In 1945, a group of Hispanic parents in Orange County filed suit to end segregation in their schools. The case revolved around Sylvia Mendez, an eight-year-old youngster, who was denied entrance into the 17th Street School in Westminster.

Two years later a pivotal legal precedent was established when San Francisco's 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, ruled that school districts in the area could no longer segregate children on the basis of national origin.

The resulting legal battle ended segregation eight years before "Brown vs. Board of Education" did the same for the nation as a whole. What the leadership of Earl Warren accomplished on the national level was pioneered by another Californian, Judge Paul J. McCormick (1879-1960).

McCormick always felt that his most important case was that in which he enjoined Orange County from forcing Hispanic young people to attend a particular grammar school, thus ending what was then de facto segregation in Orange County. The importance of Judge McCormick and the "Mendez vs. Westminster" case will be underscored by the U.S. Postal Service with the issuance this month of a 41-cent commemorative stamp entitled "Toward Equality in Our Schools."

Born in New York City on April 23, 1879, the enterprising jurist was raised in San Diego. He attended All Hallows College in Salt Lake City and St. Ignatius College (later the University of San Francisco). He subsequently received his law degree from Loyola University.

Moving to Los Angeles in 1893, Paul "read" law as assistant to Thomas W. Robinson, the Los Angeles City Librarian. After being admitted to the Bar, he practiced law with Max Loewenthal. He taught legal procedure at USC from 1912 to 1924.

A Catholic lay leader in California's southland for over a half-century, McCormick was made a Knight Commander of Saint Gregory by Pope Pius XII in 1953. He was also active in the Holy Name Society, the St. Vincent de Paul Society, and a charter member and first financial secretary of the Knights of Columbus, Council 621 (serving as Grand Knight and State Deputy in 1914-1915).

McCormick married Josephine Redmond on June 25, 1908 in St. Agnes Church at Vermont and Adams Boulevard. Bishop Thomas J. Conaty of Monterey-Los Angeles witnessed the exchange of their marital vows.

The youthful attorney served as assistant district attorney in Los Angeles County from 1905 to 1910. In the latter year he was named to the Superior Court of Los Angeles where he served until 1924. He was then appointed a judge of the United States District Court, Southern California, by President Calvin Collidge. Judge McCormick was chief judge of the District Court from 1940 to his retirement in 1951. For several years thereafter he served as substitute on special cases.

Among the thorny cases adjudicated by McCormick was the Elk Hill litigation along with the Teapot Dome case, which dominated the nation's newspapers in the 1920s. Edward L. Doheny and Albert B. Fall, Secretary of the Interior, were the central figures in that case which stretched over several years and ultimately resulted in the conviction of Fall and the exoneration of Doheny. Subsequent research has shown that the government withheld crucial evidence because of the threat to national security had the Japanese been informed about the country's oil reserves.

President Herbert Hoover later appointed McCormick to the Wickersham Crime Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement because of his national prominence.

After his retirement from the bench, Judge McCormick continued his active participation in various religious and charitable activities. He served for a while as vice president of the Archbishop's Fund for Charity at the behest of James Francis Cardinal McIntyre. On Dec. 6, 1960, the cardinal presided and gave the final absolution for McCormick at the judge's funeral at St. Vibiana Cathedral.

Msgr. Francis J. Weber is archivist for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.