Comments on: Catherine Roraback

Catherine Roraback

serazin — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:43:50 -0800

Catherine Roraback was the only woman in her class at Yale Law School. She was a founder of the Connecticut ACLU, and a president of the National Lawyers Guild. During her long career she defended labor organizers, immigrants, civil rights organizers, Black Panthers, and maybe most famously, Estelle Griswold before the United States Supreme Court in the case that legalized the distribution of birth control. She died this week at age 87.

One more bio and the NYT obit.

By: SassHat

SassHat — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:00:02 -0800

By: Ironmouth

Ironmouth — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:02:48 -0800

By: ClaudiaCenter

ClaudiaCenter — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:07:13 -0800

She sounds amazing. A great life.

By: mumkin

mumkin — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:11:32 -0800

By: Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America

Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:20:22 -0800

To say that Griswold v. Connecticut "legalized the distribution of birth control" is both an overstatement and an understatement. It did strike down a state law banning the distribution of birth control, but only with respect to married people. Like the article said, and more importantly from a jurisprudential standpoint, it revitalized the right to privacy (or created it from whole cloth, depending on who you ask). Roe v. Wade is its direct progeny.

By: lalochezia

lalochezia — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:21:30 -0800

Truly lived example of Noblesse Oblige. .

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:32:58 -0800

Love those awesome pioneers. Reading about her life is deeply inspiring. May she rest in peace. Another pioneering lawyer I knew as a child, was a close friend of my father's, Fanny Holtzman (At Fordham Law she was"the only girl in the night school class of 1923"). .

By: Titania

Titania — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 23:00:09 -0800

Inspiring life. Thank you for sharing!

By: ThePinkSuperhero

ThePinkSuperhero — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 23:01:45 -0800

By: wendell

wendell — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 23:10:56 -0800

By: duende

duende — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 23:44:52 -0800

That's a damn shame. Especially a paltry week before the NLG's first convention, commemorating its 70th anniversary. She was to be honored as one of the women presidents of the Guild. Catherine Roraback has done some great work, as both an attorney and the president of the Guild. You can read some relevant history here, and even pitch in some chage in her name, if you're so inclined. mea culpa: I'm not part of the Guild, but I've met some folks that do through work, and they really are lovely people.

By: finite

finite — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 23:46:21 -0800

By: DarlingBri

DarlingBri — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 00:02:28 -0800

By: LobsterMitten

LobsterMitten — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 00:04:52 -0800

Thank you for this. I've had a day of shock about how far we have to go, and it's nice to be inspired by people who fought even though they had it even worse.

By: Student of Man

Student of Man — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 00:50:04 -0800

By: mek

mek — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 03:42:11 -0800

By: longdaysjourney

longdaysjourney — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 08:06:53 -0800

By: dances_with_sneetches

dances_with_sneetches — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 08:38:48 -0800

. We're losing our great activists.

By: cybercoitus interruptus

cybercoitus interruptus — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 14:20:56 -0800