Word: traynor
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...Unconstitutional Voters. Back in 1948, Traynor spoke for his court in voiding California's law against interracial marriage on the ground that it violated the equal-protection clause of the 14th Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed-19 years later. In 1955, Traynor held that California police could not use illegally obtained evidence in court, a rule that paved the way for the Supreme Court's later extension of that standard to all the states in Mapp v. Ohio (1961). Rulings by Traynor entitled both sides to examine one another's evidence before a criminal trial. Traynor...
...Undaunted by popular pressure, Traynor once held that a 2 to 1 majority of California's voters had violated the U.S. Constitution. Out went the results of a 1964 referendum that entitled homeowners to sell or rent to anyone they pleased-a not-so-roundabout way of legalizing discrimination against Negroes. The Supreme Court affirmed Traynor's opinion, and in 1968 Congress outlawed racial discrimination in most U.S. housing. An earlier Traynor opinion may some day prove equally prescient for the nation. Almost seven years ago, he joined his court in ordering California school boards to take positive...
...doctrinaire liberal, Traynor often opposed making new criminal-law rights retroactive for prisoners already in jail; he delivered speeches urging Californians to have more respect for the police. Some of his most important decisions had nothing to do with race or crime. One Traynor precedent made manufacturers strictly liable when their products injure consumers; another held that proving "fault" by one spouse in divorce cases is cruel and irrelevant when a marriage is dead. The California legislature has just passed a law permitting divorces on the ground of "irreconcilable differences...
...Among legal scholars, Traynor is most admired for his contributions to one of the most arcane legal subjects-"conflicts of laws." Example: Should the law of Arizona, where an auto accident took place, or the law of California, where all the parties lived, determine the right of the accident victims to sue the estate of the allegedly negligent driver who was killed in the accident? California, said Traynor back in 1953 in an opinion still studied by law students all over the country...
...Despite his love for law, Traynor thinks that the country has too many laws, especially those that clog the courts with auto cases and those that "try to legislate morals." He has certainly studied the subject. Once a law professor at Berkeley (his alma mater), Traynor has enriched his judicial career with a prodigious flow of law-review articles. Next month he will return to scholarship as a visiting law professor at the University of Virginia. He also chairs an American Bar Association committee that is drafting a new code of ethics for judges in response to the Abe Fortas...