Women's eNews article on the history of getting women appointed to federal courts (plus my personal account)

Women's eNews today has a great article about how we finally got women judges at the highest levels. Click on the article's title to read it: "Nixon Gaffe Sparks Era of Judicial Advance."

It begins by telling how, in 1971 when Justices Harlan and Black announced their retirement, Nixon promised to "appoint the best man for the job." That sent Liz Carpenter (who had been Lady Bird Johnson's press secretary from 1963 to 1969 and was one of the founders of the then-new National Women's Political Caucus) into gear. Liz started organizing women leaders to push for the appointment of a woman to the US Supreme Court and other federal courts.

As the article's author Sally Kenney points out, things didn't really happen until Jimmy Carter got elected President. I urge you to especially read the section labeled "McKenna Uses Her Access."

It points out that

Margaret McKenna, then only 32 years old and the first woman to hold the position of deputy White House counsel...

...wrested exclusive control of judicial appointments from Attorney General Griffin Bell and the Justice Department, which continues to share that power with the White House Counsel's office to this day.

She met with Carter's newly-created nominating commissions for the circuit courts and charged them with including women and minority men on their lists.

She worked with outside women's groups to push forward names, enlisting other women in the White House, including Sarah Weddington, special White House adviser to President Carter (and the lawyer who argued Roe v. Wade); Midge Costanza, presidential assistant for public liaison and the First Lady Rosalynn Carter.

After he was elected, President Carter appointed me to the Judicial Nominating Commission for the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. (I remember sitting in a circle on the floor in a completely empty house eating Kentucky Fried Chicken with Carter and a few others as we planned to convert the building into his Oklahoma Presidential campaign headquarters.)

I wasn't a lawyer -- which irked the *#&! out of the old white male lawyers on the Commission -- but I WAS a women's rights activist. To make matters worse, Carter specifically gave us instructions to give special consideration to women and minorities with fewer years of experience than their peers since the legal field had been rather restricted to minorities until the civil rights movement era.

Our job was to read heaps of material submitted by each applicant (a massive application plus briefs, and opinions and articles and books they'd written - we are talking a LOT OF READING!). After interviewing the candidates, we were to pick up to 5 candidates based on (get this) merit! Not how much they gave to a Senator's campaign or the President's election coffers. Or how many offices they'd held in bar related organizations. But merit. Those names went to President Carter and he madehis selection from the names submitted.

I served on the Commission through three assignments/placements. I like to think I played a small role in getting Stefanie Seymour appointed to the 10th Circuit from Oklahoma.

Anyway, enjoy the article; it was a different time. The "best man for the job," indeed!

(Someday I'll tell you about going to the Women's Political Caucus annual meeting in San Antonio, TX where one presidential candidate actually passed out campaign material to us that had been printed with "best man for the job" on his brochure's front cover. Some poor staffer had stayed up all night before our meeting - gluing a rephrased banner over the "offending" slogan -- before he spoke to state caucuses. (Poor, fellow; he hadn't heard yet that women had gotten the right to vote and were expecting candidates to pay attention to them!)