Louis Westcott Myers was born in Lake Mills, Wisconsin, in September 1872, earned his bachelor's and law degrees at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a Phi Beta Kappa, and practiced in Madison and Chicago before making a risky move to frontier-era Los Angeles in 1898. After 15 years in private practice he was appointed to the Los Angeles County Superior Court in 1913, then won election to keep the seat in 1914 and again in 1920.

This episode traces his rapid rise from trial judge to Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California in January 1923 and Chief Justice in April 1924, his unopposed statewide election that October, and his surprising resignation on January 1, 1926, to join the Los Angeles firm of Henry W. O'Melveny. It also covers his 1938 argument before the U.S. Supreme Court in NLRB v. Mackay Radio and Telegraph Co., h ...