Earl Warren - Education, Early Career, and Military Service

Education, Early Career, and Military Service

Earl Warren was born in Los Angeles, California, on March 19, 1891, to Methias H. Warren, a Norwegian immigrant whose original family name was Varren, and Crystal (Hernlund), a Swedish immigrant. Methias Warren was a longtime employee of the Southern Pacific Railroad. After the father was blacklisted for joining in a strike, the family moved to Bakersfield, California, in 1894, where the father worked in a railroad repair yard, and the son had summer jobs in railroading.

Earl grew up in Bakersfield, California where he attended Washington Junior High and Kern County High School (now called Bakersfield High School). It was in Bakersfield that Warren's father was murdered during a robbery by an unknown killer. Warren graduated the University of California, Berkeley, (B.A. 1912) in Legal Studies, and Boalt Hall, LL.B. in 1914. He was a member of The Gun Club secret society, and the Sigma Phi Society, a fraternity with which he maintained lifelong ties. Warren was admitted to the California bar in 1914. He was strongly influenced by Hiram Johnson and other leaders of the Progressive Era to oppose corruption and promote democracy.

Warren worked a year for an oil company and then joined Robinson & Robinson, a law firm in Oakland. In August 1917, Warren enlisted in the U.S. Army for World War I service. Assigned to the 91st Division at Camp Lewis, Washington, 1st Lieutenant Earl Warren was discharged in 1918. He served as a clerk of the Judicial Committee for the 1919 Session of the California State Assembly (1919–1920), and as the deputy city attorney of Oakland (1920–25). At this time Warren came to the attention of powerful Republican Joseph R. Knowland, publisher of The Oakland Tribune. In 1925, Warren was appointed district attorney of Alameda County. Warren was re-elected to three four-year terms. Warren vigorously investigated allegations that a deputy sheriff was taking bribes in connection with street-paving arrangements. He was a tough-on-crime district attorney (1925–1939) who professionalized the DA's office. Warren cracked down on bootlegging and had a reputation for high-handedness, but none of his convictions were overturned on appeal. On the other hand the Warren Court later declared unconstitutional some of the standard techniques he and other DAs used in the 1920s, such as coerced confessions and wiretapping.

Warren soon gained a statewide reputation as a tough, no-nonsense district attorney who fought corruption in government; a 1931 survey voted listed him as the best district attorney in the country. He ran his office in a nonpartisan manner and strongly supported the autonomy of law enforcement agencies. But he also believed that police and prosecutors had to act fairly, and much of what would later lie at the heart of the Warren Court's revolution in criminal justice can be traced back to his days as an active prosecuting attorney.