Description: Judge Florence E. Allen seated in her chambers, ca. 1920-1929. As a young woman, Allen (1884-1966) graduated from Western Reserve University in 1904, and worked as a music critic for the Cleveland Plain Dealer while pursuing a graduate degree in political science and constitutional law at Western Reserve University. She received her master's degree in 1908, and soon moved to New York City to work for the New York League for the Protection of Immigrants while earning a law degree from the New York University School of Law. After receiving her JD, Allen returned to Cleveland, where she gained admittance to the Ohio bar and established her own law practice. She was appointed Assistant Prosecutor of Cuyahoga County in 1919, and was elected judge of the Court of Common Pleas the following year. In 1922, Allen won a seat on the Ohio Supreme Court. Not only was she the first woman to serve on Ohio's highest court, but she was also the first woman to serve on the supreme court of any state. Allen continued to serve as a justice of the Ohio Supreme Court until 1934, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed her to the Sixth Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals. Once again, Allen established a precedent as the first woman judge in a federal court. She eventually became chief judge of the court, a position she held until her retirement in 1959. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL00128
Subjects: Ohio--Politics and government; Ohio Women; Law & legal affairs; Judges; Supreme Court justices; Supreme Court of Ohio
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)
 

Description: This photograph is a formal bust portrait of Joseph Rockwell Swan, 36th Justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio (1855-1859). When this portrait was taken, Swan was in his late forties or early fifties. His gray hair is thinning, and his mutton-chop sideburns are white. Joseph R. Swan (1802-1884) was born in Westernville, New York, and began to study law in Aurora, New York. He moved to Columbus, Ohio, in 1824 and completed his legal studies under the guidance of his uncle, Judge Gustavus Swan, a justice of the state supreme court. Swan was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1824. In 1830 the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas appointed him prosecuting attorney. Three years later he was elected to the same post under newly enacted legislation that provided for the election of prosecuting attorneys by general vote. In 1834 the Ohio General Assembly elected him president judge of the Court of Common Pleas of the Twelfth Judicial Circuit. He served a seven-year term and was re-elected in 1841. Swan left the common pleas court in 1848 to enter private practice with John W. Andrews. He was a delegate to the Ohio state constitutional convention from Franklin County, 1850-51. In 1854 the newly formed Republican Party nominated him to a position on the Supreme Court of Ohio. He won the election and began serving on the court in February 1855. He served as chief justice from February 9, 1859, to his resignation on October 18, 1859. The court case that led to his resignation was "Ex Parte Bushnell" (1859), which challenged the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Despite his personal opposition to slavery, Swan wrote the majority opinion, which upheld the constitutionality of the 1850 law. Soon after this decision, Swan sought re-election to another term on the Supreme Court, but delegates to the Republican Convention denied him the nomination because of their opposition to the Bushnell ruling. Swan submitted his resignation to Governor Salmon P. Chase on October 18, 1859. During the remainder of his career, Swan worked as a solicitor for two railroad companies. He retired in 1879 and died in Columbus, Ohio, in 1884. Swan's greatest legacy to the law was as an author of legal reference books and of legislation. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL05989
Subjects: Ohio History--Presidents and Politics; Supreme Court justices; Ohio. Supreme Court; Swan, Joseph R. (Joseph Rockwell), 1802-1884
 

Description: This image is a photograph of a drawing of Morrison R. Waite, 1890. The portrait depicts Waite (1816-1888) as a dignified older man wearing his jurist's robe. At the bottom of the portrait is a handwritten signature ("M.R. Waite") and near the subject's ringed left hand is the artist's signature ("Max Rosenthal, Phila [illegible] 90"). Waite to the left his home state of Connecticut to practice law in northwestern Ohio. He ran twice unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate and spent one term in the state legislature. Waite later declined a seat on the Ohio Supreme Court. In 1871, U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant selected Waite to help settle claims with Great Britain that arose from the American Civil War. Waite's legal skills helped the United States obtain almost $16 million from Great Britain for that nation's support of the Confederacy during the Civil War. Upon returning to the United States, Waite participated in the Ohio Constitutional Convention of 1873 and was selected to be the convention's president. While serving at the Constitutional Convention, Waite received word that President Grant had nominated him to be Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Waite served as chief justice for the next fifteen years. Max Rosenthal (1833-1918) was a painter, lithographer, etcher, and draftsman born in Russian Poland, He emigrated to the U.S. in 1849. He is one of four Rosenthal brothers who founded a lithographic printing company in Philadelphia. Max was the firm’s primary artist. He is believed to have illustrated some of the earliest books produced in the U.S. that used the chromolithograph process. During his career he produced hundreds of portraits of eminent Americans and Britons. His son, Albert Rosenthal, was also a noted artist. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL05831
Subjects: Waite, Morrison R. (Morrison Remick), 1816-1888; Rosenthal, Max, 1833-1918; Portraits; Supreme Court justices; Ohio History--State and Local Government
 

Description: This portrait engraving print is of Rufus P. Ranney, ca. 1860. Ranney (1813-1891) was a justice of the Ohio Supreme Court from March 1851 to February 1857, and was selected by Trumbull County residents to represent them at the Ohio Constitutional Convention of 1850-1851. At the convention, Ranney supported popular election of state judges, but he opposed granting the governor the power to veto. Ranney also served as the first president of the Ohio State Bar Association, which was founded in 1881. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL04280
Subjects: Ohio Government; Lawyers; Supreme Court justices; Judges--Ohio
Places: Cleveland (Ohio); Cuyahoga County (Ohio)
 

Description: "Your Democratic Team" campaign poster in support of the Democratic candidates for Ohio's Supreme Court. The three men running for election are Frank D. Celebreeze for Chief Justice, Clifford F. Brown for Justice, and Lawrence Grey for Justice. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: OVS_1265
Subjects: Ohio Government; Presidents and Politics; Ohio. Supreme Court; Supreme Court justices; Judges--Ohio
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)
 

Description: Campaign poster for Kingsley A. Taft for Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, ca. 1962. A native of Cleveland, Taft was a prominent Ohio lawyer, politician and judge throughout his life. In 1962, Taft ran against Chief Justice Weygandt, who had been head of the Ohio Supreme Court since 1933. Weygandt was considered one of the most popular Democrats in the state, but was vulnerable because of his age, 74. This was believed to be the first time in the history of the American judiciary that a member of a State Supreme Court had challenged the court's chief justice for the top office. Judge James F. Bell, who retired from the court on October 8, 1962, stated, "[The candidacy of Judge Taft] is a great disservice to the court, and can only bring discredit on it in the eyes of the public." But Taft thought differently. He believed that Weygandt was getting too old for the job, did not administer the court well enough and was responsible in large part for the slow work of the court. Taft had urged a rotation of the chief justiceship and an election of a seventh judge in order to relieve Weygandt of the vast responsibilities. But when Weygandt filed for the office in 1962, Taft knew he had to oppose him. Despite the difficulties of the task, Taft defeated Chief Justice Weygandt 1,332,391 to 1,330,616. As a result of this close election, Taft achieved the highest position in Ohio's judiciary. He won re-election to his post in 1968 defeating his opponent John C. Duffy by over 800,000 votes. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: OVS_5973
Subjects: Ohio Government; Presidents and Politics; Ohio. Supreme Court; Supreme Court justices; Judges--Ohio
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio); Cleveland (Ohio); Cuyahoga County (Ohio)