Marshall Francis McComb (May 6, 1894 – September 5, 1981) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of California from January 1956 to May 2, 1977.
In 1955, Governor Goodwin Knight appointed McComb to the Supreme Court of California as an Associate Justice, where he served from January 1956 to May 2, 1977.[6] For much of his career there, McComb formed the core of its conservative wing and often dissented from the liberal majority's opinions.[8] In 1967, McComb swore in Ronald Reagan to the latter's first term as Governor of California.[9][10]
In the 1972 case California v. Anderson, in which the majority ruled 6–1 that the death penalty was unconstitutional, McComb was the lone dissenter, arguing that the death penalty deterred crime, noting numerous Supreme precedents upholding the death penalty's constitutionality (including 11 in the prior three and a half years), and stating that the legislative and initiative processes were the only appropriate avenues to determine whether the death penalty should be allowed.[12] The majority's decision spared the lives of 105 death row inmates, including Sirhan Sirhan, assassin of Robert F. Kennedy, and serial killerCharles Manson.[13] McComb was so upset about the Anderson decision that he walked out of the courtroom.[14] Nine months later, the people of California would pass Proposition 17 by a 2–1 margin, reinstating the death penalty as an option for all prosecutions that took place after the adoption of Proposition 17.[15]
In 1976, McComb joined Justice William P. Clark, Jr.'s dissenting opinion in Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California, as McComb and Clark argued that doctor-patient confidentiality was "essential to effectively treat the mentally ill, and that imposing a duty on doctors to disclose patient threats to potential victims would greatly impair treatment" while the majority held that mental health professionals have a duty to protect individuals who are being threatened with bodily harm by a patient.[16]
McComb did join the 1976 court majority in Marvin v. Marvin, in which the court ruled that although California does not recognize common-law marriage, people who cohabitate for long periods of time and commingle their assets are allowed to plead and prove marriage-like contracts for support and division of property.[17]
McComb's distinguished judicial career had a rather sad end. On May 2, 1977, a panel of Court of Appeal justices, sitting as an acting Supreme Court, forced McComb into retirement by affirming a state Commission on Judicial Performance decision that McComb had senile dementia and was no longer able to carry out his judicial duties.[18][19][20] In 1981, McComb died in Los Angeles and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.[6][21][22]
On August 22, 1921, McComb first married Agnes I. Taylor (Challinor), a widow.[25][26] They had a daughter, Martha Estelle McComb (Mullin), who graduated from Stanford University in 1944.[27] After McComb and his first wife divorced, on March 22, 1930, he remarried to Kendra K. Hamilton in Yuma, Arizona. He later married Margaret G. McComb, who lived for another 22 years after his death, dying on November 4, 2003.[28]
^Bench and Bar of Los Angeles County. Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles Daily Journal. 1922. p. 26. Retrieved September 22, 2017. Entry for Marshall F. McComb.
^"Pfefferkorn Navy Day Chairman". Coronado Citizen. No. 52. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 24 October 1941. p. 1. Retrieved September 22, 2017.
^"Marhsall McComb Weds Pennsylvania Girl". Mohave County Miner and Our Mineral Wealth. Newspapers.com. September 9, 1921. p. 10. Retrieved September 22, 2017. News reached here this week of the marriage of Marshall McComb to Agnes Taylor Challinor of Edgewood, Pennsylvania. The wedding took place on August 22. The bride is a popular young lady and very attractive we are told. The groom a son of Harry McComb is well known in Mohave County having spent several years of his boyhood here. After graduating from the Yale law school he started practice in Los Angeles and is now doing well.
^"Society". Los Angeles Times. October 16, 1921. p. 29. Retrieved September 22, 2017.
^"B.A. Candidates Listed". Stanford Daily. Vol. 105, no. 54. 18 April 1944. p. 3. Retrieved September 22, 2017. School of Social Sciences, Martha Estelle McComb
