[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 200 (Thursday, December 22, 2022)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1339]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        HONORING FRANCES MUNOZ, OUR NATION'S FIRST LATINA JUDGE

                                  _____
                                 

                          HON. J. LUIS CORREA

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, December 22, 2022

  Mr. CORREA. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Frances 
Munoz, our Nation's first Latina judge. Judge Frances Munoz died on 
October 17, 2022, of natural causes. She was 92 years old.
  Judge Frances Munoz has the distinction of being the first Latina 
female appointed or elected to the bench in California and the first 
Latina female appointed or elected as a trial court jurist in the 
United States. She served for 23 years in the Orange County Municipal 
and Superior Courts and an additional 15 years as an Assigned Judge.
  From humble beginnings, Frances was born at the height of the 
depression on September 18, 1930, the 5th of 11 children, in the mining 
town of Miami, Arizona. The family moved to Puritan, Colorado, and her 
father continued to work in the coal mines until the mines ``played 
out.''
  In 1941, the family moved to Corona, California, and joined the 
thousands of others working in farm labor. Frances and her siblings 
joined their parents in the fields during the summers picking tomatoes, 
grapes, and other crops in the Fresno area, sometimes sleeping 
outdoors.
  Judge Munoz inspired her younger siblings to study and pursue higher 
education. After high school, she went to work selling furniture and 
she paid for the college expenses of her siblings.
  Undaunted, Judge Munoz pursued her own education by attending night 
classes at Los Angeles City College, UCLA and law school while managing 
Atlas Furniture stores during the day. In 1972, Judge Munoz received 
her law degree from Southwestern University School of Law where she was 
a member of Law Review.
  She moved to Orange County, where her brother Greg, a graduate from 
USC law school, had opened a practice. Greg later became an Orange 
County Superior Court judge and served alongside Frances on the bench.
  In 1972, Frances joined the office of the Orange County Public 
Defender, where she was the first Latina and the second woman to be 
hired in that office.
  In 1974, she and several Latino attorneys established the Orange 
County Mexican-American Lawyers Club, which was later renamed the 
Hispanic Bar Association of Orange County. One of their goals was to 
ensure that more Latinos, who were qualified and experienced, be 
appointed or elected to the bench. As a result of their efforts, today 
there are 19 Latino judges out of 124 Superior Court Judges on the 
Orange County bench and two Latino justices out of eight Appellate 
Court justices in Orange County.
  On January 25, 1978, Governor Jerry Brown's office telephoned Frances 
Munoz to advise her that she had been appointed as a Judge in the 
Harbor Municipal County in Orange County. She was not at her desk. She 
was in court representing a defendant in a felony jury trial.
  As a Deputy Public Defender, she was known as a zealous advocate. But 
she was also noted for being civil with opposing counsel and respectful 
of the court. She was also acknowledged for creating and meticulously 
cataloging 3x5 cards in a small box. On each card she wrote out the 
facts and holding of the appellate court in key cases involving 
``furtive gestures,'' ``search of trunk,'' and other criminal law 
issues. She would quickly retrieve a key citation during a motion or 
trial.
  Within months of her appointment, she was opposed by a male Deputy 
District Attorney. Several Harbor Municipal Court judges, and 
multitudes of Orange County attorneys, court staff, bailiffs, police 
officers, and clergy rallied around her to host fundraisers and to 
support her in the retention election. Her 10 brothers and sisters and 
their children and parishioners from her church, St. Joachim Catholic 
Church in Costa Mesa, canvassed neighborhoods to get out the vote. In 
that 1980 election, Judge Frances Munoz was retained with the largest 
plurality of votes of any challenged judge in the state. Four other 
judges in Orange County lost their seats that year. She was never 
challenged again.
  In 1980 and 1990 she was elected the Supervising Judge of the Harbor 
Municipal Court and in 1990 was also recognized as the Outstanding 
Judge of the Year by the Orange County Women Lawyers Association. In 
1976, she co-founded the Orange County Hispanic Education Endowment 
Fund which awards college scholarships to Latino scholars.
  In 2001, Judge Munoz retired from the bench, but continued her public 
service as an assigned judge until 2016. She also served on the board 
of directors of THINK--Teaching, Helping, Instructing Kids and boards 
of other non-profit organizations.
  Every Thursday she would tutor students at Santa Ana's Madison 
Elementary school. She was also a keen real estate investor who 
purchased several commercial and residential properties. She always 
accommodated nieces and nephews in her spacious Corona Del Mar home 
while they studied and earned their bachelors, masters or medical 
degrees at the University of California, Irvine.
  Judge Munoz is survived by four sisters, Margaret Munoz, Vera Munoz-
Harrison, Rosie Schirling, and Angie Quintana, and 25 nieces and 
nephews and 45 great nieces and nephews.
  Please join me in celebrating the long, accomplished life of Judge 
Frances Munoz, She will be remembered for her perseverance in the face 
of adversity, excellence as a law student, attorney and judge, for her 
lifetime dedication to public service and children's education, and for 
her compassionate and gracious spirit.

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