First Woman to Argue Before the Supreme Court
In the United States Court of Claims. The Cherokee Nation vs. The United States ... Reply Brief of the Eastern and Emigrant Cherokees to the United States, and to the claim of the Cherokee Nation ... November 9, 1904.
Washington, D.C: [Government Printing Office], November 9, 1904.
Price: $5,000.00
About the item
17pp. 8vo. First Woman to Argue Before the Supreme Court. Printed wrappers. Near fine.
Item #325635
In 1873, Belva Lockwood graduated from the National University Law School (now George Washington University Law School), though the school granted her a diploma only after she appealed to President Ulysses S. Grant. In 1879 she petitioned Congress to pass an anti-discrimination law that would permit a woman to appear in any court in the District, including the Supreme Court. She would become the first woman member of the Supreme Court bar and the first woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court (Kaiser v. Stickney).
In the present case, which would result in her second appearance before the Supreme Court, she argued on behalf of the Cherokee Nation who were suing the federal government for failing to pay claims resulting from their sale of land in Georgia in 1835 and their removal in 1838. In 1906 the Supreme Court would affirm a lower court's decision and find in their favor, ordering the government to pay the Cherokee over $5 million.
