9th CIRCUIT COWBOY is the story of Judge Harry Pregerson who, for almost half a century, served on California's famously liberal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and was known for placing his personal scruples over what he discounted as abstract legalities. 'I looked upon being a judge,' he said, 'as a chance to help as many people as I could through the law.' Growing up during the Depression in diverse East Los Angeles, Harry enlisted in the Marines in World War II and served in the Pacific. In the bloody Battle for Okinawa, he received a field commission to lieutenant after suffering severe gun shot wounds to his legs. After the war, he went on to become a lawyer, a district court judge and ultimately one of the most admired, and sometimes scorned, appellate judges in the United States -- a champion for veterans, the homeless, the poor and the powerless.
