Justice Stanley Mosk.

• Author: Uelmen, Gerald F.

The dedication of Albany Law Review's annual State Constitutional Commentary issue to Justice Stanley Mosk of the California Supreme Court comes at a unique moment in his career. In November of 1998, at the age of eighty-six, Justice Mosk was confirmed by a 70% margin for another twelve-year term on the California Supreme Court.(1) In February of 2000, he will set a new record for longevity as a Justice of the California Supreme Court, having served for thirty-five years and six months.(2) What is especially remarkable about this career is the fact that Justice Mosk had a distinguished judicial and political career before his appointment to the California Supreme Court in 1964. He served as a trial judge on the Superior Court of Los Angeles County from 1942 to 1958, and as Attorney General of the State of California from 1959 to 1964.

Justice Mosk's service on the California Supreme Court encompassed an era of tremendous upheaval. During his first twenty-two years, serving under Chief Justices Roger Traynor (1964 to 1970), Donald R. Wright (1970 to 1977), and Rose Bird (1977 to 1987), Justice Mosk found only occasional necessity to dissent, and many of his landmark opinions were unanimous rulings of the court,(3) or decided over a single dissent.(4) In 1986, Chief Justice Rose Bird and Associate Justices Joseph Grodin and Cruz Reynoso were removed by the voters, and the new composition of the court left Justice Mosk as the chief dissenter. In 1992 and 1993, for example, Justice Mosk dissented in over 46% of the court's decisions.(5) Justice Mosk's output of vigorous dissenting opinions set a record. In 1998, he published his 500th dissenting opinion, the highest lifetime output of dissents for any justice ever sitting on the court. More recently, with the appointment of Chief Justice Ron George, the California Supreme Court has moved to a more centrist position, and Justice Mosk's dissent rate has dramatically declined. In 1996-1997, he led the court in the production of majority opinions.(6)

Justice Mosk's rulings have had significant impact beyond the borders of California. He was in the vanguard of the movement to reinvigorate state constitutional law. One of the key events in this movement was Justice Mosk's dissenting opinion in the second hearing of Diamond v. Bland.(7) When a majority of the court retreated from its prior ruling that the First Amendment protected orderly free speech activities on the premises of shopping centers open...