Everything You Don't Know About The First Woman Judge

Professor Tracy Thomas, the CyberLink Chair of Constitutional Law at the University of Akron and author of The First Woman Judge: The Life and Legacy of Florence Allen, joins Kathryn Rubino to tell the story of Florence Allen, the first woman on a federal appellate court, a state supreme court, and a common pleas court in the country, and to explain why a judge considered for the U.S. Supreme Court a dozen times has largely disappeared from legal history.

Key Takeaways

• Florence Allen was a trailblazer many times over: first woman common pleas judge in the country, first woman on a state supreme court, and the first woman federal appellate judge.

• Allen wasn't a straightforward rights crusader. She was a careful, moderate judge who used long, precedent-heavy opinions to disprove assumptions that women couldn't handle complex legal issues.

• She was on the shortlist for the U.S. Supreme Court 12 times across multiple presidents, but never appointed, largely because presidents wanted political loyalists, not judges with her level of judicial experience.

• Allen faced constant microaggressions and outright hostility, from being shunned in conference to being denied equal pay, and pushed back deliberately and strategically when it mattered.

• Her legacy faded partly because of a decades-long gap before the next woman reached similar positions, and because women's legal history has historically been under-preserved and under-studied.

Links and Resources

• Author Site, Professor Tracy Thomas: https://www.proftracythomas.com/

• The First Woman Judge (Amazon): https://www.amazon.com/First-Woman-Judge-Legacy-Florence/dp/0520399609

• University of Akron Center for Constitutional Law: https://www.uakron.edu/law/ccl/

• Prof Tracy Thomas, Linktree: https://linktr.ee/ProfTThomas

• Contact: thomast@uakron.edu

Keywords

Florence Allen, first woman judge, Tracy Thomas, University of Akron, legal history, women in law, women's legal history, Supreme Court shortlist, federal appellate judge, state supreme court, judicial history, constitutional law, women judges, Above the Law, The Jabot Podcast, judicial biography, suffrage movement, New Deal jurisprudence, legal academia, women's rights lawyer

Episode Highlights

• [00:06:00 - 00:07:00]  Tracy Thomas describes discovering Florence Allen was the first woman federal appellate judge, state supreme court justice, and common pleas judge in the country.

• [00:12:00 - 00:16:00]  Thomas explains why Allen was shortlisted for the Supreme Court 12 times, and why sexism and political calculation kept her off it.

• [00:17:00 - 00:20:00]  Allen's day-to-day experience of being shunned, mocked, and underpaid as the first woman in every room she entered.

• [00:25:00 - 00:27:00]  Why Allen's legacy is more than a "first woman" footnote, and how it reshaped representation on the bench.