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History of Women in the Law

Course Number: LAW 6930 Credits: 2

For centuries, women have been severely disadvantaged under the common law of England and the United States.  Some of those disadvantages are the result of social inequalities, while others are the result of legal disabilities.  Over the past 200 years, women have struggled to equalize their legal rights and responsibilities, but gender-based stereotypes and social prejudices have severely hampered that progress.  In 1972, after nearly 50 years of yearly introductions, an Equal Rights Amendment (the ERA) was proposed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification.  When the deadline finally expired for ratification in 1982, 35 of the requisite 38 states had ratified.  But beginning in 2016 there was a push for continued ratification and Nevada and Illinois both ratified the ERA in 2017 and 2018 respectively.  All indications are that the ERA will be ratified by Virginia in early 2020, to reach the requisite 38 states.  When that happens, there will be a host of unprecedented legal issues facing the courts, Congress, and the states.  This course will be an examination of those legal issues through the lens of the ERA.  We will begin by examining the procedural issues facing the ERA and the constitutional questions they raise about the amendment power under Article V.  We will then examine how, if at all, the ERA might affect the legal rights of women and non-gender-conforming individuals.  By examining issues such as family law, property law, labor law, criminal law, health care law, military law, and even the right to single-sex bathrooms, we will explore how, if at all, the ERA might affect the long-entrenched legal disabilities of women.  And we will also explore whether we even need an ERA, as the Fourteenth Amendment has been expanded to prohibit sex-based discrimination in certain contexts.  Requirements for the course will be extensive research and class participation, weekly or bi-weekly reflection papers, a presentation, and a final essay composition.  It will entail significant reading and research and we will be joined by graduate and senior undergraduate students from other departments.  There will be both collaborative and individual assignments.

University of Florida Levin College of Law
309 Village Drive
PO Box 117620
Gainesville, FL 32611
(352) 273-0804
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The Florida Constitutional Law Endowment in memory of Justice Ben F. Overton was created by Judge Karen Miller in 2013. This fund supports lectures and presentations by Justices of the Florida Supreme Court at the Fredric G. Levin College of Law.

HISTORY

Justice Overton, who earned his B.S. in 1951 and his Juris Doctor in 1952 from the University of Florida, was the first merit appointment to the Florida Supreme Court. Throughout his career he was active in legal education and served as an Adjunct Professor at the Levin College of Law through December 2012, the month of his death. Although he resided at Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, a continuing care retirement community developed in cooperation with UF, he also considered the Florida Supreme Court “home.” Among the high points of his later years was hosting Justices of the Florida Supreme Court in Gainesville and taking his class to Tallahassee to hear oral arguments at the Florida Supreme Court.
Judge Miller, who earned her B.S. cum laude from New York University in 1974 and her Juris Doctor from New York Law School in 1977, served as Chief Administrative Law Judge of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, New York City’s business regulatory agency, before she retired to Oak Hammock at the University of Florida. Having accompanied Justice Overton on his excursions to Tallahassee and joined him in welcoming guests to Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, she created the endowment in memory of Justice Overton to ensure that the Levin College of Law continues to have the funding necessary to continue and enhance the interaction between its students and the Florida Supreme Court.

 

Judge Miller remembered the event that motivated the endowment.

 

Prior to a dinner at the home of Dean Robert Jerry and Lisa Jerry shortly after Justice Overton’s death, Justice Barbara Pariente and I were discussing a suitable memorial. Justice Pariente, who had been Justice Overton’s colleague on the Florida Supreme Court and who understood the importance to him of the interaction between his students and the Court, suggested the outline of what has become the Overton lectures. Dean Jerry, who has since retired, as has Dean Emeritus Jon Mills, who assumed responsibility for implementing the Overton lectures, were very supportive from the beginning. Since Dean Mills’ retirement, Professor Timothy McClendon, who assisted both Justice Overton and Dean Mills teaching Florida Constitutional Law and who co-authored the recent Florida Constitutional Law casebook, has continued the Overton lectures with the support of Interim Dean Merritt McAlister and CGR director, Professor Danaya Wright.

Justice Overton was a devoted jurist, educator, and ethical leader of the Florida legal profession. The Overton Lecture Series brings Florida Supreme Court Justices to the University of Florida, Levin College of Law, and serves to introduce students to the inner workings of the Court. CGR and the students of the College of Law extend our deepest gratitude to Judge Karen Miller for making the Overton Lectures possible in perpetuity.

You can watch an interview for the Florida Historical Society by Mary Adkins, professor emeritus of the UF Levin College of Law, with Justice Overton here.

Justice Overton was also interviewed for the Samuel Proctor Oral History Project and a transcript of his interview is available at the Smathers Library, and here.
Justice Overton sat on the Constitution Revision Commission of 1977-78 that proposed a right to privacy in the Florida Constitution. Although it failed as part of the Constitution Revision Commission recommendations, it passed in 1980 when proposed by the legislature. The bill was co-sponsored by our very own Jon Mills. The privacy provision prevailed by greater than 60%. Justice Overton then wrote a concurrence in a critical reproductive rights case in 1989 affirming that the privacy provision of the Florida Constitution included the right to obtain an abortion. That decision was overruled in Planned Parenthood of SW and Central Florida v. Florida. You can read about the role of Justice Overton, Jon Mills – director emeritus of CGR, and the history of the 1989 case here.