and college football

Born on May 1, 1900, in

Baraboo, Wisconsin Baraboo is a city in the Midwest and the county seat of Sauk County, Wisconsin, United States. The largest city in the county, Baraboo is the principal city of the Baraboo Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2020 population was 12,556. It is situ ...

, Barnes played high school football at

San Diego High San Diego High School (SDHS) is an urban public high school located on the southern edge of Balboa Park, in San Diego, California, United States. It is the oldest high school in the San Diego Unified School District, one of the oldest public sch ...

for Clarence "Nibs" Price, who encouraged his brightest players, starting with Barnes, to follow his path to Berkeley to play for the California Golden Bears under coach Andy Smith. Barnes was a center/tackle on California's "Wonder Teams" of 1920 and 1921. In his junior and senior seasons he played with the Bears in two consecutive Rose Bowls. The 1920 California squad won the national championship going 9-0 outscoring its opponents 510 to 14. In one of the biggest routs in college football history, the Bears defeated St. Mary's 127–0. In the Rose Bowl, Cal defeated the Ohio State Buckeyes 28–0. California was also undefeated and untied in 1921 until the Bears tied Washington & Jefferson 0–0 on a muddy field in the Rose Bowl. During his four years at Berkeley, Barnes played on teams that won 31 lost four and tied two. Barnes was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1954 and was among the first group of inductees at the Cal Athletic Hall of Fame in 1986.

Legal career

Barnes was in the

United States Naval Reserve The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2005, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called Reservists, are categorized as being in either the Se ...

from 1918 to 1921. He received an Artium Baccalaureus degree from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 1922 and a Juris Doctor from

UC 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 1925. Barnes also studied at Harvard Law School. He was in private practice in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " 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 fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

from 1925 to 1928, and then in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, California until 1947. He was a lecturer at the

USC Gould School of Law The USC Gould School of Law, located in Los Angeles, California, is the law school of the University of Southern California. The oldest law school in the Southwestern United States, USC Law traces its beginnings to 1896 and became affiliated w ...

and Medical School from 1947 to 1952. Barnes joined the

California Republican Assembly The California Republican Assembly (CRA) is a conservative California Republican activist group. It is the oldest and largest grassroots volunteer organization chartered by the California Republican Party, and is the California affiliate of the ...

, a grassroots political organization, and rose within its ranks to become one of the GOP's power-brokers in California. His friend from Berkeley, Earl Warren, remained a confidant and Barnes was a member of Warren's inner circle through his rise to governor. For his part, Barnes became a Superior Court Judge in

. He was Presiding Judge of the

Superior Court of the State of California Superior courts in California are the state trial courts with general jurisdiction to hear and decide any civil or criminal action which is not specially designated to be heard in some other court or before a governmental agency. As mandated by t ...

for the

County of Los Angeles Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is th ...

from 1947 to 1953. Barnes was an Assistant United States Attorney General in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

in charge of the Antitrust Division from 1953 to 1956, and co-chaired the National Committee to Study Antitrust Laws.

Federal judicial service

On March 5, 1956, Barnes was nominated by President

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

to a seat on the

vacated by Judge William Edwin Orr. Barnes 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 March 20, 1956, and received his commission on March 21, 1956. He assumed

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

on October 31, 1970, serving in that capacity until his death on March 5, 1990. He was also President of the

Federal Bar Association The Federal Bar Association (FBA) is the primary voluntary professional organization for private and government lawyers and judges practicing and sitting in federal courts in the United States. Six times a year, The Association prints ''The Fede ...

Death

Barnes died at the age of 89 in

Palm Springs Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by land ...

, California. He was buried at San Gabriel Cemetery, in San Gabriel, California.

Fraternal organization

Stanley Nelson Barnes was a dedicated, lifelong member of the

Sigma Chi Fraternity Sigma Chi () International Fraternity is one of the largest North American fraternal literary societies. The fraternity has 244 active (undergraduate) chapters and 152 alumni chapters across the United States and Canada and has initiated more tha ...

. After service to Sigma Chi as an alumnus, he served as Sigma Chi's 37th Grand Consul (International President) from 1952 - 1955.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Barnes, Stanley 1900 births 1990 deaths University of California, Berkeley alumni Harvard Law School alumni California Republicans California state court judges Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit United States court of appeals judges appointed by Dwight D. Eisenhower 20th-century American judges UC Berkeley School of Law alumni California Golden Bears football players College Football Hall of Fame inductees People from Baraboo, Wisconsin San Diego High School alumni