San Joaquin College of Law
In 1969, Wanger joined Fresno County Municipal Court Judge Dan Eymann and attorney John Loomis to found San Joaquin College of Law (SJCL) in Fresno, California.[2][3] Wanger served as an adjunct professor at SJCL from 1970 to 1991 and served as Dean from 1980 to 1983.
Legal career
Wanger was City Attorney for Mendota, California from 1975 to 1980. He was a Judge Pro Tem, Superior Court of California, County of Fresno in 1988. He was a Pro tem settlement conference judge, Superior Court of California, County of Fresno in 1989.[1]
He was a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California.[4] Wanger was nominated by President George H. W. Bush on January 8, 1991, to a seat vacated by Judge Milton Lewis Schwartz. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 21, 1991, and received his commission on March 25, 1991. He assumed senior status on May 31, 2006.[1]
Sitting in Fresno, Judge Wanger became known as the chief arbiter of California's water wars.[5] The highly technical scientific disputes Wanger was forced to resolve would require him to rely on his own appointed expert witnesses and often to issue rulings that were hundreds of pages long.[6] During the bitterly contested delta smelt case, Judge Wanger drew national attention when he lengthily ridiculed a testifying government scientist for being a "zealot".[7] In September 2011 he announced that he would retire on September 30, 2011.[8] When stepping off the bench Judge Wanger observed that his time of service had left him with few friends.[9]
