Jesse W. Curtis Sr.

Curtis was born on July 18, 1865, in San Bernardino, California, to William Jesse Curtis and Frances Sophia Cowles. They had arrived in 1864 after traveling on the Oregon Trail from Iowa as members of the Pella Company wagon train that included the family of Wyatt Earp.

Curtis' family has a long association with the law. Curtis' father was a teacher and lawyer who helped found the San Bernardino Bar Association. Curtis' grandfather, I. C. Curtis, was a lawyer and a member of the Iowa Legislature. Curtis' uncle, William S. Holman, was a Democratic Congressman from Indiana, and Curtis' great-grandfather on his mother's side, Jesse Lynch Holman, sat on the first Indiana Supreme Court and was later a United States District Court judge. Curtis' son, Jesse William Curtis Jr., became a federal court judge, as well.

In 1887, Curtis graduated with a Ph.B. in the first class that went completely through the University of Southern California (he was eventually their oldest living alumnus). In 1891, he received a LL.B. from the University of Michigan Law School. He then began private practice in San Bernardino with his father at Curtis, Oster & Curtis, and its progeny, where he remained for 23 years, except for a stint from 1899 to 1903 serving as District Attorney of San Bernardino County.

In 1915, Curtis was named Judge of the Superior Court of San Bernardino County. On March 26, 1923, Governor Friend W. Richardson elevated Curtis to the District Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division One, where he served three years. On January 1, 1926, Governor Richardson named Curtis an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California, filling the seat of William H. Waste, who was named Chief Justice. In November 1926, Curtis won election to a full, 12-year term. In 1938, Curtis received 70.9% of the vote in a retention election.

Among Curtis' notable cases were a pair of contempt citations for commenting on judicial proceedings: the first against longshoremen union leader Harry Bridges, and the second against the Los Angeles Times. In 1939, the California Supreme Court, in a 5-1 opinion in Bridges v. Superior Court of Los Angeles, affirmed the judgment of contempt. In an opinion by Curtis, the court rejected Bridges' contention that he had a First Amendment right to criticize the court. On January 31, 1940, in a 5-2 decision by Curtis, the court also upheld the contempt ruling against the Times. Upon appeal, in a 5-4 opinion by Justice Hugo Black, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed in Bridges v. California.

After retiring from the Supreme Court in 1945, Curtis returned to private practice with his son in San Bernardino.

In 1934, Curtis was awarded the Asa Call alumnus achievement trophy by the University of Southern California. He was bestowed honorary law degrees in 1926 by the University of Southern California, in 1928 by Southwestern University, and by the University of Redlands, where his three children had studied and he was a trustee from 1909.

On June 23, 1892, Curtis married Ida Lucinda Seymour (July 22, 1870 – February 15, 1960) and they had three children: Jesse William Curtis Jr.; Margaret Curtis Chadwell, a graduate of the University of Redlands and Radcliffe College; and Helen Curtis Shepardson, who also attended the University of Redlands.