Marcus Kaufman
American judge
title: "Marcus Kaufman" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1929-births", "2003-deaths", "justices-of-the-supreme-court-of-california", "judges-of-the-california-courts-of-appeal", "usc-gould-school-of-law-faculty", "university-of-california,-los-angeles-alumni", "usc-gould-school-of-law-alumni", "military-personnel-from-norfolk,-virginia", "politicians-from-norfolk,-virginia", "lawyers-from-los-angeles", "20th-century-california-state-court-judges", "california-republicans", "united-states-army-officers", "20th-century-american-lawyers", "deaths-from-kidney-failure-in-california"] description: "American judge" topic_path: "law" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Kaufman" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American judge ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Marcus Maurice Kaufman |
| image | USC CA Sup Ct.jpg |
| caption | From left to right: Kaufman, Justice David Eagleson, Justice Joyce Kennard, and Chief Justice Malcolm Lucas |
| office | Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court |
| termstart | March 18, 1987 |
| termend | January 31, 1990 |
| appointer | Governor George Deukmejian |
| predecessor | Cruz Reynoso |
| successor | Armand Arabian |
| office1 | Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, Second Division |
| termstart1 | 1970 |
| termend1 | March 17, 1987 |
| appointer1 | Governor Ronald Reagan |
| birth_date | |
| birth_place | Norfolk, Virginia, U.S. |
| death_date | |
| death_place | San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| spouse | Eileen Wilkin |
| alma_mater | University of California, Los Angeles (BA)USC Law School (LLB) |
| :: |
| name = Marcus Maurice Kaufman | image = USC CA Sup Ct.jpg | imagesize = | caption = From left to right: Kaufman, Justice David Eagleson, Justice Joyce Kennard, and Chief Justice Malcolm Lucas | order = | office = Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court | termstart = March 18, 1987 | termend = January 31, 1990 | nominator = | appointer = Governor George Deukmejian | predecessor = Cruz Reynoso | successor = Armand Arabian | office1 = Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, Second Division | termstart1 = 1970 | termend1 = March 17, 1987 | nominator1 = | appointer1 = Governor Ronald Reagan | predecessor1 = | successor1 = | birth_name = | birth_date = | birth_place = Norfolk, Virginia, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = San Francisco, California, U.S. | religion = | spouse = Eileen Wilkin |alma_mater = University of California, Los Angeles (BA)USC Law School (LLB)
Marcus Maurice Kaufman (June 19, 1929 – March 26, 2003) served as the 103rd justice on the Supreme Court of California from March 18, 1987, until his retirement on January 31, 1990. Prior to his appointment to the Supreme Court, Justice Kaufman served for 17 years as an Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, Second Division.
Early life
Born in Norfolk, Virginia, Kaufman moved with his family to Los Angeles, California, at a young age. He grew up in the Hollywood area, and developed an interest in law while in high school. He would later recall taking the bus to the L.A. Civic Center to watch federal court proceedings. After earning his bachelor's degree at UCLA, he served in the Korean War as an Army lieutenant.
Law career
After returning home, Kaufman attended USC Law School where he was editor of the Southern California Law Review, and in 1956 graduated first in his class with Order of the Coif honors. He graduated in 1956 and from 1956 to 1957 served as a law clerk to then Associate Justice Roger J. Traynor. Kaufman began his career clerking in the same court to which he would eventually return as Justice. After a year of clerking, Kaufman joined the faculty of the University of Southern California Law Center. Years later, he had a very distinguished career in private practice in San Bernardino.
Judicial career
In 1970, Governor Ronald Reagan appointed Kaufman as an associate justice of the Court of Appeal of California's Fourth Appellate District, Division Two. His opinion in Fletcher v. Western National Life Ins. Co. in 1970, while on the Fourth District Court of Appeal is regarded as an insightful view of what was to come from the California Supreme Court in Gruenberg v. Aetna Ins. Co. in 1973 and then Silberg v. California Life Ins. Co., in 1974, when the court embraced the essential concepts of insurance bad faith as a tort remedy in California.
In 1987, Kaufman was one of three justices appointed by Republican Governor George Deukmejian to replace Chief Justice Rose Bird and two other liberal justices voted out of office in the previous November's elections. He was expected to be among the most conservative members of the court. At times he lived up to this expectation: he joined the conservative majority in upholding the death penalty and wrote the majority opinion when the court allowed police to erect roadblocks in an effort to get drunk drivers off the road. Kaufman also wrote the majority opinion that allowed a corporate farm to restrict access of union organizers to worker camps on its property. But he sided with the liberal minority in dissenting on some important civil rulings: he opposed restricting wrongful-termination suits against employers and barring the use of state antitrust laws against corporate mergers. In another case, he joined with liberal justices to uphold the right of criminal defendants to gain access to confidential police brutality complaints.
Kaufman was viewed as a thoughtful and scholarly student of the law, always interested in carefully scrutinizing issues, precedent, and argument. He was especially notable for his kindness and concern for staff. On January 31, 1990, Kaufman retired from the bench to spend more time with his family. In 1995, he joined the newly formed Albert, Weiland & Golden in Costa Mesa, California, where he was of counsel and did consulting work on appeals.
Declining health and death
Kaufman died of renal failure on March 26, 2003, at the age of 73 after several years of poor health. Kaufman was survived by his wife of more than 50 years, Eileen, and two daughters, Sharon and Ellen. A son, Joel, died in 1977.
In facing death, Kaufman told his family that one can live on after death. To this end, he wrote the following: "Ideas, values and ideals do not perish with the mind that conceived them or the life that exemplified them. They live on and play a part in the lives of those to whom they have been transmitted. And so people live on after death in the ideas, values and ideals they transmitted during their lives, which often continue to grow and spread even after death." Those ideas, he said, need not be monumental. They can be such worthwhile concepts as "an appreciation of beauty, love of family, a recognition or fulfillment of duty or loyalty, a love of excellence, or an admiration of and appreciation for achievement."
Honors and awards
Two awards are named in Kaufman's honor:
Kaufman Campbell Award- Presented by the San Bernardino County Bar Association in honor of Marcus M. Kaufman and Joseph B. Campbell. This award is given to the judges who have demonstrated the highest standards of judicial excellence in the pursuit of justice while exemplifying courtesy, integrity, wisdom and impartiality.
Marcus Kaufman Jurisprudence Award- Presented by the Anti-Defamation League of Orange County/Long Beach in memory of Kaufman for his exceptional work and commitment both to the legal community and to the Orange County Judiciary.
References
Selected publications
References
- California Supreme Court Historical Society, History of the California Courts www.cschs.org
- (1952). "Register - University of California, Volume 2". University of California Press.
- (May 1, 2000). "100 Years of USC Law: You Be the Judge". Gould Law School, University of Southern California.
- (March 28, 2003). "Marcus M. Kaufman, 73; State Supreme Court Justice". Los Angeles Times.
- "Kaufman v. Court of Appeal, 31 Cal.3d 933 (1982)". Robert Crown Library, Stanford Law School.
- (February 19, 1987). "Deukmejian's Supreme Court Nominees: Marcus M. Kaufman : He's Scholarly and Controversial, and Has Criticized Recent Supreme Court Decisions". Los Angeles Times.
- Blum, Bill. (January 1991). "Toward a Radical Middle, Has a Great Court Become Mediocre?". ABA Journal.
- (November 17, 1989). "Calif. Justice Quits After 2 Yrs. : Kaufman Cites Host of Reasons". Los Angeles Times.
- (March 29, 2003). "Marcus Kaufman -- retired justice of state's top court". San Francisco Gate.
- (September 22, 2016). "Obituary: Eileen Wilkin Kaufman". Orange County Register.
- (March 28, 2003). "Marcus Kaufman, Retired Justice of State Supreme Court, Dead at 73". Metropolitan News-Enterprise.
- "Awards: Kaufman-Campbell Award". San Bernardino County Bar Association.
- (April 16, 2015). "OCBA Members to Be Honored by Anti-Defamation League". Orange County Bar Association.
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