Roger J. Traynor

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Roger J. Traynor

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Roger J. Traynor (1900-1983) served as an Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court from 1940 until 1964, and as the Chief Justice of California from 1964 until his retirement in 1970. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, where, in 1927, he taught political science and served as the Editor-in-Chief of the California Law Review, while simultaneously earning his J.D. degree and a Ph.D. in Political Science. He was a consulting tax expert to the State Board of Equalization and the United States Treasury Department. He taught law at Boalt Hall from 1929 until 1940, and served briefly as a Deputy Attorney General before his appointment to the Supreme Court. He was a member of the State Department's Advisory Panel on International Law, which advised the Secretary of State on foreign policy.

Traynor was described by Time magazine, January 21, 1966, as a "law professor's judge." During 1974-1975, Justice Traynor lectured on legal science and ethics at the Universities of Birmingham and Cambridge in England. He also served as a member of the faculty at Hastings College of Law in San Francisco.

He received the highest award of the American Bar Association, the ABA medal "for conspicuous service to the course of American Jurisprudence;" and the Whyte School of Law Medallion, presented annually by the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, to a leader of the American Bench and Bar. He received similar honors from the American Trial Lawyers Association, the University of California, the Virginia State Bar Association, and the City and County of San Francisco. In 1974, he received the "Earl Warren Civil Liberties Award" of the American Civil Liberties Union.