Motley, Constance Baker

(1921– ) lawyer, judge; born in New Haven, Conn. While a student at Columbia University (LL.B. 1946), she clerked for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's legal defense and education fund, for which she worked full time (1946–65). While there, she successfully argued nine cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, including those of James Meredith and Autherine Lucy. In 1964 she became the first African-American woman to be elected to the New York state senate; she became president of Manhattan Borough (1965–66). In 1966 she became the first black woman federal judge when President Lyndon Johnson appointed her to the U.S. District Court for the southern District of New York. From 1982–86 she served as chief judge, until becoming senior judge in 1986.

References in periodicals archive

The Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher Diversity Award will be presented to Danne Johnson, Constance Baker Motley Professor of Law at Oklahoma City University School of Law.

ABL to present scholarship, awards

Attorney Christopher DelliCarpini played Meredith and Nassau Academy of Law Past Dean Chandra Ortiz portrayed Constance Baker Motley, his attorney.

Nassau Bar to begin offering CLE credits for free

Those lawyers include Arthur Shores (Birmingham), Clifford Durr (Montgomery), Robert Carter (New York: NAACP Legal Defense Fund and NAACP), and Constance Baker Motley (New York: NAACP Legal Defense Fund).

The courage of civil rights lawyers: Fred Gray and his colleagues

She clerked for the first female African American District Court judge, Constance Baker Motley, worked at Davis Polk & Wardwell and the U.S.

Sara Moss, General Counsel, Estee Lauder

Constance Baker Motley was a vanguard for both the civil rights and women's rights movements.

Shaping a civil rights vanguard: the earliest influences on constance baker motley

The judge we drew in the Sullivan case was Constance Baker Motley. Sullivan's counsel filed a motion asking the judge to recuse herself because she was a woman and a lawyer.

Litigating sex discrimination cases in the 1970s

Constance Baker Motley was 29 when she helped prepare briefs in the landmark school desegregation case Brown v.

Where are our next leaders?

District Judge Constance Baker Motley recalled that "Marshall's favorite quotation was, 'Our Constitution is color-blind.'...

Blind spot: how reactionary colorblindness has infected our courts--and our politics

"We can take inspiration from social justice lawyers like Mohandas Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Shirin Ebadi, Mary Robinson, Charles Hamilton Houston, Carol -Weiss King, Constance Baker Motley Thurgood Marshall, Arthur Kinoy and Clarence Darrow."

Closing the gap between law and justice

Thurgood Marshall, Constance Baker Motley and Arthur Shores volunteered to be her attorneys.

Impacting change: students in the civil rights movement