Kennard Wins Quick Approval, Is Sworn In as Supreme Court Justice

Joyce Luther Kennard, an immigrant who overcame personal adversity to attain swift success in the law, was sworn in Wednesday as a member of the California Supreme Court, becoming the first person of Asian heritage and only the second woman to join the high court.

The 47-year-old Kennard, who was on the state Court of Appeal in Los Angeles, took the oath of office from Chief Justice Malcolm M. Lucas shortly after her unanimous confirmation by the state Judicial Appointments Commission. She was nominated by Gov. George Deukmejian to succeed Justice John A. Arguelles, who resigned March 1.

Born in what is now Indonesia, Kennard spent time as a child in a World War II internment camp, suffered the death of both parents and lost a leg during a life-threatening illness. She came to this country as a secretary and worked 20 hours a week to finance her way through college and law school.

“Living in a Quonset hut in the jungles of New Guinea, I never thought that I would ever make it to America, let alone achieve what I have,” Kennard said after the hearing. “In no other country would I have had these great opportunities.”

During a 40-minute hearing that was punctuated by both light-hearted commentary and effusive praise from witnesses for the nominee, Kennard told the commission that in an interview several weeks ago with Deukmejian she had neither been questioned about nor given any assurances on how she might rule in future cases.

Among other things, she said, the governor had talked to her about her childhood hardships, and she had expressed a fondness for a delicacy called lulakebab, an elaborately prepared Armenian sandwich. “That brought a twinkle to his eye,” she said.

Later, when questioned by reporters, Kennard declined to subscribe to any philosophical or ideological outlook on the law. “I don’t have any judicial philosophy,” she said. “I decide any case on the facts and the law. . . . I would not label myself as anything. I will leave that to others.”

Nonetheless, Kennard is widely expected by legal authorities to follow the moderately conservative course charted by other Deukmejian appointees, who until Arguelles’ retirement held a 5-2 majority on the court.

Kennard, a resident of Sherman Oaks, is Deukmejian’s sixth appointee to the court and his first female nominee. Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird, an appointee of Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. who was defeated in the November, 1986, election along with two other court members, was the first woman to serve on the court. The Republican governor was a leading critic of the liberal Bird.

The new justice comes to the high court with only three years’ experience on the bench. The governor named her to the Los Angeles Municipal Court in 1986, elevated her to the Superior Court in 1987 and then placed her on the Court of Appeal in 1988.

Extensive Experience Cited

Nonetheless, as her supporters are quick to note, she has had extensive experience on other legal fronts. She began her professional career in 1975, handling criminal cases as a state deputy attorney general. From 1979 to 1986, she served as a senior attorney in the Court of Appeal, doing research and assisting in the writing of civil and criminal law opinions.

The daughter of a Dutch father and a Chinese-Indonesian mother, Kennard was born in the Dutch East Indies and spent her childhood in Japanese-occupied territory during World War II. Her father died when she was an infant, and she and her mother were confined in a camp and then sent to live in a Quonset hut without indoor plumbing in a segregated community in a town in New Guinea.

When Kennard was 14, she and her mother migrated to Holland, and Kennard began studies in a private high school. But her education was interrupted when she sustained an infection that forced the amputation of her leg above the knee. At age 20, after receiving training as an interpreter, she came to Los Angeles and began work as a secretary.

Seven years later, her mother died and Kennard used a $5,000 bequest to enter Pasadena City College. Working part time, she subsequently earned a scholarship to USC where she was graduated Phi Beta Kappa and then earned a master’s degree in public adminstration and a degree in law.

At Wednesday’s hearing, three colleagues on the Court of Appeal gave strong support to Kennard, and the commission--made up of Lucas, state Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp and Senior Presiding Appellate Justice Lester W. Roth of Los Angeles--voted quickly to confirm the nominee to the $103,469-a-year post.

Negative Note

The one negative note to the proceedings came when Appellate Justice Joan Dempsey Klein of Los Angeles assailed news reports speculating that Kennard might have been chosen over Appellate Justice Patricia D. Benke of San Diego because of Benke’s reluctance to move the high court’s headquarters in San Francisco.

Benke, who has two small children, told the governor’s aides that, if selected, she would commute weekly to San Francisco from San Diego. Three court members have made such trips in recent years, but court observers have expressed concern that the burden could lead to professional burnout. Kennard plans to move to San Francisco with her husband Robert, a tax assessor in Los Angeles.

“Most of us agree the subject of the so-called ‘mommy track’ limitation to working mothers is of real concern . . . ,” Klein said. “Unfortunately, recent media coverage, inappropriately, has managed to cast a pall over this otherwise happy event.”

Klein said it was her view that Kennard was Deukmejian’s choice “because she is so exceptionally well qualified for the position and for no other reason.”

A founding president of the National Assn. of Women Judges, Klein expressed “extreme pride” in Kennard’s nomination, noting that there are only 31 other female state supreme court justices in the United States. A recent study of court votes by 21 of those jurists indicates that whether liberal or conservative, “they tend to unite on women’s issues to increase women’s rights,” she said.

After the hearing, Kennard declined to comment on the “mommy track” speculation, except to say that Klein had “eloquently addressed” that issue.

Two other appellate justices from Los Angeles, Campbell Lucas and Armand Arabian, also praised Kennard as able, bright, well-prepared and hard-working.

Arabian, citing Kennard’s quick sense of humor, told Malcolm Lucas: “Chief Justice, as yourself one of the masters of puns, you will find her a challenge in the exercise of wit.” Lucas smilingly replied: “We need a few laughs around here now and then.”

Kennard testified only briefly but seemed to captivate her audience with her good humor and a touching and unusual recital of a series of letters she had received following her nomination last month from a class of seventh-grade students at Parkman Junior High School in Woodland Hills.

“Dear Joyce,” one student wrote. “I am glad you are a judge. There are a lot of male judges and it’s time for a woman on the court. Good for you.”

Another student wrote: “I am sorry to hear about your parents. I don’t have a dad. I never met him.” And another said: “It must be exciting to be in the newspaper. You are very pretty. When you have a chance, please call me. This is my phone number.”