Shirley M. Hufstedler

Shirley Ann Mount Hufstedler (August 24, 1925 – March 30, 2016) was an American attorney and judge who served as the first United States secretary of education from 1979 to 1981. She previously served as a U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals from 1968 to 1979.

At the time of her presidential cabinet appointment under President Jimmy Carter, she was the highest ranking-woman in the U.S. federal judiciary.

Early life and education Hufstedler was born Shirley Ann Mount on August 24, 1925, in Denver, Colorado. Her mother's side of the family emigrated to the United States from Germany and were pioneers in Missouri. Hufstedler's father worked in construction and during the Great Depression the family had to move frequently so he could find work.

Career Initial attempts to begin her career after graduating proved to be difficult. Her graduating class from law school included only two women, as three of them dropped out, and although she graduated at the top of her class, she was still a woman in a male-dominated profession and she struggled to find employment opportunities. She started writing briefs for other lawyers and picked up other similar tasks. Ultimately, she opened up her own office in Los Angeles in 1951. a position to which she was elected in 1962 as a Democrat. At the time she was appointed to the Los Angeles County Superior Court, she was the only female in a group of 119 men. Judge Shirley M. Hufstedler is widely credited with introducing tentative rulings to American courts while sitting in Los Angeles Superior Court.

In 1966, she was appointed Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeals.

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

Selected judicial opinions 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. 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. Subsequently, the U. S. Supreme Court agreed with Hufstedler and overturned the Ninth Circuit's decision.

Hufstedler authored the majority opinion in Dietemann v. Time, Inc. (1971) Reporters employed by Life magazine would deceive their way into private homes and then record information and interactions between individuals in the home. Hufstedler affirmed the lower court's decision that such actions were an invasion of privacy.

Secretary of Education Hufstedler joined the Carter administration when appointed to be the first U.S. Secretary of Education in 1979. 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. 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.

Later career Hufstedler was considered to be a candidate for the Supreme Court if a vacancy had occurred under the Jimmy Carter presidency. 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.

Personal life Hufstedler met her husband, Seth Hufstedler, at law school and they married in 1949. She is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale).

Awards and honors Hufstedler served on boards of trustees, governing boards and visiting committees for numerous foundations, institutions, corporations and universities as follows:

Honorary doctorate degrees She was the recipient of almost 20 honorary doctoral degrees from American universities. They include: The Claremont University Center. Columbia University. Woman of the Year Award (Los Angeles Times). The Board decided that the former Robert A. Millikan Professorship should now be known as the .