Earl Warren was born in Los Angeles. He attended law school at the University of California Berkeley, where he supported himself by working as a law clerk. Warren served briefly in the army during World War I. In 1925 he took a job in the Alameda County district attorney’s office. After his father was murdered in his home in 1939, Warren developed a very narrow tolerance for crime. He campaigned for and was elected attorney general of California. Warren served as governor of California from 1943 until 1953, when President Dwight Eisenhower appointed Warren as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Warren was involved in many landmark cases involving civil rights and liberties, including Brown v. Board of Education and Miranda v. Arizona. He also headed the Warren Commission, the committee that investigated the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Warren retired from the Supreme Court in 1969. He died in 1974.
