SCOTUS allows Hastings name change to remain at University of California law school
The University of California College of the Law at San Francisco can retain its new name, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday. (Photo illustration by Sara Wadford/ABAJournal/Shutterstock)
The University of California College of the Law at San Francisco can retain its new name, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday, rejecting a challenge by its former namesake’s descendants after revelations that Serranus C. Hastings ordered troops to slaughter thousands of Native Americans in the 1860s.
The San Francisco Chronicle via MSN.com has coverage.
When the San Franscisco-based school was founded 148 years ago, a state law declared that it “shall forever be known” as the University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco.
It committed Hastings to paying the state $100,000 to found the school, which claims alumni such as former Vice President Kamala Harris and former San Francisco Mayor and Assembly Speaker Willie Brown.
Hastings, a former California Supreme Court chief justice and a state attorney general, was also a rancher. He blamed tribes for attacking his cattle. But in the last decade, evidence emerged proving that he sent the militia to Native Americans in Mendocino County, California.
The state legislature passed a law, effective in 2023, changing the school’s name to the University of California College of the Law at San Francisco, leading six of Hastings’ descendants along with alumni to file a lawsuit against the state for violating a binding contract and seeking return of the $100,000 plus interest for a total of $1.7 million.
After the California courts ruled that the 1878 law was not a contract but a law that could be repealed, a state appeals court later agreed.
On Monday, the Supreme Court denied review in a one-sentence order with no indication of dissents.
See also:
State supreme court lets stand decision to ax Hastings name from University of California law school
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