The following is a transcript of Third Court of Appeals Chief Justice Darlene Byrne’s introduction at the investiture ceremony for new Justices Karin Crump and Maggie Ellis.
Welcome, everyone.
Justices Triana, Theofanis, and I welcome you to the Third Court of Appeals for the investitures of our two newest justices, Justice Karin Crump and Maggie Ellis. Although Justice Kelly is not able to join us today, she sends her best to our new colleagues. We welcome all of you – family, friends, supporters, colleagues, Third Court of Appeals staff, the Austin Bar Association staff, and attorneys – to this celebration.
In preparation for today, I could not ignore the fact that this celebration is being held on January 6. On this day in our recent history, the core of our democracy was challenged greatly, yet we still stand. The rule of law still stands, and those of you in this room make that happen and, on your shoulders, lies the heavy burden of ensuring our system of justice continues to stand as an independent branch of government, providing checks and balances to our other two branches of government while protecting our laws and Constitution.
I am also visually reminded of how far we have come in the legal system since 1960 – the year I was born. In 1959 Ruth Bader Ginsberg was graduating from law school. She later said:
When I graduated from law school in 1959, there wasn’t a single woman on any federal bench. It wouldn’t be a realistic ambition for a woman to want to become a federal judge. It wasn’t realistic until Jimmy Carter became our president.
Although there had been a few women and a few judges with different racial and ethnic identities on the federal benches prior to Jimmy Carter, he was the most prolific president in our history to diversify the federal court bench via gender, ethnicity, and race. One of his appointments was of RBG to the federal bench in D.C. in 1980, which paved the way for her later appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court as appointed by President Clinton.
As we celebrate President Carter’s legacy and life this week, we also celebrate the first time the Third Court of Appeals has all women on its benches. Our history has included all male justices on its benches from its inception in 1892 to 1986 (94 years), when Marilyn Aboussie from San Angelo was appointed to the Third Court of Appeals as its first woman justice, and in 1998 she was elected to be its first woman chief justice. I am the second. Since her time, the court has had a mix of genders on its benches. No doubt we will return to that mix of genders sometime in the future, but for now, this new day has come and an array of hardworking, knowledgeable, and duty-minded women justices are here to serve you, and we are so honored to do so. Thank you for the opportunity.
Also thank you to the Austin Bar Association for providing all the support for this investiture and for the reception afterward.