WESTERN LEGAL HISTORY THE JOURNAL OF THE NINTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT HISTORICAL SOCIETY VOLUME 17, NUMBER 1 2004 Western Legal History is published semiannually, in spring and fall, by the Ninth Judicial Circuit Historical Society, 125 S. Grand Avenue, Pasadena, California 91105, (626) 795-0266/fax (626) 229-7476. The journal explores, analyzes, and presents the history of law, the legal profession, and the courts- particularly the federal courts-in Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Western Legal History is sent to members of the NJCHS as well as members of affiliated legal historical societies in the Ninth Circuit. Membership is open to all. 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Copyright 02004, Ninth Judicial Circuit Historical Society ISSN 0896-2189 The Editorial Board welcomes unsolicited manuscripts, books for review, and recommendations for the journal. Manuscripts (three copies, and one disk in Microsoft Word for Windows, if possible) should be sent to the Editor, Western Legal History, 125 S. Grand Avenue, Pasadena, California 91105. Texts, including quotations and endnotes, must be double spaced. Notes must be numbered consecutively and appear in a separate section at the end of the text. Authors are requested to follow the style for citations used in this journal. Manuscripts that are no more than thirty pages in length, not counting notes, charts and tables, and photographs, are preferred. Also preferred are manuscripts not concurrently under consideration by another journal. Whether because of prejudice or custom, writers in earlier times often used language considered strange or offensive today. Because Western Legal History publishes articles that present the historical record as accurately as possible, it occasionally publishes quotations containing such language. The publication of such is not to be construed as representing the attitudes of either the authors or Western Legal History. Communication with the editor is encouraged before submission of any manuscript. At that time, other guidelines for the preparation and publication of an article may be discussed. Consultation about punctuation, grammar, style, and the like is made with the author, although the editor and the Editorial Board are the final arbiters of the article's acceptance and appearance. Articles published in this journal are abstracted and indexed in America: History and Life; Historical Abstracts; the Index to Legal Periodicals;and the Legal Resources Index. NINTH JUDICIAL CiRcurr HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF DIRECTORS HON. JAMES R. BROWNING ROBERT D. LOWRY, ESQ. Chairman Eugene San Francisco HON. M. MARGARET MCKEOWN GERSHAM GOLDSTEIN, ESQ. San Diego President HON. MARGARET M. MORROW Portland Los Angeles MARC M. SELTZER, ESQ. HON. GERALIDINE MUND Vice President Woodland Hills Los Angeles HON. THOMAS G. NELSON JOHN FRANCIS CARROLL, ESQ. Boise Treasurer RONALD L. OLSON, ESQ. San Pedro Los Angeles JEFFREY M. FISHER, ESQ. HON. DIARMIUD O'SCANNLAIN Secretary Portland San Francisco PER A. RAMFJORD, ESQ. CHRISTINE W.S. BYRD, ESQ. Portland Immediate Past President HON. MANUEL L. REAL Los Angeles Los Angeles J. BRUCE ALVERSON, ESQ. HON. PAUL G. ROSENBLATT Las Vegas Phoenix SETH ARONSON, ESQ. HARRY H. SCHNEIDER, ESQ. Los Angeles Seattle LEROY J. BARKER, ESQ. HON. MARY M. SCHROEDER Anchorage Phoenix RICHARD H. BOROW, ESQ. MARC K. SELLERS, ESQ, Los Angeles Portland JEROME I. BRAUN, ESQ. GERALD K. SMITH, ESQ. San Francisco Phoenix HON. DAVID 0. CARTER HON. CHRISTINA ANN SNYDER Santa Ana Los Angeles HON. RICHARD R. CLIFTON STEVEN KAY TOLMAN, ESQ. Honolulu Twin Falls GEORGE C. DALTHORP, ESQ. WILLIAM E. TRAUTMAN, ESQ. Billings San Francisco HON. MORRISON C. ENGLAND, JR. ROBERT S. WARREN, ESQ. Sacramento Los Angeles GARETH T. EVANS, ESQ. MICHAEL A. WHITE, ESQ. Los Angeles Saipan ROBERT H. FAIRBANK, ESQ. DOUGLAS R. YOUNG, ESQ. Los Angeles San Francisco PARKER C. FOLSE, ESQ. BOARD MEMBERS EMERITI Seattle CURTIS A. JENNINGS, ESQ. SHIRLEY M. HUFSTEDLER, ESQ. Phoenix Los Ang les MICHAEL A. KAHN, ESQ. ELWOOD S. KENDRICK, ESQ. San Francisco Los Ang les FREDERICK C. KUNZEL, ESQ. HON. SAMUEL P. KING San Diego Honolulu LAURIE L. LEVENSON, ESQ. HON. JOSEPH T. SNEED Los Angeles San Francisco WESTERN LEGAL HISTORY BRADLEY B. WILLIAMS, EDITOR JUDITH FORMAN, COPY/PRODUCTION EDITOR EDITORIAL BOARD JUDITH AUSTIN ARTHUR D. HELLMAN Idaho State Historical Society University of Pittsburgh GORDON MORRIS BAKKEN School of Law California State University, JAMES W. HULSE Fullerton University of Nevada, Reno MICHAL BELKNAP DAVID J. LANGUM California Western Cumberland School of Law, School of Law Samford University HON. JAMES R. BROWNING MARI MATSUDA Senior Circuit Judge, Law Center, U.S. Court of Appeals Georgetown University for the Ninth Circuit R. JAMES MOONEY ELIZABETH J. CABRASER, ESQ. University of Oregon San Francisco Law School ERIC A. CHIAPPINELLI CLAUS-M, NASKE School of Law, University of Alaska, Seattle University Fairbanks LAWRENCE M. FRIEDMAN PAULA PETRIK, PH.D. Stanford Law School George Mason University CHRISTIAN G. FRITZ PETER L. REICH University of New Mexico Whittier Law School School of Law JOHN PHILLIP REID DALE GOBLE New York University University of Idaho School of Law School of Law HARRY N. SCHEIBER, PH.D. HON. ALFRED T. GOODWIN Boalt Hall School of Law, Senior Circuit judge, University of California U.S. Court of Appeals MOLLY SELVIN, PH.D. for the Ninth Circuit Santa Monica PAUL BRYAN GRAY, ESQ. CAROLINE STOEL Claremont Portland State University MICHAEL GRIFFITH, PH.D. ROBERT S. WOLFE, ESQ. Oakland Santa Ana STEPHEN W. HAYCOX, PH.D. JOHN R. WUNDER, J.D., PH.D. University of Alaska, University of Nebraska Anchorage WESt ERN LEGAL HISTORY VOLUME 17, NUMBER I WINTER/SPRING 2004 CONTENTS From Fargo to Little Rock: Federal Judge Ronald N. Davies and the Public School Desegregation Crisis of 1957 Colleen A. Warner The Unmaking of a Ninth Circuit Judge: Wallace McCamant's Unsuccessful Confirmation Bureaucracy, Corruption, and Organized Crime: Enforcing Chinese Exclusion in San Diego, 1897-1902 Jeffrey Scott McIllwain 83 Book Reviews 129 Articles of Related Interest 139 Memberships, Contributions, & Grants 143 Cover photograph: Black students were barred from entering school by the Arkansas National Guard in 1957. Photo by Will Counts. (Courtesy of Arkansas History Commission. All rights reserved) FROM FARGO TO LITTLE ROCK: FEDERAL JUDGE RONALD N. DAVIES AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL DESEGREGATION CRISIS OF 1957 COLLEEN A. WARNER INTRODUCTION On Sunday, August 25, 1957, Federal District Court Judge Ronald Norwood Davies of Fargo, North Dakota, boarded a train bound for Little Rock, Arkansas,' a place he had never been and one he would never forget. Assigned to that southern post to clear the federal calendar of backlogged cases, Judge Davies' seemingly routine stint in Little Rock would become anything but ordinary. The turbulent legal Colleen A. Warner is a professional historian and a private consultant in archives and historical records in Toledo, Ohio. In the mid-1980s she negotiated the acquisition of Judge Davies' papers for the Robinson Department of Special Collections at the University of North Dakota, the judge's alma mater. Copy- right Colleen A. Warner. All rights reserved. 1Day Book, 1957, 211, Ronald N. Davies Papers, box 5, folder 6, Elwyn B. Robinson D)epartment of Special Collections, Chester Fritz Library, University of North Dakota Grand Forks, North Dakota. For a biographical sketch of Davies' private life and judicial career, see Ardell Tharaldson, Patronage:Histories and Biographies of North Dakota's FederalJudges (Bismarck, ND, 2002), 69-82. Al though Tharaldson presents adequate hiographical informoation on Davies, some of the factual information presented is incorrect. For information regarding Davies' involvement in North Dakota politics, see Ronald N. Davies, interview by Robert Carison, tape recording, November 7, 1974, North Dakota Oral History Project, North Dakota Historical Society, Bismarck, North Dakota. 2 WESTERN LEGAL HiSTORY VOL. 17, No. I events that transpired in Little Rock in September of that year, together with the federal district court decisions rendered by Davies, would change the course of public school integration in the United States. Steadfast in upholding the edicts of the highest court in the land, particularly with respect to the landmark Brown rulings, Davies' unequivocal demand for immediate implementation of a federal court-approved plan for integration of the public schools in Little Rock reverberated throughout the South, the nation, and the world. The North Dakota jurist's legal convic- tions, devotion to duty, and penchant for