Marion Janet Harron (September 3, 1903 – September 26, 1972) was an American lawyer and

United States Tax Court The United States Tax Court (in case citations, T.C.) is a Federal judiciary of the United States, federal trial court court of record, of record established by US Congress, Congress under Article One of the United States Constitution, Article ...

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from 1936 to 1970. She is also known for her five-year affair with Lorena Hickok. Harron was a frequent visitor at the

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during the 1940s.

Early life and education

Harron was born in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, the daughter of George Olcott Brown, a jeweler, and Mary Jane (Minnie) Little Brown. Her parents divorced in 1904. Her stepfather Howard Harron was a lawyer; the Harrons divorced in 1916. She graduated from Girls High School in San Francisco in 1920. She earned a bachelor's degree at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

in 1924, and completed a law degree at Berkeley's

Boalt Hall The University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Berkeley Law) is the law school of the University of California, Berkeley. The school was commonly referred to as "Boalt Hall" for many years, although it was never the official name. This cam ...

in 1926, with a thesis on the opinions of

Louis Brandeis Louis Dembitz Brandeis ( ; November 13, 1856 – October 5, 1941) was an American lawyer who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, associate justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1916 to ...

. She was a member of

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...

and Delta Sigma Rho.

Career

During law school in the 1920s, Harron was a teaching fellow in the economics department at the University of California, and was on the staff of the California Industrial Welfare Commission. She passed the California bar in 1926. She joined the Law Research Institute at

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

in 1928, and co-edited the institute's ''Current research in law for the academic year 1928-1929'' with legal scholar

Herman Oliphant Herman Enzla Oliphant was an American legal scholar and professor at the University of Chicago Law School and Columbia Law School. He is considered to be a leading figure of the legal realism movement in the United States. Early life and educat ...

. Harron specialized in corporate law and trusts, working on cases involving bank liquidations and real estate in New York City, from 1929 to 1933. She was assistant counsel with the

National Recovery Administration The National Recovery Administration (NRA) was a prime agency established by U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) in 1933. The goal of the administration was to eliminate "cut throat competition" by bringing industry, labor, and governmen ...

from 1933 to 1935, and with the

Resettlement Administration The Resettlement Administration (RA) was a New Deal U.S. federal agency created May 1, 1935. It relocated struggling urban and rural families to communities planned by the federal government. On September 1, 1937, it was succeeded by the Farm S ...

from 1935 to 1936. In 1936 Harron was the second woman appointed to the United States Board of Tax Appeals, succeeding Annabel Matthews. In 1940 she was named one of the "Ten Most Accomplished Women in the United States Born Since 1900", alongside Clare Booth Luce,

Helen Hayes Helen Hayes MacArthur (; October 10, 1900 – March 17, 1993) was an American actress. Often referred to as the "First Lady of American Theatre", she was the second person and first woman to win EGOT, the EGOT (an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and ...

Marian Anderson Marian Anderson (February 27, 1897April 8, 1993) was an American contralto. She performed a wide range of music, from opera to spirituals. Anderson performed with renowned orchestras in major concert and recital venues throughout the United S ...

, and

Anne Morrow Lindbergh Anne Spencer Morrow Lindbergh (June 22, 1906 – February 7, 2001) was an American writer and aviator. She was the wife of decorated pioneer aviator Charles Lindbergh, with whom she made many exploratory flights. Raised in Englewood, New Jerse ...

. "Most women are taxpayers, and there's no reason why women lawyers should not specialize in taxation," she said in 1941. She was mentioned as a candidate for a federal judge post in San Francisco in 1939. After a 1949 Senate confirmation hearing she was reappointed as a judge of the Tax Court of the United States, though there were questions about her judicial temperament and "reputation for dictatorial, arbitrary, and capricious action upon the bench". One of her last rulings was against

Doris Day Doris Day (born Doris Mary Kappelhoff; April 3, 1922 – May 13, 2019) was an American actress and singer. She began her career as a big band singer in 1937, achieving commercial success in 1945 with two No. 1 recordings, "Sentimental Journey ...

, when she found the actress liable for over $400,000 in back taxes in 1970. Harron work involved national travel, hearing tax cases in various cities, which gave her opportunities to speak to women's organizations, including the National Association of Women Lawyers. She spoke at the 1949 Seneca Falls Day event of the

National Woman's Party The National Woman's Party (NWP) was an American women's political organization formed in 1916 to fight for women's suffrage. After achieving this goal with the 1920 adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the NWP ...

Personal life

Harron had a five-year affair with journalist Lorena Hickok, ending in 1945. Harron died in 1972. A memorial service was held in the Bethlehem Chapel of the

Washington National Cathedral The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City and Episcopal Diocese of Washington, commonly known as Washington National Cathedral or National Cathedral, is a cathedral of the Episcopal Church. The cathedral is located in Wa ...

References

External links

Inclusion in Women of Achievement and History Website
* Dan Ernst (May 25, 2012)

''Legal History Blog''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Harron, Marion Janet 1903 births 1972 deaths Judges of the United States Tax Court United States Article I federal judges appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt United States Article I federal judges appointed by Harry S. Truman Members of the United States Board of Tax Appeals University of California, Berkeley alumni 20th-century American women judges