Tough Judge to Hear Suit Over Latino Voting Rights : Oxnard: Federal jurist Manuel L. Real is known for his speedy and no-nonsense approach to cases. Fairness is more important than the law, he says.

A Latino voting rights lawsuit aimed at forcing Oxnard to pick City Council members by district instead of in citywide elections will be decided by a Los Angeles federal judge who feels his most significant decision was desegregating the Pasadena school system.

U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real, widely regarded as one of the toughest jurists on the federal bench, says his most important case in his 25 years as a judge involved his 1970 order to desegregate Pasadena schools.

Real is also the fastest federal judge in Los Angeles when it comes to processing cases and is known for his tendency to throw lawsuits out at an early stage if he thinks they have no legal validity.

Partly because of his speed and toughness, he has been reversed more often than any of his colleagues by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

A trial date for the Oxnard case, filed by John L. Soria, an unsuccessful mayoral candidate in last year’s council election, has been set for June 18. But Real is expected to push for a settlement if one can be worked out before the trial date.

Soria and other Latino rights activists contend that district elections will allow more Latinos to be elected to the City Council than do the current citywide elections. About 44% of the city’s population is Latino, but only one of the five council members is Latino.

If the lawsuit is not settled, Real’s record for speed in the courtroom points to a probable quick finish if the case goes to trial.

Real’s critics denounce him as a judicial tyrant who is too quick to shout at lawyers who offend him. They say his emphasis on speed--he consistently has the smallest backlog on the federal bench--creates the impression that he shoots from the hip.

“He is arbitrary, capricious and arrogant. He’s been on the bench for too long,” said Los Angeles lawyer Victor Sherman, who has clashed with Real. “He scares everybody and doesn’t give you time to prepare.”

Real’s admirers respond that he is one of the most efficient federal judges in Los Angeles, with no tolerance for the delaying tactics of some attorneys.

“He’s one of the best judges I’ve appeared before, and I don’t say that lightly,” said Los Angeles attorney John J. Quinn, a white-collar-crime lawyer who has known Real for 25 years.

“He is tough on criminal matters, stern and evenhanded on civil matters. He has a lot of experience and does not like to tolerate attorneys who are foolish, silly or unprepared,” Quinn said.

Real said in an interview last week in his chambers at the Los Angeles Federal Courthouse that he is demanding because the legal system is overburdened and he doesn’t have time to waste.

“A trial judge’s duty is to process the litigation before him, and after that there’s not much time left for speechmaking,” he said.

Outside the courtroom, Real is patient and gracious. In contrast to the courtroom, he shows a reflective side as he talks about himself and his views. “I’m not afraid to make decisions that are fair and just, that make people think, even though some people may think the decisions are not legal,” he said.

“Law is a very esoteric thing. It isn’t a clear-cut thing that we can follow blindly. If we do, we may not be doing what’s fair. I think fairness is more important than the law.”

Real said his reversal record doesn’t bother him.

“The reversal rate doesn’t really measure anything,” he said. “If that’s the measure of a judge, then Justices Black and Douglas would have been lousy judges because they usually weren’t on the winning side of a question.” He was referring to Hugo L. Black and William O. Douglas, both of whom served many years on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Real was born 68 years ago in San Pedro and still lives there. His parents were immigrants from Spain, and his father was the neighborhood grocer.

Growing up as a Hispanic, Real was never exposed to serious discrimination, he said. “San Pedro was a real melting pot; there was people from all over the world, and nobody seemed to care.”

Real’s mother, a strict disciplinarian, drilled young Manuel on the importance of school, and taught him to never settle for second best, he said. “She always told me, ‘They can take your money away but they can never take your education away.’ She was a strong lady and she expected her children to be the same way,” he said.

After graduating from San Pedro High School, he worked for a year in a San Pedro shipyard, spent two years at USC, then became a Navy supply officer with the Seabees on Okinawa at the height of World War II.

Real graduated with a business degree from USC and, inspired by his brother John who was already a lawyer, Real decided to become a lawyer too.

He graduated from Loyola Law School in 1951 and went to work as an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles. After four years as a prosecutor, he spent a decade in private practice with his brother in San Pedro. He was named U.S. attorney in Los Angeles in 1964 and was appointed as a federal judge two years later by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Four years later he ruled on the Pasadena case, he proudly recalled.

“After studying the case carefully, I came to the conclusion that minorities were being deprived of equal opportunities to be educated and decided the schools should be desegregated,” he said. “I didn’t think it was fair that any minority should be a majority in any school.

Real’s ruling led to the Pasadena school district’s decision to order busing. Real insists that the busing order was not the goal he was seeking but a means to accomplish what he thought was right.

“I don’t think kids get educated by riding a bus,” he said.

Two decades later, Real is faced with another case in which the rights of minorities are at issue. While Real does not comment on pending litigation, he said that in voting rights lawsuits such as the one filed against Oxnard, the issue at hand is whether minority groups are being denied the right to fair representation.

“The issue is whether people are being discriminated against by reason of not drawing district boundaries or by drawing district boundaries arbitrarily,” he said.

As Real talked in his chambers, he remained a curious mix of toughness and compassion. His heroes--Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi and Harry Truman--are a blend of those same qualities.

A small statue of Don Quixote sits atop Real’s desk. Much like the fictional hero immortalized by Miguel de Cervantes, Real as a judge is always tilting at windmills and fighting the world, he noted.

“As we look around the world, there’s a distinct feeling of amorality that is governing our lives,” he said. “I don’t know why it happened, but today there seems to be more excuses for not doing what’s right, more selfishness, more ego.

“I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to turn back the tide, but I keep hoping and trying.”