Florence Allen

Among her many firsts, Florence Allen was the first woman in the United States to serve as a state Supreme Court justice, and it was here in the state of Ohio.

On Aug. 24, 1920, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, reaching the number of states needed to grant women the right to vote. In Ohio, attorney Florence Allen’s colleagues in the Woman Suffrage Party encouraged her to seek election to a judgeship on the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. She had been working as an assistant prosecutor in the county.

Since the primaries were held before women gained the right to vote, the only way for Allen to be on the ballot was to gather the required number of signatures on a petition. In just two days, Suffrage Party members gathered 2,000 signatures, and her name was placed on the ballot. Allen won the election on Nov. 2, 1920. It was the first election in which women could vote, besides on local matters. Allen holds the distinction of being the first woman elected to any judicial office in the United States.

Allen, who is featured in the Visitor Education Center at the Thomas J. Moyer Ohio Judicial Center, is one of Ohio’s many trailblazing women in the legal profession. Reaching the bench in 1920 was notable, yet far from Allen’s first or only achievement.

Born in Utah in 1884, Allen moved to Cleveland when her father took a teaching position at Western Reserve University, now known as Case Western Reserve University. She graduated from Western Reserve University in 1904, but at the time, the university didn’t admit women to its law school. Allen started law school at the University of Chicago, where she was the only female student in a class of 100. Allen later enrolled at New York University Law School, graduated with a law degree in 1913, and was admitted to the practice of law in Ohio in 1914. She started a general law practice that year, before her appointment as a Cuyahoga County assistant prosecutor and election as judge.

Allen may be most well known as the first woman in the United States to serve as a state Supreme Court justice. She sought election to the Supreme Court of Ohio in 1922 and won. She was reelected for a second six-year term in 1928, but her time on the state bench ended when President Franklin D. Roosevelt nominated her for the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The U.S. Senate unanimously approved Allen’s nomination March 23,1934. She resigned from the Ohio Supreme Court that day and began her duties on the federal court on April 9, 1934. She was the first woman appointed and confirmed to a federal appeals court judgeship, where she served for 32 years.

To visit the Moyer Judicial Center’s Visitor Education Center and learn more about Allen and other influential figures in Ohio’s legal history, schedule a tour today by contacting the Civic Education office at CourtTours@sc.ohio.gov or 614.387.9223.