Sarah T. Hughes

Sarah Tilghman Hughes (born August 2, 1896 in Baltimore , Maryland , † April 23, 1985 ; born Sarah Tilghman ) was an American lawyer and politician .

Life

Sarah T. Hughes (front left) swearing in Lyndon B. Johnson on November 22, 1963

Hughes attended Goucher College , a girls 'school in Baltimore, and then taught for two years at the Salem Academy girls' boarding school in Winston-Salem . From 1919 she studied law at the George Washington University Law School in Washington, DC With her husband George Hughes († 1964), whom she met during her studies, she moved to Dallas in 1922 , where she worked as a lawyer.

As a member of the Democratic Party , Hughes was a member of the Texas House of Representatives from the 42nd to the 44th legislature (1931-1935). Subsequently, Governor James Allred appointed her a judge on the Fourteenth District Court in Dallas; she was the first female district judge in Texas. She held the office from 1935 to 1960. During this time, in 1946, she applied unsuccessfully for a seat in the United States House of Representatives . She was also put on the list of candidates for the office of vice president at the Democratic National Convention in 1952 , but she withdrew the nomination before the vote.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy named her the first woman in Texas to be a federal judge (at the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas ). After Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963, his successor Lyndon B. Johnson swore in on Air Force One  - a task traditionally assigned to the Chief Justice of the United States .

Hughes was an active judge on the District Court until 1975, after which she served as a senior judge until 1982 . Some of the more well-known cases she was involved in as a federal judge include Roe v. Wade (1970) and Taylor v. Sterrett (1972).

Web links

• Handbook of Texas Online: Sarah Hughes
• University of North Texas Archives: Judge Sarah T. Hughes Collection