Chief justice of the United States Supreme Court during one of the most turbulent eras in history, Earl Warren tried controversial cases that went to the heart of civil liberties and the nature of our political system. Born in California, the son of a railroad repairman, warren spent summers working on the rail system, developing insights into the anti-Asian racism then rampant on the west coast. After attending law school at the University of Berkeley, warren served briefly in wwl then worked for the Alameda County District Attorney for eighteen years. Though known as a tough prosecutor, warren was also sensitive to the rights of the accused and personally fought to secure public defense for those who couldn’t afford it. Between 1938 and 1942, Warren served as the attorney general of California, and was then elected governor of that state. As governor, warren was best-known for evacuating Japanese immigrants from the West Coast. President Eisenhower appointed him Chief Justice in 1953, taking over a court deeply divided between those advocating a more active role and those interested in morejudicial restraint, warren secured consensus on Brown v. Board of Education in one of his first cases. The Brown case was just the first in a long string of judgments creating a more active role for the Supreme Court.