On March 23, 2021, WLAM hosted a virtual book club discussion of the book Shortlisted: Women in the Shadows of the Supreme Court. We were fortunate to have the two authors of the book, Renee Knake Jefferson and Hannah Brenner Johnson, join us for our discussion.
As we all know, Sandra Day O’Connor was the first female justice appointed to the United States Supreme Court in 1981. However, what many do not know is that there were nine other women who were on the “shortlist” for the Supreme Court in the decades before Justice O’Connor’s nomination. Shortlisted tells the stories of these incredible women.
The first woman ever shortlisted for the Supreme Court was Florence Allen. In 1938, Judge Allen was first considered for the Supreme Court by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. She went on to be shortlisted another eleven times by Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Dwight Eisenhower. Unfortunately, despite being shortlisted so many times, Judge Allen was never appointed to the Supreme Court and it would be decades until a woman was appointed to the highest court in the country.
Being shortlisted was not the first of Florence Allen’s many accomplishments. In 1913, she graduated second in her law school class from New York University. She went on to be appointed the first female prosecutor in America in 1919, the first female elected to general trial court in 1920, and the first female elected to a state supreme court (the Ohio Supreme Court) in 1922. In 1934, Judge Allen was appointed as the first female judge of a federal court – the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Of course, these many accomplishments were not without their challenges. Florence Allen faced discrimination at every turn of her career due to being a woman. However, many of her accomplishments were due to the support of other women. After not getting any job offers despite graduating second in her law school class, Judge Allen went on to start her own law firm where she was a champion of women’s issues. Before becoming a prosecutor and judge, she argued for the right of women to vote in municipal elections in front of the Ohio Supreme Court and won. Judge Allen’s support from the women’s suffrage movement is what helped her get elected as a judge in the later years of her career. Furthermore, Judge Allen was appointed to the Sixth Circuit and later shortlisted for the Supreme Court in part due to the support she received from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
Judge Allen went on to serve the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals for 25 years. In her last year on the court, she served as Chief Judge, another first for women. While she never officially made it to the Supreme Court, Judge Allen’s lasting legacy teaches us about perseverance in the face of discrimination and what women can accomplish if we work together and support each other. We are fortunate to have been able to learn more about Judge Allen’s fascinating and inspiring life through our discussion with Renee Knake Jefferson and Hannah Brenner Johnson.
Sources:
- Charles P. Goldbert, We’ve Come a Long Way But Have a Long Way To Go – Review of Shortlisted: Women in the Shadows of the Supreme Court, https://www.naela.org/NewsJournalOnline/OnlineJournalArticles/OnlineFeb2021/BookRev.aspx?subid=1188.
- Renee Knake Jefferson & Hannah Brenner Johnson, Shortlisted: Women in the Shadows of the Supreme Court, (New York: NYU Press, 2020).
- Squire Patton Boggs, The Learned Sixth: New Paper Reexamines Judge Florence Allen, Sixth Circuit Trailblazer https://www.sixthcircuitappellateblog.com/learned-sixth/the-learned-sixth-new-paper-reexamines-judge-florence-allen-sixth-circuit-trailblazer/.
- The Supreme Court of Ohio & The Ohio Judicial System, Florence Ellinwood Allen https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/SCO/formerjustices/bios/allen.asp.
- Tracey A. Thomas, The Jurisprudence of the First Woman Judge, Florence Allen: Challenging the Myth of Women Judging Differently, 27 William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, & Social Justice 293 (2021), https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmjowl/vol27/iss2/3.
