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36 Sw. U. L. Rev. 291 (2007-2008)
The Freeway with a Heart: My Life as a Consent Decree Judge in the Century Freeway Case

handle is hein.journals/swulr36 and id is 297 raw text is: THE FREEWAY WITH A HEART: MY LIFE AS A CONSENT DECREE JUDGE IN THE CENTURY FREEWAY CASE Harry Pregerson* The United States District Court for the Central District of California has been around almost as long as I've been a judge. In 1965, at the height of the Watts Riots, Governor Pat Brown appointed me to the Los Angeles Municipal Court. In 1966, he appointed me to the California Superior Court.' And in 1967, President Johnson nominated me for a seat on the Central District of California, where I served for over a dozen years until President Carter elevated me to the Ninth Circuit. My years on the Central District were wonderful. It's much better to be a trial judge than an appellate judge. This is the truth: when you're a district judge, you can see the results of your work. You see the people before you. You see how your work affects them. Anytime I think about the work I've done as a judge, my thoughts first turn to the cases I handled as a trial judge on the Central District of California. I have fond memories of Chief Judge Alfred P. Murrah, for whom the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was named. He was a U.S. district judge for the District of Oklahoma from 1937 to 1940. He then served thirty years as a U.S. circuit judge for the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. President Franklin Roosevelt appointed him to both positions. * The Honorable Judge Harry Pregerson: United States Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 1979-present; United States District Judge, Central District of California, 1967-1979. B.A., University of California, Los Angeles, 1947; L.L.B. University of California, Berkeley (Boalt Hall), 1950; LL.D (Honorary), Southwestern University School of Law, 2003. Terry Carter of Century Housing was essential in helping me prepare my remarks for the symposium, and my former law clerk Christopher David Ruiz Cameron helped tremendously in editing them for publication. Los Angeles Assistant City Attorney Christopher Westhoff, J.D., Southwestern Law School, 1974 cheerfully provided key facts regarding the Hyperion project, ensuring that I described accurately the project in which he has played an instrumental role in his position as Public Works General Counsel. Finally, I thank my law clerk Jessica Owley Lippmann for her invaluable assistance throughout this project. 1. The United States District Court for the Central District of California was also established in 1966.