Honorees

Hon. James Marshall Carter

1904-1979

James Carter was born March 11, 1904, in Santa Barbara, California.  He graduated from Pomona College in 1924.  Carter played tackle for Pomona against U.S.C. in the first football game held at the Los Angeles Coliseum in October 1923.  He attended his first year at Harvard Law, but returned to his native California when he ran out of money.  He completed his legal studies at U.S.C., where he was awarded the Order of Coif.  U.S.C. was then located at First and Broadway in downtown Los Angeles.  Carter went to law school while simultaneously working as a physical education teacher.

As a lawyer, Carter handled controversial causes in the 1930s.  For example, he represented the ACLU, sued the Chief of Police for sending squads of officers to arrest immigrants who did not have enough money, and was active in forming labor unions and negotiating contracts with cost of living increases.  “He was a tireless fighter for the rights of the poor and the oppressed.”  He served as the Director of the Department of Motor Vehicles, 1940-1942. The DMV was then in charge of the California Highway Patrol and as Director Carter pioneered fair employment practices and hired the first black highway patrolman.

After his service with the DMV, he returned to private practice in Los Angeles before becoming the Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California, 1943-1946, and then U.S. Attorney for the Southern District, 1946-1949.  He was an extremely competent prosecutor and an able administrator of that office during the troubled times of World War II.  While the United States Attorney, Carter successfully prosecuted Tomoya Kawakita, a dual citizen of Japan and the United States, for treason after a ten-week trial in 1948.  The case grabbed the nation’s attention as the one of the pair of treason indictments filed after World War II (the other, Iva Toguri D’Aquino, was identified as “Toyko Rose”).  Kawakita was employed as an interpreter at a Japanese military prison, and dozens of soldiers testified to the brutal punishments and sadistic torments he inflicted on the weakened men working at the mining camp.  There have been only thirty prosecutions for treason, and Kawakita’s conviction remains the last to this day.  (LA Times 12/21/01; Kawakita v. United States, 96 F. Supp. 824 (S.D. Cal. 1950), aff’d, 343 U.S. 717 (1952)). 

Carter administered the power of his office consistent with Chief Justice Stone’s standard – the United States Attorney should always remember that he was the representative of a sovereignty whose right to govern depended upon its governing justly; that while he could strike hard blows, he should never strike foul ones.

On September 23, 1949, he was nominated by President Harry S. Truman to a new federal judgeship, and received his commission on October 18, 1949. He served as the chief judge from 1966-1967.   Carter was instrumental in separating the Southern District of California from the shadow of Los Angeles.  From 1929 to 1949, federal judges from Los Angeles presided by assignment in the “Southern Division of the Southern District.”  In 1949, Judge Jacob Weinberger was assigned as the first “resident” federal judge in San Diego.  Despite the tremendous growth in the region after World War II, and the concomitant increase in the case load, for nine years prior to 1965, the Judicial Conference of the United States opposed the creation of new Districts.  Judge Carter is credited with convincing the Judicial Conference to change its position, and despite opposition by some public officials, Congress created the Southern District of California in 1966.  Carter, who had moved to San Diego some years earlier, was named the first Chief Judge of the new District until his Circuit appointment the next year. 

In addition to the key role he played in the formation of the Southern District, Carter was a leader in the creation of the Federal Defender Project (funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation following the enactment of the Criminal Justice Act of 1964).  He selected and appointed the superb lawyers who staffed that unique Project, including Harry Steward, Warren P. Reese, and John Hart Ely, to insure that competent attorneys represented indigents accused of federal crimes.  Omnibus criminal pretrial motion procedure and automatic bail review were two of the many the outstanding innovations that Carter brought to the District.

As a District Judge, he sincerely respected the dignity of each individual appearing before him.  It was his singular practice to call each defendant into his chambers to explain exactly why he had imposed the specific sentence and what he intended the defendant to do to satisfy the sentence.  Another custom, was that Judge Carter would hand each defendant placed on probation an old key to symbolize that he now controlled the “key to the jail” if they wanted to return. Some defendants later returned the key to Judge Carter with thanks.  In schoolbook-Spanish, Judge Carter would tell those immigrants charged with illegal entry that he had visited Mexico, had known many of that country’s citizens, and found them to be honorable people.  If the defendant raised his hand and promised never to return, Judge Carter would sentence him to probation so that he could be promptly deported. 

After eighteen years of distinguished service as a trial judge, Carter was elevated to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 1967 by President Lyndon Johnson.

Throughout his thirty-year judicial career, Carter served with dedication on many national committees concerned with criminal law issues, such as the Committee to Implement the Criminal Justice Act; the American Bar Association’s Subcommittee on Minimum Standards for Criminal Justice; Congress’s Commission to Revise Criminal Laws; and the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. 

Carter’s impact on the region extended to education.  He was instrumental is the founding of the Law School at the University of San Diego, where he taught for many years.  In 1962, the school awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws. 

At the many memorials upon Carter’s death, colleagues uniformly complimented his personal characteristics — which included “a sense of humility that was real and mistakable,” “the most sensible of men; learned, pragmatic, and absolutely without pretense”; natural warmth and compassion; and a commitment to excel — as well as his professional attributes.  “He had all the attributes of a great Judge.  He was patient, courteous and respectful of others.  He was attentive and he was always prepared.”  All agreed that he coupled a keen intellect and analytical mind with a true love of the law, which made this hardworking judge one of the most creative and effective in the nation.  Carter was respected for his courageous and decisive rulings which were never arbitrary due to his common sense, integrity, and impartiality.  John Sutro, a former appellate law clerk, summed up: “In his day-to-day life, both on and off the bench, he devoted himself to making a reality the high principles to which he adhered.  And by doing so, he enriched all our lives.”

Judge Carter served on the Circuit until November 18, 1979, when he passed away.  The San Diego Unioneditorial, “The Law is Loser,” stated: “Circuit Judge James M. Carter, whose sudden, unexpected death Sunday stunned the community and the legal profession, successfully defied the bleak observation that life ends for most persons as a battered shipwreck.  He departed under full sail, with colors flying.”

<– Back to Honorees