Ellen Ash Peters (March 21, 1930 – April 17, 2024) was an American lawyer and judge. She was appointed to the
Connecticut Supreme Court
The Connecticut Supreme Court, formerly known as the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors, is the supreme court, highest court in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It consists of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices. The seven justices sit i ...
in 1978. She was the
first woman appointed to that court.
Early life and education
Ellen Ash was born in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
on March 21, 1930; her father was Jewish and a lawyer, and her grandfather was also a lawyer.
[Richard L. Madden]
Nominee for Chief Judge
''New York Times'' (November 14, 1984).
Her family fled the
Nazis
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
in 1938 and briefly lived in the Netherlands before immigrating to New York City in 1939.
Peters attended
Hunter College High School
Hunter College High School is a public academic magnet secondary school located in the Carnegie Hill section of the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It is administered and funded by Hunter College of the City University of New York (CUNY) and no t ...
in New York,
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the e ...
, and
Yale Law School
Yale Law School (YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824. The 2020–21 acceptance rate was 4%, the lowest of any law school in the United ...
, receiving her
LL.B.
A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...
, ''
cum laude
Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...
'', in 1954.
[Ellen Ash Peters (LL.B. 1954)](_blank)
Yale Law Women at Yale Law School (accessed January 11, 2016).
Career
Peters
clerked for Chief Judge
Charles Edward Clark
Charles Edward Clark (December 9, 1889 – December 13, 1963) was the 5th Dean of Yale Law School and a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Education and career
Born on December 9, 1889, in ...
of the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit for one year, and was a research associate at the
University of California at Berkeley Law School (Boalt Hall) for another year.
[Ellen Ash Peters: Visiting Professor of Law](_blank)
University of Connecticut Law School (accessed January 11, 2016).
Peters became assistant professor at Yale Law School in 1956 and full professor in 1964 before being named Southmayd Professor of Law, a post she held from 1975 to 1978, when Governor
Ella Tambussi Grasso appointed Peters to the Connecticut Supreme Court.
Peters was the first woman to gain
tenure
Tenure is a type of academic appointment that protects its holder from being fired or laid off except for cause, or under extraordinary circumstances such as financial exigency or program discontinuation. Academic tenure originated in the United ...
at Yale Law School. Peters was the first female state supreme court justice appointed by a female governor.
After Peters was appointed to the bench, she remained an adjunct professor until being appointed
chief justice in 1984 by Governor
William A. O'Neill.
[Ellen Ash Peters](_blank)
Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame (accessed January 11, 2016). Peters remained chief justice until 1996, when she took senior status, leaving the court in 2000 when she reached
mandatory retirement age
Mandatory retirement also known as forced retirement, enforced retirement or compulsory retirement, is the set age at which people who hold certain jobs or offices are required by industry custom or by law to leave their employment, or retire.
A ...
.
After stepping down from the Supreme Court of Connecticut, Peters remained active on the bench, sitting from 2000 to 2014 as a judge trial referee on the
Connecticut Appellate Court
The Connecticut Appellate Court is the court of first appeals for all cases arising from the Connecticut Superior Courts. Its creation in 1983 required Connecticut's voters and legislature to amend the state's constitution
A constitution i ...
in Hartford.
[Lauren Sievert]
Former Supreme Court chief justice still going strong at appellate court
''West Hartford News'' (March 16, 2012).
Peters was a visiting professor of law at the University of Connecticut Law School.
Notable decisions
Sheff v. O'Neill refers to a 1989 lawsuit and the subsequent 1996 Connecticut Supreme Court case (''Sheff v. O'Neill'', 238 Conn. 1, 678 A.2d 1267) that resulted in a landmark decision regarding
civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...
and the right to
education
Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...
. In 1996 the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that the state had an affirmative obligation to provide Connecticut's school children with a substantially equal educational opportunity and that this constitutionally guaranteed right encompasses the access to a public education which is not substantially and materially impaired by racial and ethnic isolation. The Court further concluded that school districting based upon town and city boundary lines are unconstitutional, and cited a statute that bounds school districts by town lines as a key factor in the high concentrations of racial and ethnic minorities in Hartford. This was a split 4–3 decision, which was authored by Chief Justice Peters. She was joined in the majority opinion by Justices Robert Berdon,
Flemming L. Norcott, Jr., and
Joette Katz
Joette Katz (born February 3, 1953) is an American attorney
who is a partner at the law firm, Shipman & Goodwin LL
She was an associate justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court, where she also served as the administrative judge for the state a ...
. Justice David Borden authored the dissent, with Justices Robert Callahan and
Richard Palmer concurring with the dissent.
Memberships, awards and honors
Peters was an alumni fellow of the
Yale Corporation
The Yale Corporation, officially The President and Fellows of Yale College, is the governing body of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Assembly of corporation
The Corporation comprises 19 members:
* Three ex officio members: the Preside ...
and a former member of the board of managers of Swarthmore College.
She was a member of the Council of the
American Law Institute
The American Law Institute (ALI) is a research and advocacy group of judges, lawyers, and legal scholars limited to 3,000 elected members and established in 1923 to promote the clarification and simplification of United States common law and i ...
, the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
, and the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
.
Peters was the first recipient of the Ella T. Grasso Distinguished Service Medal, and received a number of other awards, including the Connecticut Trial Lawyers' Association Judiciary Award, the Yale Law School Distinguished Service Medal, the
Hartford College for Women's Pioneer Woman Award, and the
National Center for State Courts
The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) is an independent, non-profit organization focused on improving the administration of justice in the United States and around the world. Its efforts are directed by a 27-member board of directors and th ...
' Warren E. Burger Award (2002).
She received an honorary Doctor of Laws from the
University of Connecticut
The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...
in 1992.
March 21, 2015, was declared "Ellen Ash Peters Day" in Connecticut by Governor
Dannel P. Malloy
Dannel Patrick Malloy (; born July 21, 1955) is an American politician who served as the 88th governor of Connecticut from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he chaired the Democratic Governors Association from 2016 to 2017. In Ju ...
of Connecticut.
Personal life and death
Peters's first marriage was to Robert Peters, a
psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...
. They had three children and subsequently divorced.
Peters then married Phillip I. Blumberg, the former dean of the University of Connecticut Law School.
The couple lived in
West Hartford
West Hartford is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, west of downtown Hartford. The town is part of the Capitol Planning Region. The population was 64,083 at the 2020 census.
The town's popular downtown area is colloquiall ...
.
Blumberg died in 2021. Peters died in West Hartford, Connecticut on April 17, 2024, at the age of 94.
Sources
Remarks by Justice Peters upon her retirementPeters receives award from National Center for State Courts
See also
*
List of female state supreme court justices
Female state supreme court justices
First female justices
Below is a list of the names of the first woman to sit on the highest court of their respective states in the United States.
The first state with a female justice was Ohio; Florence ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peters, Ellen Ash
1930 births
2024 deaths
American women lawyers
Chief justices of the Connecticut Supreme Court
Justices of the Connecticut Supreme Court
Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States
Hunter College High School alumni
Swarthmore College alumni
People from Berlin
Women chief justices of state supreme courts in the United States
Women in Connecticut politics
Yale Law School alumni
Yale Law School faculty
American women legal scholars
American legal scholars
American women academics
21st-century American women
20th-century American women judges
20th-century Connecticut state court judges
Members of the American Philosophical Society