Shirley Hufstedler dies at 90; judge served as first secretary of Education

Shirley Hufstedler called herself a “bizarre creature” when she was first named Los Angeles Superior Court judge in 1961.

She was the only woman of 120 judges on the court at the time. “They had no idea what the world could do with this bizarre creature,” she told the American Bar Assn. in 2007, “but they changed their mind fairly quickly.”

They had to. Hufstedler was moving fast.

The Superior Court proved just a quick stop on a professional tour that would take her to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, and then to the U.S. Department of Education as the agency’s first leader.

Hufstedler died Wednesday at a hospital in Glendale, said her friend and law colleague, Mark McDonald. The cause was cerebrovascular disease. She was 90.

Hufstedler was known, in particular, for a dissent she wrote as an appellate judge arguing that public schools erred in not providing special language services for non-English speakers in a case involving immigrant students in San Francisco. Later, the Supreme Court swung her way, overturning the majority decision in Lau vs. Nichols in 1974.

She was “the leanest writer I have ever seen,” McDonald said. “She could say more with fewer words than any lawyer I have ever practiced with.”

Hufstedler later served as Gov. Gray Davis’ personal lawyer during the mediation that led to a settlement after the 1994 passage of Proposition 187, a measure that sought to block public services for immigrants in the country illegally. “Better to settle than to take the risks,” Hufstedler said at the time, defending the controversial effort to find a compromise.

Hufstedler was born Shirley Ann Mount on Aug. 24, 1925, in Denver. Her father, a builder, lost everything in the Great Depression, said McDonald, and Hufstedler spent her childhood on the move as he sought work.

She got a degree in business from the University of New Mexico and then went to Stanford, where her law class included Warren Christopher — who would later serve as secretary of State — and Seth Hufstedler, whom she married in 1949, the same year they both graduated.

The pair had been among the founders of Stanford Law Review. After marrying, they stayed in a mountain cabin for a hiking honeymoon that doubled as a study retreat, since both were preparing for the bar exam, said Patricia Phillips, former partner and friend.

Hiking remained a lifelong interest, and the couple made numerous trips to the Himalayas.

Shirley Hufstedler was appointed a Superior Court judge by Gov. Pat Brown, then elected to the post. Brown appointed her to the California Court of Appeal a few years later. She was tapped for the federal appeals court by President Johnson in 1968, becoming the only female federal appellate judge in the nation at the time.

In 1979, Hufstedler was named to a new cabinet post as secretary of Education by President Carter, with support from Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and Sen. Alan Cranston.

A Carter administration official at the time was quoted as saying that her liberal rulings over the years on civil rights cases had helped gain her the post. For a while, her name was also tossed about as a possible nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.

But her moment passed, and she told The Times in 1980 that she recognized the reality of never serving on the highest court with “regret and relief.”

Shortly after, she left the cabinet and returned to private practice. She also headed an immigration reform commission advising Congress in the late 1990s.

An appellate specialist, she was senior of counsel at Morrison and Foerster when she died, McDonald said.

She was “such an icon,” said former federal prosecutor Andrea Ordin.

Phillips, the former partner, said that Hufstedler maintained close relationships with colleagues and that their families helped younger women breaking into the profession.

For all that she was serious about the law, she was also “warm and effusive and fun,” Phillips said.

“I have photos of her hopping around in a potato sack at the picnics we used to have,” she said. “You’d never know she was a judge and the only-woman and the only-this and the only-that.”

She is survived by her husband, a former president of the California Bar Assn. and senior of counsel at the same firm; a son, Steven Hufstedler of Irvine; and three grandchildren.

jill.leovy@latimes.com