Prof. Frank Comments on Wanger Retirement for LA Times, Mercury News
Professor Richard Frank commented for media including the Los Angeles Times and San Jose Mercury-News on the retirement of U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger, a key figure in California water law for more than two decades.
"He has been hugely influential," said Frank in comments for the Times. "I think he in many ways has been the most important public official when it comes to California water policy in the last 15 years."
"In environmental circles, there was a lot of apprehension" when Judge Wanger was appointed by President George H.W. Bush, but through the years he came close to the judicial ideal expressed by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts of a "neutral umpire calling balls and strikes," Frank told the Mercury-News.
Frank, a 1974 graduate of King Hall, is the founding Director of the new California Environmental Law and Policy Center at UC Davis School of Law.