William Paul Peek[1] (June 5, 1904 – April 7, 1987) was an American attorney, Democratic politician and jurist.

His close alliance with the Governor alienated a number of moderate and conservative Democrats, who allied themselves with Republicans to elect Gordon Hickman Garland as Speaker in 1940.

Peek was appointed Secretary of State by Democratic Governor Culbert L. Olson in 1940, after the death of the long-time Republican incumbent, Frank C. Jordan.

He did not win the general election in 1942, when Republican Frank M. Jordan won back the office that his father had held.

[7][8] After Jordan won the 1942 election, Governor Olson appointed Peek to the California Court of Appeal's Third Appellate District in Sacramento.

According to the Daily Bruin, the Court ruled that The Regents' action to require faculty members to sign an affirmation of non-membership in any subversive organization was a violation of the State Constitution and "That the pledge is the highest loyalty that can be demonstrated by any citizen, and that the exacting of any other test of loyalty would be antithetical to our fundamental concept of freedom.... [any other decision would] approve that which from the beginning of our government has been denounced as the most effective means by which one special brand of political or economic philosophy can entrench and perpetuate itself to the eventual exclusion of all others .