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A Professional Pioneer: Myra Bradwell's Fight to Practice Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 October 2011

Nancy T. Gilliam
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Extract

In April of 1873, the United States Supreme Court rejected Myra Bradwell's claim that the right to practice law should be acknowledged as one of the privileges and immunities of United States citizenship. Thus, the first case of sex discrimination to be heard by the Court was resolved against the woman, as would be every subsequent claim but one for the next ninety-eight years.

Type
Symposium on the History of the Legal Profession and the Judiciary
Information
Law and History Review , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , Spring 1987 , pp. 105 - 133
Copyright
Copyright © the American Society for Legal History, Inc. 1987

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References

1. Bradwell v. Illinois, 83 U.S. (16 Wall.) 130 (1873); Reed v. Reed, 404 U.S. 71 (1971); Adkins v. Children's Hospital, 261 U.S. 525 (1923) (the Adkins feminism was an aberration in the ideological consistency of Court opinions between Bradwell and Reed).

2. 83 U.S. (16 Wall.) 36 (1873).

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19. Ibid.

20. Ibid, at col. 3.

21. Ibid.

22. Ibid, at col. 4.

23. Ibid, at 146, col. 2.

24. Ibid, at col. 3.

25. Ibid.

26. Ibid.

27. Cole v. Van Riper, Chicago Legal News, November 7, 1868, at 41, col. 1 (III. 1868) (for text of act).

28. Chicago Legal News, February 27, 1869, at 172, col. 1; ibid., October 17, 1868, at 22, col. 1.

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31. Chicago Legal News, November 7, 1868, at 41, col. 1.

32. Ibid.

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39. Chicago Legal News, February 5, 1870, at 147, col. 4.

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47. Palmer, The Bench and Bar, supra note 7 at 280; Chicago Legal News, February 24, 1894, at 210, col. 1.

48. Chicago Legal News, January 20, 1872, at 108, col. 1. In re Bradwell, 55 III. 535 (1869).

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55. Ward v. Maryland, 79 U.S. (12 Wall.) 418, 430 (1870).

56. In re Bradwell, 55 III. at 541.

57. Chicago Legal News April 19, 1873, at 354, col. 1.

58. Ibid., September 17, 1870, at 408, col. 2 (Bradwell called Carpenter ‘one of the ablest constitutional lawyers in the nation…‘).

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63. Chicago Legal News September 17, 1870, at 408, col. 2.

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68. Fairman, Justice Miller, supra note 52 at 179.

69. Report of Argument made by J. A. Campbell in Behalf of the Plaintiffs in Error, February 3 and 4, 1873, pass., Slaughter-House Cases; Fairman, Reconstruction, supra note 64 at 1344; Fairman, Justice Miller, supra note 52 at 181.

70. Fairman, Reconstruction, supra note 64 at 1347.

71. Chicago Legal News, October 15, 1870, at 20, col. 1.

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77. Chicago Historical Society, Manuscripts Collection, Letter from Matt H. Carpenter to Myra Bradwell, January 11, 1872.

78. Flower, Carpenter, supra note 59 at 175–76; Thompson, Carpenter, supra note 61 at 278–79.

79. Argument for Plaintiff in Error at 12, Bradwell.

80. Stanton, Anthony, and Gage, Woman Suffrage, supra note 33 at 522.

81. Argument for the Plaintiff in Error at 2, Bradwell.

82. Ibid, at 5.

83. Ibid, at 3.

84. Ibid, at 10.

85. Ibid, at 8–9.

86. Ibid, at 9.

87. Ibid.

88. Ibid, at 11–12.

89. Ibid, at 12.

90. Ibid, at 13.

91. Bradwell, 83 U.S. at 137; Fairman, Justice Miller supra note 52 at 421.

92. Argument for Plaintiff in Error at 1, Bradwell.

93. Record at 12, Bradwell.

94. Ibid, at 20, 21.

95. Chicago Legal News, February 5, 1870, at 145, col. 3.

96. Argument for Plaintiff in Error at 1, 11, 12, Bradwell.

97. Ibid, at 5, 10.

98. Supreme Court Rule 17, Minutes of the Supreme Court, Mon., May 1, 1871; author's survey of volumes 80 through 84 of the U.S. Reports yielded 11 unrepresented defendants in error in 331 cases.

99. 88 U.S. (21 Wall.) 162 (1875).

100. Thompson, Carpenter, supra note 61 at 86; Rower, Carpenter, supra note 59, at 171–72.

101. Flower Carpenter supra note 59 at 176; Thompson, Carpenter supra note 61 at 60.

102. Author's survey of volumes 80 through 84 of the U.S. Reports.

103. Fairman, Justice Miller, supra note 52 at 117; Thompson, Carpenter, supra note 61 at 104.

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108. Thompson, Carpenter, supra note 61 at 102.

109. Witt, Supreme Court, supra note 65 at 60.

110. Warren, Supreme Court, supra note 67 at 539.

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114. 83 U.S. at 138.

115. 83 U.S. at 79.

116. 83 U.S. at 139.

117. Ibid.

118. Ibid.

119. Ibid.

120. Ibid, at 141.

121. Ibid.

122. Ibid.

123. Ibid, at 142.

124. Ibid.

125. Swisher, Field, supra note 105 at 421, n.9.

126. Chicago Legal News, April 19, 1873, at 354, col. 2.

127. Ibid., May 10, 1873, at 390, cols. 1 and 3.

128. Ibid, at col. 2.

129. Ibid.

130. Ibid.

131. Sachs and Wilson, Sexism, supra note 16 at 100 (the authors pose the question whether the ‘inconsistencies’ of both Bradley and Carpenter were not addressed because of sexism of the politics of Reconstruction).

132. Act of March 22, 1872, 1871 Ill. Laws 578.

133. Bittenbender, ‘Woman in Law’, supra note 11 at 243.

134. Letter from David L. Keil, Director of Administrative Services, Illinois State Bar Association, to author, August 4, 1983.

135. Chicago Legal News, April 5, 1890, at 265, col. 4.

136. Ibid., February 17, 1894, at 200, col. 4 (James Bradwell's obituary states that she was ‘much surprised to receive a certificate of admission upon the original application…’).

137. Carson, History, supra note 72 at 439, n.6; Bittenbender, ‘Woman in Law’, supra note 11 at 225.

138. National Archives and Records Service, Attorney Rolls of the Supreme Court of the United States, MF 2177, Roll 1, February 5, 1790 to May 31, 1898.

139. Bittenbender, ‘Woman in Law’, supra note 11 at 242–43.

140. Stanton, Anthony, and Gage, Woman Suffrage, supra note 33 at 601, 615.

141. Ibid, at 536.

142. 88 U.S. (21 Wall.) 162 (1875).

143. Stanton, Anthony, and Gage, Woman Suffrage, supra note 33 at 626; Sachs and Wilson, Sexism, supra note 16 at 109–10.

144. Warren, Supreme Court, supra note 67 at 551.

145. Ibid.; Thompson, Carpenter, supra note 61 at 84.

146. Carson, History, supra note 72 at 439; Tribe, Constitutional Law, supra note 64 at 423.

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148. Sachs and Wilson, Sexism, supra note 16 at 100; Fairman, Reconstruction, supra note 64 at 1366; Tribe, Constitutional Law, supra note 64 at 441, n.20.

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150. Dothard V. Rawlinson, 433 U.S. 321, 344 n.2 (1977) (Marshall, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part).

151. Chicago Legal News, August 17, 1872, at 424, col. 2.