[Digest] US CASE - Bradwell vs. Illinois (1873)

Bradwell v. State of Illinois (1873)

Mr. Justice Miller

Facts: Mrs. Myra Bradwell applied for a license to practice law in Illinois.  A state statute required a license obtained from two justices of the state supreme court to practice law. The Illinois Supreme Court denied her admission and held that as a married woman, she would not be bound in her contracts. The state supreme court’s opinion also held that the legislature never intended that women be admitted to the bar.

Issue: Can a qualified female citizen claim under the fourteenth amendment the privilege of practicing law?

Held: No. Judgment affirmed.

Ruling: The fourteenth amendment declares that citizens of the United States are citizens of the state where they reside. The protection designed by that clause has no application to a citizen of the state whose laws are complained of. If the plaintiff was a citizen of the state of Illinois, that provision of the Constitution gave her no protection against its courts or its legislation.

There are privileges and immunities belonging to citizens of the United States, which a state is forbidden to abridge, but the right to admission to practice in the courts of a state is not one of them. This right does not depend on citizenship of the United States. As to the courts of a state, the right would relate to citizenship of the state. As to federal courts, it would relate to citizenship of the United States.

The right to control and regulate the granting of license to practice law in the courts of a state is one of those powers which are not transferred for its protection to the federal government. Its exercise is in no manner governed or controlled by citizenship of the United States in the party seeking such license.