Mary Murphy Schroeder, '65: She Broke Barriers From the Start
Mary Murphy Schroeder: She Broke Barriers From the Start
Schroeder thrived in the male-dominated field of construction law, before serving on Arizona’s state appellate court. “I was surprised and a little frightened when I got the appointment” to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in 1979, she recalled.
In 1987, Schroeder overturned a lingering injustice by reversing the World War II conviction of Gordon Hirabayashi, who had resisted the internment of Japanese Americans, and decades later sued to be exonerated.
“It was a once in a lifetime case,” Schroeder said. When the government argued that Hirabayashi had been freed long ago and therefore had no injury to redress, Schroeder’s opinion contained an eloquent retort: “A United States citizen who is convicted of a crime on account of race is lastingly aggrieved.”
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