Adolphus Frederic St. Sure

Adolphus Frederic St. Sure (March 9, 1869 – February 5, 1949) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

Education and career

Born on March 9, 1869, in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, St. Sure read law in 1895. Under the tutelage of prominent Bay Area Republican politician Joseph R. Knowland, he eventually joined the Republican Party. St. Sure entered private practice in Alameda County, California from 1895 to 1923. St. Sure was city recorder for Alameda, California from 1893 to 1899.

In 1939, lettuce workers in Salinas, California, were blacklisted by employers for their union activities. Attorneys provided by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) brought action and St. Sure, in the first instance of its kind, issued an injunction holding blacklisting to be illegal.

St. Sure was the federal judge who signed the order giving the United States Navy title to Treasure Island, California, after it formally served notice of its unilateral declaration taking ownership on April 17, 1942.

On September 8, 1942, the case of Fred Korematsu, a United States citizen of Japanese ancestry who had evaded authorities to avoid internment, was heard before St. Sure in San Francisco. Korematsu's conviction was eventually appealed to the United States Supreme Court and on December 18, 1944, the Court issued its landmark Korematsu v. United States decision.

Personal life and death

St. Sure married Ida Laura Pettes in Alameda in 1897. He died February 5, 1949, and is buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California.