United States’ longest serving judge was a tyrant in the court
Let’s not rejoice at Manuel Real’s death. But his passing offers some good news: California’s most troublesome federal judge is off the bench.
While federal judges are appointed for life, the fact that it required death to retire Real is a scandal that survives him. The 53-year career of Real — the nation’s longest-serving federal judge in modern history — offers ugly lessons about character, impunity and the impotence of our leaders.
If those first two paragraphs seem harsh, it may because you read the ludicrously glowing obituaries following Real’s death this summer. The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press and legal publications portrayed his career as that of a judicial giant. Appointed to the bench by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966, Real courageously ordered the desegregation of the Pasadena schools in the early 1970s, and blocked President Trump’s efforts to strip funds from police departments that don’t cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
“A towering legal figure,” the L.A. Times called him. Stories approvingly quoted a statement from Central District of California Chief Judge Virginia A. Phillips calling Real the court’s “heart and soul” and adding: “His legacy of public service is an inspiration beyond compare.”
Real’s record is incomparable, but let’s pray it’s not an inspiration.
What the obituaries missed was Real’s routinely awful treatment of people in his courtroom, and a decision-making style so rushed and lawless that he was routinely reversed by higher courts. In 2006, Congress even held a hearing about impeaching him.
Growing up in Pasadena, I knew Real’s name, given his heroic role in the desegregation case. So it was a shock when, as an L.A. Times journalist, I covered hearings in his courtroom. I have never seen a judge as tyrannical as Real.
Real sometimes justified his behavior in the name of efficiency. But his behavior encouraged disrespect for the law. He prevented jurors from taking notes or having courtroom testimony read back to them. He often yelled or cut off questioning of witnesses in nonsensical ways.
When challenged, he repeated a bizarre mantra: “Counsel, this is not Burger King! In this courtroom, we do it my way!”
Real “created a courtroom of terror,” attorney Victor Sherman once told the L.A. Times.
That Real was a menace was no secret, but no one could knock him off the bench. Not colleagues who saw his difficult tenure as the central district’s chief judge. Not the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judges who reversed him at recordhigh rates (in two-thirds of major cases, according to one analysis) and repeatedly removed him from cases during which he ignored their orders and violated basic procedures. He even survived mismanaging the assets of Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos in one case.
Real wasn’t even kicked off the bench after his lawless 2000 takeover of a bankruptcy case involving a woman whose probation he personally oversaw. A U.S. Supreme Court commission would later cite Real as exemplifying an unaccountable judge. But federal judges police their own, and Real escaped that episode with a reprimand. Appallingly, in his later years, other judges honored him.
Real was unrepentant. In one of several L.A. Times stories about his misconduct, Real said: “The best thing about being a judge is the nature of the service you think you’re rendering. The worst thing, probably, is the inability to come down off the bench and punch somebody in the nose.”
So why did Manuel Real get the generous judgment in death that he denied others in court?
One reason is the human reluctance to criticize the deceased. Real also could be charming and public-spirited outside court; a school is named for him in Riverside County, where he helped establish a school district.
But there are other, more troubling explanations. First, in these politicized times, we have the bad habit of conflating ideology — Real was a liberal — with character. Second, the American system provides no practical way to remove people who violate norms and abuse power, be they federal judges or, as today’s news demonstrates, president of the United States.
Even after his death, those who know better won’t challenge Real. If you’re expecting judges to protect us from tyrants, you’ll be disappointed.
Columnist Joe Mathews writes for Zócalo Public Square.