Representative Serranus Clinton Hastings

Serranus Clinton Hastings (November 22, 1814 – February 18, 1893) was an American politician, rancher and lawyer in California. He studied law as a young man and moved to the Iowa District in 1837 to open a law office. Iowa became a territory a year later, and he was elected a member of the House of Representatives of the Iowa Territorial General Assembly. When the territory became the state of Iowa in 1846, he won an election to represent the state in the United States House of Representatives. After his term ended, he became Chief Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court.

After one year in office, Hastings resigned and moved to California. He was appointed to the California Supreme Court as Chief Justice a few months later. He won an election to be Attorney General of California, and assumed office shortly after his term as Chief Justice ended. He began practicing law again as Attorney General. He earned a small fortune with his law practice and used that fortune to finance his successful real estate ventures. In 1878, he founded the Hastings College of the Law with a donation of US$100,000.

Responding to press reports about Hastings’ involvement in killing and dispossessing Yuki people in the 1850s, a commission of Hastings College of the Law concluded in 2020 that Hastings participated in the California genocide in Mendocino County, California. The commission initially opposed a change in the name of the college, but in November 2021, the Board of Directors of UC Hastings voted to change the name of the institution.