Otto Kaus

Who was Otto Kaus?

Otto M. Kaus was a judge from the State of California. He was born in Vienna, Austria. He was already attending school in Great Britain when the rest of his family fled the Nazis in the 1930s. Immigrating to the United States, his family settled in Los Angeles, California. He graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1942 with a B.A., and then joined the U.S. Army, where he served until 1945. He then graduated from Loyola Law School in 1949, and was admitted to the state bar that year. He joined the law firm of Chase, Rotchford, Downen & Drukker.

In 1961, Kaus was appointed as a judge on the Los Angeles Superior Court by then Governor Pat Brown and in late 1964, Brown appointed Kaus to the California State Court of Appeal, where he served until 1981.

In 1981, Kaus was chosen to serve as Associate Justice on the California Supreme Court by Governor Governor Jerry Brown, whose father had appointed him to his previous post. Kaus was confirmed with little trouble. In 1982, Kaus was on the ballot for retention by the voters. However, the state Supreme Court had become controversial due to the growing perception by many that Brown's appointees, particularly Chief Justice Rose Bird, were liberal ideologues whose rulings were political. Although Kaus was considered the least ideological and most independent of Brown's appointees, he was reconfirmed by 57% of the voters, far less than expected, after a campaign was waged against Brown's appointees that year.