A Timeline of Selected Significant Decisions
Judge Harry Pregerson
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s a district judge, Harry issued an injunction halting construction of the 17.3-mile Century Freeway until state and federal officials complied with the National Environmental Policy Act. He later oversaw implementation of a consent decree providing for HOV and light-rail lines along the freeway corridor, relocation assistance and affordable replacement housing for over 15,000 displaced Black and Latino residents, construction industry apprenticeship training for over 4,800 minority and women workers, and the hiring of minority- and women-owned construction firms. Keith v. Volpe, 352 F. Supp. 1324 (C.D. Cal. 1972), aff’d, 506 F.2d 696 (9th Cir. 1974), cert. denied, 420 U.S. 908 (1975).
1972 A Timeline • Judge Harry Pregerson
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s a district judge, Harry rejected a challenge to the City of Los Angeles’ ambitious $1.6 billion plan to upgrade the Hyperion Treatment Plant to provide full secondary treatment of sewage and reduce the discharge of sludge into Santa Monica Bay. A conservative nonprofit organization had challenged those plans as too costly. The case earned Harry the nickname “The Sludge Judge.” Pacific Legal Foundation v. Quarles, 440 F. Supp. 1324 (C.D. Cal. 1977), aff’d, 614 F.2d 225 (9th Cir), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 825 (1980).
1977 A Timeline • Judge Harry Pregerson
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itting by designation as a district judge, Harry granted a preliminary injunction preventing the NFL from standing in the way of the Oakland Raiders’ becoming the Los Angeles Raiders and taking up tenancy in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum – which the club later did for 12 years (before, of course, moving back to Oakland). Although his order granting the preliminary injunction was reversed, Harry’s entry of judgment on the jury’s eventual verdict finding that the league had violated the federal antitrust laws – together with his rulings rejecting the NFL’s motion to transfer venue and its single-entity defense – was upheld. L.A. Memorial Coliseum Comm’n v. NFL, 484 F. Supp. 1274 (C.D. Cal.), rev’d,634 F.2d 1197 (9th Cir. 1980); see also 519 F. Supp. 581 (C.D. Cal. 1982), aff'd, 726 F.2d 1382 (9th Cir), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 69 (1984).
1980
A Timeline • Judge Harry Pregerson
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n rehearing en banc, Harry wrote the Ninth Circuit opinion holding that German-reparations payments do not count as income that could terminate the recipient’s eligibility for supplemental security income (SSI). The opinion restored SSI benefits of about $119 per month to Holocaust survivor Felicia Grunfeder, a Los Angeles resident who as a young girl was smuggled out of the Warsaw ghetto in a coffin while most of her family perished at the hands of the Nazis – an experience that caused her to suffer serious psychological trauma into adulthood. She also was receiving about $288 per month in reparations from the Federal Republic of Germany. Grunfeder v. Heckler, 748 F.2d 503 (9th Cir. 1984).
1984
A Timeline • Judge Harry Pregerson
1984 I
n dissent, Harry wrote an opinion stating that women runners had demonstraed a likelihood of success on the merits of their California state law claims of sex discrimination by the organizers of the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, who had excluded females from certain distance races. Proof of gender bias could be found throughout the history of the modern Olympics, including a statement by founder Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who described the games as ‘the solemn and periodic exaltation of male athleticism with internationalism as a base, loyalty as a means, art for its setting, and female applause as reward.’ Therefore, Harry would have issued a preliminary injunction requiring the addition of women’s races of 5,000 and 10,000 meters. Martin v. IOC, 740 F.2d 670, 681 (9th Cir. 1984) (Pregerson, J., dissenting).
A Timeline • Judge Harry Pregerson
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hile Robert Alton Harris was strapped to a chair in the gas chamber, Harry granted a last-minute stay halting the double-murderer’s execution so he could argue before the California Supreme Court that death by gas constituted cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment. (Harry’s was one of a series of last-minute reprieves granted to Harris.) Shortly thereafter, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor lifted the stay, and two hours later, Harris was executed in the gas chamber after all. The apparently exasperated Justice wrote: ‘No further stays of Robert Alton Harris’ execution shall be entered by the federal courts except upon order of this Court.’ Vazquez v. Harris, 503 U.S. 1000 (1992).
1992 A Timeline • Judge Harry Pregerson
1999 O
ver a dissent, Harry wrote the Ninth Circuit panel opinion holding that an elmentary school operated as an education research laboratory by UCLA did not violate the equal protection rights of applicants by considering their race and ethnicity, in addition to dominant language, race/ethnicity, and family income, in admissions decisions. These steps supported the school’s mission to help California serve a diverse, multicultural, and ever-changing student population. Hunter ex rel. Brandt v. Regents of University of California, 190 F.3d 1061 (9th Cir. 1999), cert. denied, 531 U.S. 877 (2000).
A Timeline • Judge Harry Pregerson
2001
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arry wrote the NinthCircuit opinion refusing to find that it was error to admit expert testimony on Battered Women’s Syndrome for the purpose of rebutting the victim’s recantation of earlier incriminating statements about her abuser. After telling police that the defendant had beaten her, the victim testified in court that she had caused her two black eyes by ‘socking myself in the face.’ The expert testified that BWS sufferers often recant accusations against their partners. Dillard v. Roe, 244 F.3d 278 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 534 U.S. 905 (2001).
A Timeline • Judge Harry Pregerson
2005 F
or a three-judge panel, Harry wrote the Ninth Circuit opinion holding thatNasser Mustapha Karouni, a homosexual alien from Lebanon, had a well-founded fear of persecution if he was removed from the US and returned to his home country. Harry pointed to evidence that leaders of Hezbollah, the Lebanese government, or both, were intolerant of “the crime of homosexuality” and had interrogated and threatened Karouni, shot and killed his gay cousin, and beaten or killed his gay friends. Despite this, the Board of Immigration Appeals had affirmed a decision denying Karouni’s application for asylum and withholding of removal. Karouni v. Gonzalez, 399 F.3d 1163 (9th Cir. 2005).
A Timeline • Judge Harry Pregerson
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arry wrote a Ninth Circuit opinion finding an egrgious’violation of the Fourth Amenment rights of Luis Sanchez, a small boat owner who was detained due solely to his Latino appearance. Sanchez, who turned out be an undocumented Mexican national, was fishing with friends, one of whom had brought along an infant, in US territorial waters near Oxnard when his vessel stalled. After responding to a call for help, the US Coast Guard detained Sanchez and turned him over to immigration officers. Sanchez v. Sessions, 870 F.3d 901 (9th Cir. 2017), withdrawn, 985 F.3d 1101, superseded, 904 F.3d 643 (9th Cir. 2018).
2017
A Timeline • Judge Harry Pregerson