Tributes Pour In for Justice and Professor Emeritus Cruz Reynoso

Numerous media outlets acknowledged the passing of UC Davis Professor Emeritus Cruz Reynoso, who died on May 7, just days after his 90th birthday.

Reynoso’s former UC Davis Law colleagues and members of the larger legal and community and Reynoso’s family also paid public tribute to Reynoso, a civil rights legend and the first Latino California Supreme Court justice.

The Los Angeles Times published an obituary that included quotes from Dean Kevin R. Johnson. Times columnist Gustavo Arellano followed up with a tribute tracing his lifelong quest for justice back to his childhood in Orange County. Sacramento Bee columnist Marcos Breton also paid tribute to Reynoso, and the Associated Press wrote an obituary as well. For its obituary, the Daily Journal interviewed Dean Johnson, Professor Amagda Pérez and Professor Emeritus Bill Ong Hing.

Johnson wrote about Reynoso for the ImmigrationProf Blog and Professor Lisa R. Pruitt for the UC Davis Law Faculty Blog.

Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, who followed Reynoso’s footsteps to the California Supreme Court, issued this statement:

Cruz Reynoso was a giant for the judiciary and the legal profession in California and across the country.  As a civil rights lawyer practicing in California’s vast rural heartland, he was an able and eloquent advocate for those who lacked a voice. He taught law students to venerate our country’s commitment to law and justice.  He embodied that commitment as the first Latino ever to serve on California’s Supreme Court, and continued it during more than a decade of service on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.  His accomplishments were as remarkable as his humility.  His memory and deeds will continue to inspire so many of us across California and the rest of our country.

And Reynoso’s son Rondall Reynoso published his own heartfelt and illuminating tribute to his father, for Faithonview.com.