Phyllis Kravitch, Judge Who Opened Doors for Herself, Dies at 96

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/21/us/obituary-phyllis-kravitch-dead-court-of-appeals-judge.html

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Judge Phyllis A. Kravitch, who battled prejudice to build a trailblazing legal career in Georgia in the 1940s, and who in 1979 became the third woman appointed to a United States Court of Appeals, died on June 15 in Atlanta. She was 96.

Her death, at a hospital near her home, was confirmed by her nephew Aaron Scharf.

Judge Kravitch embarked on her legal career in Savannah, Ga., her hometown, in 1944, more than a decade before women were allowed to sit on juries in the state. Though she had graduated second in her law school class at the University of Pennsylvania, she said in an interview with the American Bar Association in 2013, she was turned down when she applied for a clerkship with a justice of the United States Supreme Court. He told her that no woman had ever clerked at the court, she recalled, and that he did not want to break with precedent.

She was also turned down for jobs at one law firm after another, at least one of which explicitly refused to hire Jews. So she returned to Savannah to practice law with her father, Aaron, who represented black and indigent clients struggling to find legal counsel.

She and her father brought one case petitioning to open Georgia’s all-white Democratic primary to black voters (a goal won through a separate legal challenge), and in 1948 they successfully argued a case before the Supreme Court seeking to protect the rights of Georgia shrimpers.

By her account, Judge Kravitch eventually turned her gender into an advantage in front of all-male Southern juries, which, she said, tended to be “very protective” of her.

Over the years she earned the grudging respect and acceptance of her peers in the Georgia legal system, becoming the first female president of the Savannah Bar Association in 1975 and a Georgia Superior Court judge the next year.

In 1979 President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which now includes Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. Two years later she became part of the 11th Circuit, which covers Alabama, Florida and Georgia, when it split from the Fifth, then the busiest circuit court of appeals in the country. She was among dozens of female and minority judges appointed by Mr. Carter.

Judge Kravitch wrote hundreds of opinions on the 11th Circuit Court involving, among other issues, the rights of migrant workers, affirmative action, employment discrimination and the treatment of Haitian refugees and Cuban spies.

In one dissent, she argued that David Duke, the former Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, should be allowed to appear on the 1992 Republican presidential primary ballot, against the wishes of the party.

“The Republican Party of Georgia and the state seek to exclude Duke from the primary ballot because they believe that the Party will suffer embarrassment and adverse publicity by virtue of his candidacy for the Republican nomination,” Judge Kravitch wrote. “No political body, however, has a constitutional right to freedom from embarrassment or adverse publicity.”

When Judge Kravitch stepped down from her seat on the 11th Circuit in 1997, she was replaced by another woman, Judge Frank M. Hull. (Judge Kravitch continued to serve on the court as a senior judge.)

In an interview on Tuesday, Judge Hull called Judge Kravitch “fiercely independent and well prepared, but very collegial.”

Though Judge Kravitch was sometimes “perceived as being progressive and liberal,” Judge Hull added, “she really decided every case based on the facts and the law.”

Phyllis Adele Kravitch was born in Savannah on Aug. 23, 1920, to Aaron Kravitch and the former Ella Wiseman. After graduating from Savannah High School, she attended Goucher College in Baltimore and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1941.

Despite earning good grades, she struggled to find a law school that would accept her, until finally winning admission to the University of Pennsylvania, her father’s alma mater, as part of an accelerated program. She graduated in 1943 after serving on the board of editors of the university’s law review.

Although technically semiretired, Judge Kravitch continued to serve on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals until 2015, handling a full caseload well into her late 80s.

“She really sacrificed and gave her life to the law,” Judge Hull said.

She is survived by two sisters, Bernice Mazo and Sally Scharf.