Texas Senate Celebrates Texas Women Judges Day

BY SENIOR JUDGE ORLINDA NARANJO, 419TH DISTRICT COURT (RET.)

More than 100 women judges from throughout Texas gathered at the Capitol building to celebrate Texas Women Judges Day on April 24, 2023.

Among those who attended were women who sit as justices on the Texas Supreme Court, courts of appeals, district courts, county courts of law, justices of the peace, and municipal courts.

They assembled in the Senate gallery as Sens. Judith Zafferini and Royce West declared April 24, 2023, Texas Women Judges Day.

Other senators individually stood and praised the women judges from their respective districts. Judges from 23 of the 31 state senate districts attended the event.

The proclamation also recognized the firsts in the Texas judiciary.

In Travis County, some of the firsts were:

• 1973 – Harriett Mitchell Murphey was appointed to the municipal court and became the first African American judge;

• 1994 – Orlinda Naranjo was elected to Travis County Court at Law No. 2, the first Latina elected to a countywide judicial bench.

Other firsts throughout Texas include:

• 1910 – Hortense Ward was the first woman to pass the Texas bar and, in 1915, she, Hattie Henenbert, and Ruth Brazzil were appointed special Supreme Court Justices, the first all-woman high court in the United States;

• 1935 – Sarah Hughes was the first woman appointed state district judge; in 1936, Hughes was the first woman appointed district judge; in 1961, she was the first woman elected federal district judge; and in 1963, she was the first and only woman to swear in an American president;

• 1983 – Elma Salinas Ender was the first Latina state district judge;

• 1992 – Wendy Duong was the first Vietnamese American woman judge;

• 1992 – Gaynelle Griffin Jones was the first African American woman appellate judge;

• 1993 – Linda Reyna Yaña was the first Latina appellate judge;

• 2005 – Texas’s Fourth District Court of Appeals was the first all-woman appellate court in the United States;

• 2019 – Rabeea Sultan Collier was the first Muslim American and first Pakistani American woman judge;

• 2020 – Frances Bourliot was the first Asian American appellate judge;

• 2021 – Texas’s Fourth Court of Appeals was the only all-woman appellate court in the U.S.;

• 2023 – Manpreet Monica Singh was the first Sikh woman judge.

Women also comprise:

• 33 percent of the Texas Supreme Court (Justices Jane Bland, Rebecca Huddle, and Debra Lehrmann);

• 44 percent of the Court of Criminal Appeals (Judges Sharon Keller, Barbara Hervey, Mary Lou Keel, and Michelle Slaughter);

• 49 percent of intermediate appellate court judges;

• Nine percent of county judges;

• 44 percent of general jurisdiction court judges;

• 25 percent of limited and specialty court judges; and

• 39 percent of municipal court judges.

After a photo opportunity with Texas Supreme Court Justice Hecht and Sens. West and Zafferini on the Capitol steps, the judges attended a reception at the Texas Law Center. The reception was sponsored by the National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ) District 11 and Thompson Coe LLP.

The attendees were greeted by NAWJ President-Elect Hon.

Attendees of Texas Women Judges Day gathered in front of the Capitol for a group photo.

Sen. Sarah Eckhardt (front center) joined Travis County women judges at the Capitol for Texas Women Judges Day.