s physicians
and nurses, to engage in any literary employment, or appear at
the bar. Some excellent women in the United States are now
practicing at the bar, acceptably received before courts and
juries; and when they have conducted their cases to a successful
issue or an unsuccessful one in any court below, why should the
United States courts to which an appeal may be taken and where
their adversaries of the male sex may follow the case up, why
should these courts be closed to these women? * * *

Mr. GARLAND: I should like to ask the senator from California if
the courts of the United States cannot admit them upon their own
motion anyhow?

Mr. SARGENT: I think there is nothing in the law prohibiting it,
but the Supreme Court of the United States recently in passing
upon the question of the admission of a certain lady, said that
until some legislation took place they did not like to depart
from the precedent set in England, or until there was more
general practice among the States. The learned chief-justice,
perhaps, did not sufficiently reflect when he stated that there
were no English precedents. The fact is that Elizabeth herself
sat in the _Aula Regia_ and administered the law, and in both
Scotland and England women have fulfilled the function of judges.
The instances are not numerous but they are well established in
history. I myself have had my attention called to the fact that
in the various States the women are now admitted by special
legislation to the bar. I do not think there is anything in the
law, properly considered, that would debar a woman from coming
into this profession. I think the Supreme Court should not have
required further legislation, but it seems to have done so, and
that makes the necessity for the amendment which I have now
offered.

The chairman of the committee in reporting this bill back from
the Judiciary Committee said that the bill as it passed the House
of Representatives gave privileges to women which men did not
enjoy; that is to say, the Supreme Court can by a change of rule
require further qualification of men, whereas in regard to women,
if this provision were put into the statute, the Supreme Court
could not rule them out even though it may be necessary in its
judgment to get a higher stan