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Constance Baker Motley

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Judge

The Resume

    (September 14, 1921-September 28, 2005)
    Born in New Haven, Connecticut
    Birth name was Contance Baker
    Attorney for the Legal Defense Fund of the NAACP
    New York State Senator (1964-65)
    Manhattan Burrough President (1965-66)
    Judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York (1961-2005)

Why she might be annoying:

    She joined the NAACP Legal Defense Fund partly because few private law firms would hire women.
    President Lyndon B. Johnson originally planned to appoint her to the Second Circuit Appeals Court to replace Thurgood Marshall, who he had named Solicitor General, but Senator Robert F. Kennedy persuaded Johnson to appoint her to the lower District Court, arguing it would be ‘too political’ to have two ‘black NAACP lawyers’ in high federal posts at the same time.
    The American Bar Association rated her as merely ‘qualified’ (the middle tier) for a position as a federal judge, citing her limited trial experience in New York – apparently ignoring the nearly 200 cases she had litigated in federal courts.

Why she might not be annoying:

    She was married to Joel Motley, Jr., for 59 years.
    She was a law clerk for Thurgood Marshall.
    She was the first black woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court, the right to counsel case Hamilton v. Alabama (1961).
    She argued the cases that resulted in the desegregation of the Universities of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi.
    She said her greatest achievement as an attorney was securing the readmission of 1,100 students in Birmingham, Alabama, who had been expelled from school for participating in civil rights demonstrations (1963).
    She was the first black woman to be a federal judge.
    She said, ‘As the first black and first woman, I am proving in everything I do that blacks and women are as capable as anyone.’

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 13 Votes: 46.15% Annoying