Madam Chief Justice
Subtitle: Jean Hoefer Toal of South Carolina
By: edited by W. Lewis Burke Jr., Joan P. Assey ; foreword by Sandra Day O'Connor ; introduction by Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Publisher: University of South Carolina Press
Published: 2016
Place of publication: Columbia, South Carolina
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9781611176926
Subjects: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Lawyers & Judges; Women judges; LAW / Courts; Biography
Description: "In Madam Chief Justice, editors W. Lewis Burke Jr. and Joan P. Assey chronicle the remarkable career of Jean Hoefer Toal, South Carolina's first female Supreme Court Chief Justice. As a lawyer, legislator, and judge, Toal is one of the most accomplished womenin South Carolina history. In this volume, contributors, including two United States Supreme Court Justices, federal and state judges state leaders, historians, legal scholars, leading attorneys, family, and friends, provide analysis, perspective, and biographical information about the life and career of this dynamic leader and her role in shaping South Carolina.  Growing up in Columbia during the 1950s and 60s, Jean Hoefer was a youthful witness to the civil rights movement in the state and nation. Observing the state's premier civil rights lawyer Matthew J. Perry Jr. in court encouraged her to attend law school, where she met her husband, Bill Toal. When she was admitted to the South Carolina Bar in 1968, fewer than one hundred women had been admitted in the state's history. From then forward she was both a leader and a role model. As a lawyer she excelled in trial and appellate work and won major victories on behalf of Native Americans and women. In 1975, Toal was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives and despite her age and gender quickly  became one of the most respected members of that body. During her fourteen years as a House member, Toal promoted major legislation on many issuesincluding constitutional law, criminal law, utilities regulation, local government, state appropriations, workers compensation, and freedom of information.  In 1988, Toal was sworn in as the first female justice on the Supreme Court of South Carolina, where she made her mark through her preparation and insight. She was elected Chief Justice in 2000, becoming the first woman ever to hold the highest position in the state's judiciary. As Chief Justice, Toal not only modernized her court, but also the state's judicial system. As Toal's two daughters write in their chapter, the traits their mother brings to her professional life--exuberance, determination, and loyalty--are the same traits she demonstrates in her personal and family life. As a child, Toal loved roller skating in the lobby of the post office,a historic building that now serves as the Supreme Court of South Carolina. From a child in Columbia to Madam Chief Justice, her story comes full circle in this compelling account of her life and influence.  Madam Chief Justice features a foreword by Sandra Day O'Connor, retired associate justice of the United State Supreme Court, and an introduction by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Foreword / Sandra Day O'Connor, Associate Justice (Retired), Supreme Court of the United States; title: Introduction / Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States; title: "It's a girl" / W. Lewis Burke Jr. and Bakari T. Sellers; title: You don't start out as chief justice / Jay Bender; title: Into the twentieth century as a lawyer legislator / M. Elizabeth Crum; title: A new associate justice / C. Mitchell Brown; title: An unrelenting judicial warrior in south carolina's video poker wars / Judge Richard Mark Gergel; title: Toal on torts (1987-2014) / Robert L. Felix; title: Abbeville county school district v. state : changing south carolina / Jessica Childers Harrington and W. Lewis Burke Jr; title: Bringing the courts into the twenty-first century / Tina Cundari; title: Family, friends, and community / Jean Toal Eisen and Lilla Toal Mandsager; title: The sisterhood of the ladder : the impact of chief justice toal on the rise in participation of women in the legal profession in south carolina / Sue Erwin Harper and Elizabeth Van Doren Gray; title: Personal reflections collected by amelia waring walker; title: The lady's a leader / Richard W. Riley, Former U.S. Secretary of Education and Governor of South Carolina; title: The hoefer girls / Judge Cameron McGowan Currie; title: Observations of chief justice jean hoefer toal / Robert J. Sheheen; title: From my vantage point / I. S. Leevy Johnson; title: Destined for the records book / Justice John W. Kittredge; title: My first glimpse / Justice Kaye G. Hearn; title: An amazing lady / Justice James E. Moore; title: Reflections of a law clerk / Blake Hewitt; title: National leader / Mary Campbell McQueen; title: Heeding the call / Bradish J. Waring; title: Quintessential south carolinian / Walter B. Edgar and Judge Joseph F. Anderson Jr.