Today in Supreme Court History: January 18, 1873

1/18/1873: Bradwell v. Illinois argued.

 

Comments

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Our old correspondent's website appears to be having issues:

https://www.captcrisis.com/

Bradwell was decided 8-1. Five justices answered the arguments thus:

The opinion just delivered in the Slaughter-House Cases renders elaborate argument in the present case unnecessary, for, unless we are wholly and radically mistaken in the principles on which those cases are decided, the right to control and regulate the granting of license to practice law in the courts of a state is one of those powers which are not transferred for its protection to the federal government, and its exercise is in no manner governed or controlled by citizenship of the United States in the party seeking such license.

The Slaughterhouse Cases dissenters split 3-1.

Three justices concurred with infamous language about the differences between the sexes. The Court itself didn't say this. Three justices did. ("wide difference in the respective spheres and destinies of man and woman" etc.)

Chief Justice Salmon Chase, who died soon after, dissented without opinion.

After the state changed its policy, Bradwell became a lawyer many years later. She never practiced law. Myra Bradwell, however, was one of the first legal journalists.

The Arabella Babb Mansfield Award honors “lifetime professional achievement, positive influence, and valuable contribution to women in the law and in society.”

It is named after the first woman to obtain a law license in the U.S. She, too, did not practice law, instead spending her life in academia. (Or, she never was the "Portia in the chambers," to quote Rumpole.)

The most recent recipients are the co-hosts of the Strict Scrutiny Podcast blog. The often forgotten "fifth Beatle," Jaime Santos, who was an original co-host, a couple of years ago argued her first case in front of the Supreme Court.

https://www.scotusblog.com/2023/11/advocates-in-conversation-jaime-santos-makes-her-debut/

[Dan Schiavetta]

Fixed. Thank you!