In this issue ...
From the Archives: Judge Sloviter’s Oral History
Judge Dolores Sloviter is familiar with being a first - first woman appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, first woman to serve as chief judge of the circuit, and one of the first female partners in Philadelphia.
Dolores Sloviter attended Temple University and studied law at the University of Pennsylvania. She was a law partner at Dilworth, Paxon, Kalish, and Kohn, and a Professor of Law at Temple University.
In 1979, she was nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and she served as Chief Judge from 1991 to 1998. Judge Sloviter retired in 2016 after serving on the bench for almost 40 years.
Her oral history was recorded for the ABA Women Trailblazers Project. It recounts her experiences as a young woman in law school, her struggle to find a job after graduation, and her journey to the bench. Below are highlights from Judge Sloviter’s oral history.
Audio and a full-text transcript are available in the Third Circuit Libraries’ Digital Collections and Archives.
• On law school classes
o “My Civil Procedure professor kept calling on me in the first semester…. I would fight him back, and fight him back.” Read more
• On hiring bias at law firms
o “I went to some of the big firms in New York and some of the big firms in Washington and I got the same story… “We would be very happy to have you but our clients wouldn’t know what to do with a woman lawyer.” Read More
• On becoming a judge
o “This time I thought there was a possibility that I might be seriously considered because there had been no woman on the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in its more than a hundred year history. I was the only woman of the five names.” Read more
• On the Task Force on Equal Treatment in the Courts
o “There had been a great deal of interest in studies of the status of women in the courts. A congressional statute authorized such studies and we got money to support that.” Read more
• On the case that made the biggest impact on the law
o “I wrote the opinion in Apple v. Franklin that raised the question of whether the Apple computer operating program could be protected by copyright. The argument in that case was an interesting one….” Read more
From the Archives is a blog series featuring unique archival content from the Third Circuit Libraries’ Digital Collections and Archives. Questions regarding the blog can be directed to Stephanie Bowen, Assistant Librarian & Archivist.
In The News
Recent articles about the courts and people in the Third Circuit. For more about this weekly service, click here
Website of the Week
Digital Collections & Archives
View oral histories, historic photos, and memorabilia from luminary Third Circuit judges. The librarians are working to preserve the rich history of the U.S. Courts for the Third Circuit, and we are excited to showcase our digitization efforts. It can be accessed on the home page of the Third Circuit Libraries Website.
Off the Shelf
Military law in a nutshell By: Charles A. Shanor
Call #: KF7210 .S52 2013
Also available on West Academic.
The fourth edition of Military Law in a Nutshell by Charles A. Shanor and L. Lynn Hogue has been thoroughly revised and updated. It is designed to make available to law students and military lawyers a succinct summary of military law and military justice. It has been adapted to serve as a companion to current casebooks in the field, as well as to provide an authoritative resource for those seeking an introduction to the unique aspects of military law and military justice.
The new edition takes account of changes in the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), such as, Article 2(a)(10), extending court-martial jurisdiction over civilian contractors, and cases marking its application, e.g., United States v. Ali, 71 M.J. 256 (C.A.A.F. 2012), evolving issues regarding public access to court-martial proceedings, e.g., Center for Constitutional Rights v. United States, ___M.J.___, 2013 WL 1663084 (C.A.A.F. 2013) and the impact of the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act and its amendments.
As in earlier editions, the Nutshell traces the history and development of military law, its sources, the nature of military status, rights of members of the Armed Forces, and provides an exhaustive yet accessible review of the military justice process.
Precedential Opinions
From the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit are available here.
