Shirley Hufstedler

Hufstedler was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 17, 1968, to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, to a new seat authorized by 82 Stat. 184. She was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 12, 1968, and received her commission on September 12, 1968. Her service terminated on December 5, 1979, due to her resignation.[7]

In 1973, a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided in Lau v. Nichols that the San Francisco Unified School District had not violated the Fourteenth Amendment when it provided inadequate supplemental language support for non-English speakers. Hufstedler was not a member of this panel, but she called for the case to be reheard by the entire Ninth Circuit Court, en banc.[8] Hufstedler wrote, “access to education offered by the public schools is completely foreclosed to these children who cannot comprehend any of it” and that the decision paralleled similar arguments that were determined to be unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education.[9] Subsequently, the United States Supreme Court agreed with Hufstedler and overturned the Ninth Circuit's decision.[10]

Hufstedler authored the majority opinion in Dietemann v. Time, Inc.[11] Under the employment of Life Magazine, reporters would deceive their way into private homes and then record information and interactions between individuals in the home.[12] Hufstedler affirmed the lower court's decision that the actions taken against the occupant were an invasion of privacy.[12] This helped provide clarity on freedom of press and specifically, the limitations that the First Amendment has on protecting the freedom of press.[12]

Hufstedler was in the majority for the 1975 case Warren Jones Co. v. Commissioner. In this case, the majority decided that real estate had a certain fair market value which was determinable. Thus, taxpayers were required to include that fair market value in tax return calculations.[13]

President Jimmy Carter appointed her to be the first United States Secretary of Education in 1979.[14] As the first Secretary of Education, Hufstedler's agenda has been depicted as being focused on strengthening state and federal interrelationships, as well as educational equity.[15] Her dedication toward educational needs helped set precedent in the importance of its existence, even later preventing President Ronald Reagan's attempts to dismantle it all together after he beat President Carter in 1980.[16]

Hufstedler was considered to be a candidate for the Supreme Court if a vacancy had occurred under the Jimmy Carter presidency.[17][18] In 1981, Hufstedler returned to private life, teaching and practicing law. She was a partner in the firm Hufstedler & Kaus, now merged into Morrison & Foerster. She taught across the country, including stints at the University of California at Irvine and Santa Cruz, the University of Iowa, the University of Vermont, Stanford Law School, and the University of Oregon.[19]

She was the recipient of almost 20 honorary doctoral degrees from American universities. They include:

• The Claremont University Center.[22]
• Columbia University.[22]
• Georgetown University.[22]
• Gonzaga University.[22]
*Hood College.[22]
• Mount Holyoke College.[22]
• University of Michigan.[22]
• University of New Mexico.[22]
• Occidental College.[22]
• University of the Pacific.[22]
• University of Pennsylvania.[22]
• Rutgers University.[22]
*University of Southern California.[22]
• Smith College.[22]
*Syracuse University.[22]
• Tufts University.[22]
• Tulane University.[22]
• University of Wyoming.[22]
*Yale University.[22]

Her awards includes:

• The Order of the Coif.[22]
• The Marshall-Wythe Medal (College of William and Mary).[22]
• St. Thomas More Medal (Loyola Law School).[22]
• Golden Plate Award (American Academy of Achievement).[22]
• Woman of the Year Award (Los Angeles Times).[22]
• Woman of the Year Award (Ladies Home Journal).[22]
• University of California at Los Angeles Medal.[22]
• Herbert O. Harley Award (American Judicature Society).[22]
• Earl Warren Medal (University of Judaism).[22]
• Louis D. Brandeis Medal (University of Louisville).[22]
• Shattuck-Price Memorial Award (Los Angeles County Bar Association).[22]
• Stanford Law School Award of Merit.[22]
• American Bar Association's 1995 Gold Medal.[22]
• Margaret Brent Award (ABA Commission on Women in the Legal Profession).[22]
• The Learned Hand Award.[22]
• She the first woman to receive the American Bar Association medal.[19]

• Hufstedler was the first woman on the Council of the American Law Institute.[19]
• She was on the Board of Directors of Harman International Industries.[22]
• She was the emeritus director of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Salzburg Seminar.[22]
• She was a trustee of the California Institute of Technology.[22]
• She was an active member of the following: American Bar Association, American Law Institute, American Judicature Society, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Pacific Council, International Association of Women Lawyers, Institute for Judicial Administration, Los Angeles Bar Association, National Association of Women Lawyers, State Bar of California, Town Hall, Federal Bar Association and Women Lawyers Association.[22]

• At some point, Hufstedler had also previously served on the following: Board of Trustees of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, the Institute for Judicial Administration, Natural Resources Defense Council, Council of the American Law Institute, and the governing boards of the United States Military Academy, Institute for Civil Justice, Harvard Law School, Stanford Law School, the University of Pennsylvania Law School, the University of Southern California Law Center, the Institute for Court Management, the Constitutional Rights Foundation, the Advisory Council for Appellate Justice, American Judicature Society, Center for National Policy and Occidental College.[22]
• She guest lectured in ten foreign countries: England, France, Bulgaria, Israel, Jordan, Iran, India, Nepal, Malaysia, and Sweden.[22]
• She was a delegate to the Nuclear Arms Control with Erwin Griswald from the Lawyers Alliance. At such time, she was also involved in negotiations with the Soviet Union, which lasted for almost a decade.[22]