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Earl Warren – by Harris & Ewing photography firm –

Top 10 Facts about Earl Warren

Earl Warren born on March 19, 1891, in Los Angeles California served as the 30th governor of California from 1943 to 1953 and as the 14th chief justice of the United States from 1953 to 1969.

During his tenure as chief justice, there were a series of radical changes in the US constitutional law.  These changes were especially targeted on racial equality, political and criminal justice equality.

He was also well known as a politician prior to being the chief justice, Warren had been elected as the governor of California under the Republican party, a record three times in 1942, 1946 and 1950. He remains to be the only individual to hold the reelection record for that many numbers of times.

Let’s dig into 10 additional facts about Earl Warren

1. Warren was born into an Immigrant Family

His father, Erik Methias Warren was a Norwegian immigrant while his mother, Christine Hernlund, was also an immigrant from Sweden. He was born and raised in Bakersfield, California. He had one sibling, a sister named Ethel Warren Plank. Ethel was prominent in women’s activities through the years and a leading member of the Women’s Athletic Club of Oakland.

2. Earl attended the University of California, Berkeley School of Law

Justice Earl Warren at the opening of the John F. Kennedy Memorial near Jerusalem – by Moshe Pridan –

His determination to be a lawyer dates to before his high school days, when he listened to criminal cases at the Kern County courthouse.

He attended UC Berkeley, where he majored in political science for three years before he entered the School of Law. In 1915, after graduating,  he was admitted to the California bar.

3. Warren spent three years in private law practice

He began his career in Oakland and San Francisco immediately after graduation. He practised law for three years from 1914 through to 1917. This was the only time in his career when he was engaged in private practice.

4. Earl Warren joined the US Army and served during World War I

Earl Warren meeting California National Guard tank crew in 1951 – by California National Guard Public Information Office –

After leaving his private law practice in 1917, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving stateside during WWI. It was during this time that he rose to the rank of first lieutenant. In 1918, he left the army and went on to work with the California State Assembly. In 1920, he went to become deputy city attorney for Oakland.

5. Warren served as district attorney for 14 years

In 1925,  he was appointed Alameda County district attorney when the incumbent resigned and in 1926 he won a full term in the same position. This was also followed by consecutive wins in 1930 and 1934.

In his position, he distinguished himself for both his honesty and hard work. Warren developed a reputation as a crime fighter. He was sometimes accused of high-handedness in his prosecution methods; he however never had a conviction reversed by a higher court.

6. Earl Warren Marriage and Children

President & First Lady Kennedy with Chief Justice Earl Warren & Mrs Warren – by Knudsen & Robert LeRoy –

On October 4, 1925, he married Elisabeth Meyers who was a Swedish-born widow. They together had six children namely;  Virginia Warren, Nina Warren, James Cleveland Warren, Dorothy Warren Knight, Earl Warren Jr. and Robert.

7. Warren is the only governor. of California to be elected for three consecutive terms

Running as a Republican, Warren was elected Governor of California on November 3, 1942, defeating the incumbent governor, Culbert Olson, a liberal Democrat. 

During the 1946 election, he was the only governor in American history to win an election unopposed, when he won the Democratic, Republican, and Progressive primaries.

He presided over a period of major growth for the state. He supported the controversial policy of interning Japanese Americans during World War II and progressive policies on issues such as education, health care, and prison reform.

8. Earl was nominated as the Republican candidate for vice president of the United States in 1948

Warren served as Thomas Dewey’s running mate in the 1948 presidential election, but Dewey lost the election to incumbent President Harry Truman. Interestingly this was the first time Warren had lost an election. sought the Republican nomination in the 1952 presidential election, but the party nominated General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

9. Warren was appointed the fourteenth Chief Justice of the United States

Warren’s Supreme Court in 1953-

After Eisenhower won the election as president, he appointed Warren as Chief Justice on March 1, 1954.

Among the Warren Court’s most important decisions were the ruling that made racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional. Another was the “one-man-one-vote” ruling that caused a major shift in legislative power from rural areas to cities.

In the 1960s, the Warren Court handed down several landmark rulings that significantly transformed criminal procedure, redistricting and other areas of the law.

Many of the Court’s decisions incorporated the Bill of Rights, making the protections of the Bill of Rights apply to state and local governments.

10. Warren headed the commission that investigated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy

After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November  22, 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Warren to chair a commission established to investigate the killing as well as the murder of the presumed assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald.

The report of the Warren Commission was submitted in September 1964 and was published later that year. The Commission unanimously concluded that the assassination was the result of a single individual, Lee Harvey Oswald, who acted alone

In 1968, Warren retired from his career, he hoped to travel the world with his wife, and he wanted to leave the bench before he suffered a mental decline.

He later regretted his decision to retire and reflected, “If I had ever known what was going to happen to this country and this Court, I never would have resigned.

In addition, he later remarked on his retirement and on the Warren Court, “I would like the Court to be remembered as the people’s court.

In retirement, he lectured and wrote The Memoirs of Chief Justice Earl Warren, which was published in 1977. He was also the author of A Republic If You Can Keep It. 

Five years into retirement, Warren died due to cardiac arrest at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C. on July 9, 1974.

Earl Warren had a profound impact on American values. As Chief Justice, his term of office was marked by numerous rulings on civil rights, separation of church and state, and police arrest procedure in the United States.