Prop. 187 Ruling Frustrating for Voters : Profile: Judge Pfaelzer is called tough, independent by court-watchers.

As an attorney, Mariana Pfaelzer once said that an effective lawyer had to think “as deeply and widely” as possible about a case: “You keep testing to see how far the ripples go.”

As the federal judge who Monday declared key portions of Proposition 187 unconstitutional, Pfaelzer has set off a shock wave that may well ripple the legal, political and social fabric of California for years to come.

Pfaelzer’s bold judicial action--based on her contention that federal authority over immigration supersedes many elements of Proposition 187--dealt a sharp blow to proponents of the popular, voter-approved immigration control measure.

It means that there is virtually no chance Proposition 187 will pass legal muster--if ever--until the conclusion of a Byzantine appeals process likely to take several years and stretch to the U.S. Supreme Court.

It also means that Pfaelzer, an appointee of Democratic President Jimmy Carter, will serve as a lightning rod for attack by state Republican leaders, particularly Gov. Pete Wilson.

Yet among those who know her well, there was little surprise this week that Pfaelzer had nullified major portions of the landmark immigration initiative.

Tough, decisive, independent, with a guarded skepticism of government powers--these are all traits that knowledgeable lawyers and judges ascribe to the 69-year-old onetime schoolteacher who in 1978 became the first female federal trial judge in California history.

“As soon as I heard the case was assigned to her, I said ‘187 is dead,’ ” said veteran Los Angeles defense lawyer Stanley I. Greenberg. “Some judges may bend over backward to try and give unfair powers to the government. She isn’t one of those judges--she’ll call it the way she sees it.”

Greenberg, who says he has never won a case in Pfaelzer’s court, still regards himself as an enthusiastic fan.

“My only regret with Judge Pfaelzer is I can’t have every case in front of her,” said Greenberg, whose client list has included former FBI Agent Richard W. Miller, who was convicted of spying. “She is one of the finest judges, if not the finest judge, in our district. She is intelligent, fair and open-minded to arguments. She gets to the heart of matters, cutting through the b.s.”

Despite a liberal Democratic background, Pfaelzer, a former Los Angeles Police Commission president who served as treasurer for former Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr’s. 1976 Democratic presidential campaign, is also highly regarded by another, far more conservative, tough customer: former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates.

“She’s one of the most gracious, lovely, brilliant women I’ve ever met,” said Gates, who has frequently lunched with the judge in recent years. “We both have strong beliefs and we do what we believe in. She’s just too damn liberal,” he added with a laugh.

Wilson’s attacks on Pfaelzer and her ruling won’t make a dent, because she cannot be swayed by political consideration, Gates said before the ruling. “She won’t give a damn.”

Pfaelzer, a hard-working Alhambra native, made a long climb to power and independence.

Born Mariana Richardson, she is the daughter of a couple who ran a small flower shop. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 1949 and went to work--as did many of the brightest women of her generation--as a teacher.

She taught government, English and social studies at Van Nuys Junior High School and Hollywood High, but yearned for a more activist position in the world beyond.

“An interest in government leads inevitably to law,” Pfaelzer, who declined to be interviewed for this article, once told a reporter.

Entering UCLA in 1954, Pfaelzer excelled, winning the Moot Court competition and serving as associate editor of the law review. Nevertheless, it was difficult to find a job afterward.

“I ran around looking for ways to make entry into the legal profession and I was roundly ignored,” she recalled in a 1975 interview with The Times. “I was trying to invade a male sanctuary.”

When Pfaelzer finally was hired by the Westside firm of Wyman, Bautzer, Rothman & Kuchel, the office had five attorneys. Over the years, it mushroomed to almost 60 lawyers.

“She was a real member of the establishment as a lawyer--a highly respected senior partner at a corporate firm,” said U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Reinhardt, a staunch liberal also appointed by Carter. “She moved in circles with the kind of people who’d contribute to Pete Wilson.”

In the 1970s, Pfaelzer served on the Police Commission along with Reinhardt, and she spearheaded the board’s efforts to limit the LAPD’s intelligence-gathering activities. She also was among the commission members who, faced with a choice of three candidates, selected Gates to run the LAPD.

Pfaelzer’s first brush with a gavel came in 1976 when she was nominated by then-President Gerald Ford to fill a federal judgeship slot informally slated for a Democrat. However, she withdrew her name because of the burden she said it would place on her law partners, already reeling from the recent death of another senior partner.

Two years later, Pfaelzer was appointed by Carter. The next year she issued her first decision with national ramifications, ruling that California could not collect unemployment insurance from many church-sponsored private schools.

Over time, Pfaelzer has presided over a slew of high-profile and high-stakes cases:

She sentenced Lincoln Savings & Loan executive Charles H. Keating Jr. to 12 years in prison for bank fraud. She tossed out a record $1.2-billion jury verdict against Honeywell for alleged patent infringement. She sentenced notorious computer hacker Kevin Mitnick to a rehab center to be treated for his “addiction.” She ruled that former baseball star Joe Morgan’s rights had been violated when he was detained and roughed up by Los Angeles police who mistook him for a drug courier.

She also barred a breakaway group from using confidential Church of Scientology teachings, ordered the George Bush Administration to negotiate settlement of a class-action suit by Los Angeles riot victims denied food stamps, and imposed a worldwide freeze on all assets of former Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos.

The Marcos case, in which the successor Filipino government charged that the strongman had milked his nation of a fortune, is a good example of Pfaelzer’s ability to make quick, tough decisions, said attorney Ronald L. Olson, who was on the winning side.

“She understands her independence and is not afraid to exercise it,” Olson said. “In the Marcos case, she did not have any precedent to work with but on very short order analyzed a very complex problem.”

Attorney John J. Bartko, who represented Marcos, agrees that Pfaelzer is “a very good judge.” The Bay Area attorney said Pfaelzer’s “willingness to master complex problems” was responsible for the eventual settlement of the case. “Often, judges aren’t willing to take the time.”

During her 17-year stint, Pfaelzer has won a reputation as one of the most intelligent federal judges in Los Angeles, a moderate sentence-giver who is rarely reversed by higher courts.

“She’s highly respected not only in our court but also nationally,” said Chief Judge W. Matthew Byrne Jr. of the Central District.

From her perch, Pfaelzer usually exudes confidence and control, sometimes bluntly informing attorneys of the direction in which she is leaning.

“That way, they can tailor their arguments to the issues that bother her,” Bartko said. “It’s always helpful when you’re an advocate to have a judge tell you what they are thinking so you can try to persuade them on the important issues rather than just argue the abstracts.”

The few controversies involving Pfaelzer have centered on her past associations and their possible impacts on her decisions.

In 1981, after Pfaelzer temporarily blocked the sale of offshore oil leases in a lawsuit filed by then-Gov. Brown, federal government attorneys complained that they had not been aware that she was Brown’s campaign treasurer five years previously.

Seven years later, she was accused in open court of having met with representatives of her former law firm and assuring them that she would continue to preside over a Church of Scientology case even if the firm accepted an offer to represent the church in the lawsuit.

Pfaelzer, who eventually decided not to continue hearing the case, indicated that she saw no necessity to remove herself because she had left Wyman, Bautzer a decade earlier.

Joseph Yanny, the attorney who made the courtroom accusations, said last week, “As far as past history, I have no comment.

“As far as what she’s done so far on 187--it’s fair and good and in some respects courageous,” he said. “I don’t believe 187 is appropriate, and sometimes only a judge and lawyer stands between us and fascism.”

On a personal level, Pfaelzer has the wherewithal to never worry about exerting her independence on the bench.

Born in humble surroundings, she married Morris Pfaelzer, a senior partner in another Los Angeles law firm, in 1961, two years after divorcing her first husband. At the time of Morris Pfaelzer’s death in 1980, financial disclosure statements showed that she was the richest U.S. District Court judge in Los Angeles.

In 1985, Pfaelzer married a former Wyman, Bautzer partner, Frank Rothman, who then was chairman of MGM/UA Entertainment Co. Their nuptials made the society pages, including a blurb on her hairdresser, who was to fly to Napa for the ceremony after having primped Nancy Reagan’s hair for the then-First Lady’s birthday party.

Despite Pfaelzer’s no-nonsense aura, the judge did attend glitzy movie openings with her new husband, recalled Lisa Foster, then a law clerk for Pfaelzer and later the director of California Common Cause. Pfaelzer was particularly taken by the presence of a certain avant-garde singer/actress/fashion diva who co-starred in one of the films, Foster said.

“I remember her talking about going to the opening of a James Bond movie with Grace Jones in it. She talked about what a striking person Jones was.”

Pfaelzer has no children of her own but once jokingly described herself as the “wicked stepmother” of her late husband Morris’ two daughters. Despite her heavy work schedule, she always seemed to find time to think about them, Foster said.

“She’d ask us [law clerks] questions about music and what teen-agers were wearing. And she’d roll her eyes. But you could see the affection she had.”

Pfaelzer, who worked part time while a teen-ager at her parents’ Mariana Flower Shop, has diverse interests that include gardening and modern art.

“When I say I’m a great gardener, I mean it,” she once told an interviewer.

But of more importance, she emphasized, was her work.

Each Friday afternoon, Pfaelzer’s law clerks wheel box after box of case files to her car, which she spends Sundays reading.

“I’ve always associated with people who work hard,” the judge said. “I believe in work. I think work defines you. It makes a lot of difference in the way you view your life. And this is one of the most exciting jobs in the world.”