Mourners Honor Mosk and the ‘Legacy of Justice’ He Created

Justice Stanley Mosk, who died last week after serving 37 years on the California Supreme Court, was remembered Tuesday for what speaker after speaker called his “legacy of justice.”

A memorial service for Mosk at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple attracted hundreds, including a wide array of public officials. Among those attending were Gov. Gray Davis, state Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer, state Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, Los Angeles Mayor-elect James K. Hahn, Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown and current and past justices of the state Supreme Court.

Mosk, the only Democrat on the state high court and its most liberal member, died at his home in San Francisco on June 19 of a heart attack. He was 88.

Mosk loved being on the court and did not want to retire, those who knew him said. But he felt his advanced age was slowing him down, and he had reluctantly decided to leave the court this fall.

Richard Mosk, a lawyer and arbitrator, told Tuesday’s gathering that his father’s impending resignation must have been traumatic for him. Justice Mosk died the day he was to submit his resignation letter to the governor.

A former California attorney general who was appointed to the state high court by then-Gov. Pat Brown, Mosk fought doggedly for civil rights and individual liberties, speakers said.

Davis said Mosk’s “fight was the eternal struggle for fairness.” Justice “was not only Mosk’s title, it was his personal mission,” Davis told the mourners.

Davis, who will name Mosk’s replacement in the next few months, presented Mosk’s family with the California flag that flew over the state Capitol on the day Mosk died.

Edward Sanders, a lawyer and former president of the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, said Mosk was the first person of the Jewish faith to be elected to a statewide office after a campaign in which his religion was made an issue.

“Because of Stanley Mosk, Jewish candidates know that their religion is not a factor in elections in this great state,” Sanders said.

Vaino Spencer, presiding justice of the state Court of Appeal in Los Angeles, recalled that Mosk, as a Los Angeles Superior Court judge, threw out a restrictive real estate covenant that prevented a black family from moving into a white neighborhood.

Before Mosk’s ruling five decades ago, other judges in Los Angeles and elsewhere in the state had upheld such covenants, Spencer said. An African American, Spencer told of the “pain, the humiliation and the mental stress” that such covenants caused.

“I learned how very much he identified with the pain,” Spencer said.

Several speakers noted how productive Mosk was on the state high court. He churned out nearly 1,700 rulings over his tenure.

Chief Justice Ronald M. George remembered a night several years ago when the justices were at their desks at 3 a.m. because of a pending legal matter.

Then-Chief Justice Malcolm Lucas saw Mosk glance at the clock, and, supposing that a man in his 80s needed rest, told Mosk he could go home and stay in touch with the court by telephone.

Mosk objected, George said. He told Lucas that he was looking at the clock only because he had a 7 a.m. tennis date and had just realized it was too late to cancel it.

The justices went home at 6:15 a.m., and only three justices returned to their chambers that day. Mosk, who made his tennis date, was one of them, George said.

University of Santa Clara law professor Gerald Uelmen said law students are routinely given Mosk’s opinions to read on a variety of legal issues.

“Like the mighty river of justice, the legacy of Justice Mosk flows long, flows wide and it flows deep,” said Uelmen, an expert on the state high court.

He noted that Mosk as a Superior Court judge had sentenced a man to death for murder. Gov. Pat Brown later commuted the sentence to life after receiving a note from Mosk saying he would support such a move.

The man was eventually released from prison and became a model citizen, Uelmen said. Mosk received a Christmas card from him every year.

Noting that Mosk as attorney general had opened professional golf to nonwhites, Uelmen said: “Tiger Woods is part of Stanley Mosk’s legacy of justice.”

Richard Mosk said his father had left written instructions about what he wanted after his death but also assured his son in writing that he would not “haunt” him if the wishes were ignored.

Justice Mosk wanted no religious or memorial service, his son said. “Well, this is my last act of disobedience as a son,” Richard Mosk said.

The son concluded the service with a quote from “Hamlet”: “Never doubt my love.”