John Racanelli, former California appeals court justice, dies at 91

John Racanelli, a former state appeals court justice in San Francisco and author of a key ruling on water quality in California, died Thursday at his home in New York after a long illness. He was 91.

Justice Racanelli was appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 1977 to the First District Court of Appeal, where he served as a presiding justice. He described himself jokingly as a “double brownie,” as he had spent the previous 13 years on the Santa Clara County Superior Court, appointed by Brown’s father, Gov. Pat Brown. He retired from the bench in 1991.

His ruling for a three-justice panel in 1986 helped to establish the authority of California’s water board to protect water quality in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, and in other state waterways.

The Water Resources Control Board has the “power and the duty to provide water quality protection to the fish and wildlife that make up the delicate ecosystem within the Delta,” Justice Racanelli wrote.

He said the board must protect waterways even if that meant reducing water allocations to farmers and municipalities, and must use a “global perspective” that takes into account the impact on rivers elsewhere in the state, the effect of water diversion and pollution, and future water uses. The precedent-setting ruling became known, in water law, as the “Racanelli Decision.”

He also wrote a 1983 ruling protecting the rights of children with disabilities. It involved a child who was born with Down syndrome and placed in an institution by his parents, who objected to potentially lifesaving heart surgery when he was a teen. Justice Racanelli’s decision allowed appointment of a guardian to consent to the surgery, which was performed when he was 16.

Jay Spears, a lawyer for the child in the case, said the ruling helped to establish that mentally impaired children in institutions “are entitled to have their basic human needs met.”

Brown paid tribute Friday, saying, “John was a thoughtful judge who cared about people and did his part to right wrongs and ensure that justice was administered fairly and with a sense of compassion.”

John T. Racanelli was born in Landsdowne, Pa., in 1925, the child of Italian immigrants who moved to San Francisco when the future jurist was in high school. After graduating, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps and was an aerial navigator in both World War II and the Korean War.

He graduated from UC Berkeley in 1949 and from the UC Hastings College of Law in 1952, then practiced law in San Francisco and Sunnyvale. He became active in Democratic politics and was a delegate to the party’s 1964 convention in Atlantic City before his first judicial appointment.

As a judge, he served as president of the California Judges Association and the American Judicature Society. He also was a member of the Commission on Judicial Performance, the state’s judicial disciplinary agency, for 11 years, including eight years as chairman.

After retirement, Justice Racanelli served on the boards of the Bay Institute, which promotes conservation; the Koshland Committee, which supports organizations in low-income communities; and the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. He also worked as a private arbitrator.

In 2014, he was one of nine former high-ranking state judges who sent a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to release three Cubans who had been convicted of spying by a jury in Florida, in an area of intense hostility to the Communist government. Obama’s release of the prisoners, while Cuba freed an imprisoned U.S. government contractor, played a role in an agreement to restore relations between the two nations.

Justice Racanelli’s death was reported by his wife of 35 years, journalist Betty Medsger. In a Facebook post, she said he passed away peacefully Thursday morning while she and his son, Chris Racanelli, were sitting at his bedside, giving him medication, sharing breakfast and chatting among the three of them.

“What Chris and I thought might have been his falling asleep was instead his last breath,” she wrote. “This seemingly easy transition came after much suffering” from 18 months of congestive heart failure and pneumonia.

Justice Racanelli is also survived by daughters Karen and Laurie; sons John and Tom; their mother; brothers Anthony and Joseph Racanelli; six grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

Memorial services are planned in New York and San Francisco.