Judge Is No Stranger to Controversy

Thelton Henderson is a man accustomed to being where he isn’t wanted.

In the 1960s, he was a young attorney with the U.S. Justice Department, investigating voting rights abuses in the South. The local police were not known for their hospitality toward interlopers--especially those like Henderson, who is black.

One day, a white officer in Alabama stopped him for a minor traffic infraction. Henderson was roughed up, called by a racial epithet and hauled around in a squad car before he produced his government credentials and was set free.

Now Henderson is a federal judge in San Francisco, and he is in unfriendly territory once again. Last month, he blocked enforcement of Proposition 209, saying there is a “strong probability” that the anti-affirmative action measure is unconstitutional.

The ruling was merely a temporary first step in what is sure to be a long legal battle, one that flares up with a second court hearing today. But it has brought Henderson an extraordinary torrent of criticism, much of it carrying a nasty personal tone.

Gov. Pete Wilson called the ruling “an affront” to voters who approved the ballot measure. An assemblyman labeled Henderson a “wacko” who is living proof that affirmative action benefits those who are unqualified.

Those who know Henderson say such critics are far off the mark. Despite his civil rights background and reputation as one of the more liberal members of the federal bench, Henderson is widely respected as a precise, careful, contemplative judge whose sole guidepost in deciding cases is the law.

If he ultimately strikes down Proposition 209, they say, it will be for legal reasons, not philosophical ones.

“Thelton calls them for the right and for the left just according to the law, and I admire him extravagantly,” said U.S. District Judge William Orrick Jr., a Nixon appointee who has worked with Henderson for 16 years and is considered a moderate. “People are trying to paint him as a social engineer. That is absolutely false.”

Even those who have suffered losses in Henderson’s courtroom say they believe he gave them a fair shake.

Peter Siggins, senior assistant attorney general, defended the state Department of Corrections against charges of brutality against inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison. Henderson’s 344-page decision in the landmark case favored the inmates, but won the respect of Siggins and was not appealed by the state.

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“He produced a very formidable, well-crafted opinion,” Siggins said. “I don’t know anyone inside or outside the Department of Corrections who doesn’t have respect for what he wrote.”

Henderson, 63, declined to be interviewed. But conversations with friends, relatives and members of the legal community illuminate him as a patient, soft-spoken jurist who rose from a childhood of sparse means in South-Central Los Angeles to one of the most powerful posts in the judiciary.

The only child of a maid and a maintenance worker, Henderson was born in Shreveport, La., but moved to California as a young boy. His mother, Wanzie, who raised him mostly on her own, called him a “steady, levelheaded son” who was “very conscientious about everything, and still is.”

At Jefferson High School, Henderson was a star halfback on the football team, earning all-city honors and the nickname “Speedball” for his fleet feet.

He won an athletic scholarship to UC Berkeley and at one time dreamed of a professional football career. But those hopes were dashed by a serious knee injury his sophomore year.

As he was carried off the field, a fan on the sidelines patted him on the shoulder and said, “Nice game, son.” It was Gov. Earl Warren, who would soon become the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Though it bothers him still, the injury helped Henderson focus on his studies, he once said.

He considered a career as a teacher or a probation officer, but after graduating and serving two years in the Army, he returned to Berkeley and attended law school at Boalt Hall--becoming one of a tiny handful of minorities enrolled there.

He then journeyed to Washington, where he became the first black lawyer hired by the Justice Department’s civil rights division to work in the Deep South.

“He was willing to take the chance down there, to make sure people got the right to vote,” his mother said. “I worried day and night.”

In 1963, Henderson’s government career came to an abrupt end after he lent his rented car to Martin Luther King Jr., whose own vehicle had been disabled by a flat tire in Selma, Ala.

King was later pulled over by local police, and the car was traced to the Justice Department. When Gov. George Wallace used the episode to claim that the federal government was actively supporting King, Henderson resigned.

Back in California, he joined an Oakland law firm run by former state Sen. Nicholas Petris. Before long, Henderson had won his first case and was able to fulfill a pledge he made to his mother while in law school--buying her a new car.

“One Easter I looked out the window and there he was in the driveway with that new [Chevrolet] Corvair,” she recalled.

Over the next decade, Henderson ran a legal aid office serving low-income clients and spent eight years as an assistant dean at Stanford University Law School. At Stanford, he created the law school’s minority recruitment and admissions program, taught courses and became a mentor to students of all colors, said his former boss.

In 1980, President Carter made Henderson the first African American on the federal court in the Northern District, based in San Francisco.

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By 1990, he had risen to chief judge, becoming the first black to hold that post. In that role, Henderson has led the court on an aggressive program to reduce the costs and delays involved in bringing civil litigation. His court is considered a leader among the 94 federal district courts in such reforms.

But Henderson’s true love is trial work, and he has presided over many controversial cases. Indeed, his ruling on Proposition 209 is only the latest example of his willingness to make unpopular decisions when he believes the law demands it.

In a 1987 ruling later overturned, Henderson declared that gay men and lesbians had suffered historic discrimination and thus were entitled to “heightened scrutiny” by courts to ensure their constitutional rights were protected.

In a decision that withstood appeals, he tossed out the murder conviction of former Black Panther leader Johnny Spain, finding that Spain’s rights were violated at trial because he was shackled with 25 pounds of chains, possibly prejudicing the jury.

Critics of Henderson’s ruling on Proposition 209 have characterized him as a “knee-jerk liberal” intent on thwarting the will of the people. Assemblyman Bernie Richter (R-Chico) called him “left of Lenin” and charged that “he knows his ideology and is committed to that.”

In an interview with a legal newspaper in the 1980s, Henderson described his own view of his job: “I see my role as to interpret the law and rule on the merits and inject as little of my personal philosophy and biases as possible.”

But he has also complained publicly--in a 1991 speech--about a “retreating judiciary” that threatens many of the hard-fought civil rights victories of his generation. Before his appointment to the bench, he was a board member of the ACLU.

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Lawyers who regularly appear before Henderson say that whatever his personal beliefs, the judge does not disregard the law to reach a certain outcome.

“Anyone who calls him a knee-jerk liberal is not familiar with his judicial profile,” said attorney Brian Getz, recalling a young, black father he represented in a cocaine case who was sentenced to 20 years by Henderson. “He is tough and independent--a sensitive, approachable judge, but one who follows the letter of the law.”

A former law clerk of Henderson’s said nothing makes the judge angrier than attorneys who attempt to take advantage of his civil rights background, assuming that he will automatically rule in their favor.

“That’s the easiest way to get on his bad side,” said Haywood Gilliam Jr., now a San Francisco lawyer.

“If the facts and the law aren’t there, Judge Henderson is not with you,” said Drucilla Ramey, executive director of the Bar Assn. of San Francisco.

Aside from his reputation for fairness, Henderson is known for his warm, unpretentious demeanor--which is something of a rarity among federal judges who enjoy tremendous power and lifetime tenure. One lawyer recalled his astonishment at spotting Henderson in the public elevator during a court recess.

“The judges have private elevators, but there he was riding down with the masses to get a cup of coffee at the public cafeteria,” said Guy Saperstein. “A lot of federal judges behave like barons on the Rhine. He is a real man of the people.”

To escape the stresses of the bench, Henderson spends time with his family--he is twice divorced and has a son and grandson--plays jazz guitar and listens to Mozart. He is masterful with a crossword puzzle, enjoys a monthly low-stakes poker game and makes a great gumbo.

His true passion, however, is fishing. Morton Cohen is a law professor who has chased steelhead, salmon and countless other fish with Henderson from Baja to Alaska. The judge, Cohen says, “is an extraordinary, deeply genuine man” flawed in just one small way:

“He has been known, on occasion, to exaggerate the size of a fish. But we’re all human.”