In Re Lady Lawyers:
The Rise of Women Attorneys and the Supreme Court
A Judicial Legacy
After Elena Kagan’s appointment in 2010, three women sat on the Supreme Court for the first time: Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan.
Justice Kagan’s Investiture Ceremony on October 1, 2010.
From left to right: Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Retired, Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Elena Kagan pose together in the Justices’ Conference Room.
On Whose Shoulders We Stand
In 2009, Elena Kagan, then-Dean of Harvard Law School, interviewed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for Harvard’s Journal of Law and Gender:
Dean Kagan: “Justice Ginsburg… Why is it important, do you think, for women to know the story of women like Belva Lockwood?”
Justice Ginsburg: “For one thing, we should appreciate the women on whose shoulders we stand, women who said the same things we said many years later, but we spoke at a time when society was willing to listen… Belva Lockwood’s story is a perfect illustration. She didn’t go off in a corner and cry when the Supreme Court turned down her application for admission to the Court’s Bar. She was determined to correct the Court’s error. So she went to another forum, to Congress. It’s that attitude we found inspirational, that I can do it spirit, the determination that if I suffer a defeat now and then, I will overcome it.”
In 2015, Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan gathered to honor Justice O’Connor when she was presented with the Seneca Women Global Leadership Award. Justice Ginsburg recalled in her remarks that after she read her first opinion from the Bench following her appointment in 1993, Justice O’Connor passed her a note that read, “This is your first opinion for the Court. It is a fine one. I look forward to many more.” Justice Ginsburg recounted, “Remembering how good that note made me feel, I sent similar notes to Justice Sotomayor and Justice Kagan when they announced their first opinions for the Court.”
“Every Woman lawyer who actually earns her living in the practice of law is an exceptional woman. To survive the hard grind of study, and the worst grind of private practice or the demands of public office, requires good health, good brains, and most important, good luck.”
— Rosalind Goodrich Bates, 1932
Administration of the Judicial Oath
Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., administers the Judicial Oath to Judge Amy Coney Barrett in the East Conference Room, Supreme Court Building. Judge Barrett’s husband, Jesse M. Barrett, holds the Bible.
On October 26, 2020, Senior Associate Justice Clarence Thomas administered the Constitutional Oath to Judge Amy Coney Barrett. Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., administered the Judicial Oath to Barrett on October 27, 2020, making her the fifth woman to serve on the Supreme Court.