Governor Pat Neff, after his many attempts to appoint male jurists to hear the case were frustrated by the same conflict, decided to name three women to serve on a special Supreme Court to hear just this one case. (Governor Neff was at the end of his term; one can speculate on whether his decision would have been different if he were standing for re-election.) Under the Texas constitution, justices had to have at least seven years of legal experience. This requirement may have been another stumbling block because the first female law school graduates in Texas had only graduated eleven years earlier in 1914. After two of the first three nominees were disqualified on that basis (having only practiced six years each), the three justices were Hortense Ward, Hattie Henenberg and Ruth Brazzil.
Ward had passed the bar exam without a law degree in 1910 and was the first woman to have passed the exam. She was politically active and had drafted the bill which eventually allowed women to vote in Texas elections in 1918. Henenberg had received her license to practice law in 1916 and was in general practice alone. Brazzil passed the bar exam in 1912 after attending the University of Texas School of Law as a “special student.” In 1925, two of the justices were married, but whether their husbands were members of WOW is not mentioned.
The court met a week over being constituted and voted to review the case. The appeal was heard a few weeks later and the court upheld the court of appeals, finding that WOW owned both tracts of land. (Johnson v. Darr, 114 Tex. 516 (1925)). The court was then dissolved.
–Christine Hurt
Cross-posted at The Conglomerate.
Who was the first woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court of Texas? Thanks.
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