Janice Rogers Brown (born May 11, 1949) is an American jurist. She served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 2005 to 2017 and before that, Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court from 1996 to 2005. She is a member of the Federalist Society and frequently features at events hosted by the organization.
Her 2003 nomination by George W. Bush to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was opposed by civil rights groups and stalled for nearly two years by Democratic senators who saw her as an extreme "conservative judicial activist.” She was eventually re-nominated and confirmed in 2005. The following month, after Justice Sandra Day O'Connor retired from the United States Supreme Court, Brown was reportedly considered as a potential nominee to replace O'Connor. Brown was ultimately not nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Early life and education
Brown was born Janice Olivia Allen in Greenville, Alabama, in 1949. Her father was a World War II veteran who sharecropped a leased 158-acre plot before reenlisting. After her parents separated, she was raised primarily by her paternal grandmother until, as a teenager, she moved to Sacramento, California, with her mother who was a nurse. When her mother remarried, she took the name Rogers.
Brown earned a B.A. from California State University, Sacramento, in 1974 while working as a single mother at the Department of Corrections where she met her first husband, Allen E. Brown Sr., who was an administrator there. She earned a J.D. from UCLA in 1977. She received a Master of Laws degree from the University of Virginia School of Law in 2004.
Brown has said that during her childhood her family refused to enter race-segregated businesses and that she as a "young single mother once called herself so leftist as to be almost Maoist."
Early legal career
For the first two decades of her career, Brown primarily worked for government agencies.
From 1977 to 1979, she was Deputy Legislative Counsel for the California Legislative Counsel.
From 1979 to 1987, she served as California Deputy Attorney General for the Criminal and Civil Divisions.
From 1987 to 1989, Brown was Deputy Secretary and General Counsel for the California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency and a University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law Adjunct Professor from 1988 to 1989.
She briefly entered private practice at the firm of Nielsen, Merksamer, Parrinello, Mueller & Naylor in 1990, but left in January 1991 to return to government as Legal Affairs Secretary for Governor Pete Wilson from January 1991 to November 1994. The job included diverse duties, ranging from analysis of administration policy, court decisions, and pending legislation to advice on clemency and extradition questions. The Legal Affairs Office monitored all significant state litigation and had general responsibility for supervising departmental counsel and acting as legal liaison between the Governor's office and executive departments.
California Supreme Court
In November 1994, Wilson appointed Brown to the California Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District.
In May 1996, Wilson appointed Brown as Associate Justice to the California Supreme Court. Brown was rated "not qualified" by the State Bar of California JNE Commission for her lack of experience and tendency to inject her political views into her opinion. Brown was the first "not qualified" appointment to the California Supreme Court.
Tenure
In Hi-Voltage Wire-Works, Inc. v. City of San Jose (2000), Brown wrote overturning a program of racial set-asides adopted by the city of San Jose. The opinion upheld an amendment to the California Constitution which banned discrimination against or preferential treatment for any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in public employment, education, or contracting.
Brown also wrote the majority opinion in Varian v. Delfino, an important First Amendment case involving the interpretation of California's SLAPP statute.
In another case, American Academy of Pediatrics v. Lungren (1997), Brown dissented from an opinion striking down a parental consent law for abortions. Brown, who declined to discuss her personal views on abortion when she was appointed to the court, defended the law during oral arguments. “Isn’t the law just acknowledging less capacity on the part of minors than adults, and isn’t that rational?” she asked.