The life and times of a trailblazing lawyer and judge in American law. Author of the controversial but prescient judicial opinion striking down the ban on gays in the military -- two decades before the Supreme Court finally recognized such equal rights -- Bill Norris made law and waves on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Yet his legal and civic life before and after, though less well known, is equally the measure of the man.

"Bill Norris tells his American story--growing up in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, then rising to legal, judicial and political heights in post-war...