Rose Elizabeth Bird

In her first address as Chief Justice, Rose Elizabeth Bird warned that the judicial system was becoming “more and more removed” from the people whose rights and interests it was supposed to protect.

Chief Justice Bird, the first woman appointed to the California Supreme Court and the first female Chief Justice, instituted several reforms to engender a public “sense of participation” in the judicial process. She appointed special panels to solicit public comment on such problems as court congestion, promoted televised and photographic coverage of court proceedings at the trial and appellate court levels, and pushed several new statutes and court rules to expedite the disposition of civil cases.

Chief Justice Bird made unprecedented appointments of women and minority judges to the Judicial Council, where she also encouraged extensive use of advisory committees composed of not only judges and lawyers but also educators, journalists, and other members of the public.

Although some of her rulings made her unpopular with many Californians, several of the reforms Chief Justice Bird proposed and sponsored—such as the landmark State Funding of Trial Courts Act of 1985—were enacted after her tenure.