This post does not really have to do with religion, although the case cited caught my eye because it involved women in the legal field, and my studies in religion have dealt with women’s roles in the religious field. (See my book, Prayers of Jewish Women, dealing with the prayers of women in the texts of the Second Temple Period).
A couple of months ago, Professor Gary Slapper (@garyslapper) tweeted a link to an interesting historical court case involving the Supreme Court of Texas. The case was Johnson v. Darr, 272 S.W. 1098 (Tex. 1925), of which the facts are rather uninteresting. However, all three judges scheduled to hear the case were members of the national men’s organization that was a party to the case. As the Chief Justice tried to find other judges, each declined or was disqualified because of the membership. Finally, the idea was to empanel only female judges, who would not be members. The trick was that, at that time, women could not serve as judges or on juries! Furthermore, there were only 30 female attorneys, only 10 of which were Supreme Court qualified (notwithstanding gender). Three women justices were eventually empanelled for the case.
“All Woman Supreme Court.” (Texas State Historical Association)
“Texas’ All-Woman Supreme Court.” (Texas Almanac)
Alice G. McAfee, “The All-Woman Texas Supreme Court: The History Behind a Very Brief Moment on the Bench”
Michelle Skinner, “Hortense Spark Ward.” (Women’s Legal History, Barbara Allen Babcock and Erika Wayne)