The Case of Rose BirdRose Elizabeth Bird was forty years old when in 1977 Governor Edmund G. Jerry Brown chose her to become Californias first female supreme court chief justice. Appointed to a court with a stellar reputation for being the nations most progressive, Bird became a lightning rod for the opposition due to her liberalism, inexperience, and gender. Over the next decade, her name became a rallying cry as critics mounted a relentless effort to get her off the