Rhoda Valentine Lewis (August 31, 1906September 12, 1991) was the first female justice on the

Supreme Court of Hawaii The Supreme Court of Hawaii is the highest court of the Hawaii, State of Hawaii in the United States. Its decisions are binding on all other courts of the Hawaii State Judiciary. The principal purpose of the Supreme Court is to review the decis ...

Biography

Lewis was born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

on August 31, 1906, to parents Charles Tobias and Josephine Lewis. She moved to

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

and attended the

Punahou School Punahou School (known as Oahu College until 1934) is a private, co-educational, college preparatory school in Honolulu, Hawaii. More than 3,700 students attend the school from kindergarten through twelfth grade, 12th grade. Protestant missionar ...

; then moved to

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

, and attended the American-European School; and graduated from the Frances Willard Jr. High School in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

. She graduated from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 1927, and received her

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

from

Stanford Law School Stanford Law School (Stanford Law or SLS) is the law school of Stanford University, a private research university near Palo Alto, California. Established in 1893, it is regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world. Stanford La ...

in 1929, graduating first in her class, and becoming a member of the

Order of the Coif The Order of the Coif is an honor society for United States law school graduates. The name is a reference to the ancient English order of advocates, the serjeants-at-law, whose courtroom attire included a coif—a white lawn or silk skullcap, whi ...

. She worked for a former Stanford Professor, before working for a law firm in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

. In 1937 she moved back to Hawaii, where she worked for the Honolulu Prosecutor's Office and then the Attorney General's Office. Lewis worked in the Attorney General's Office from 1940 to 1958, writing numerous opinions and memorandums. After the

Attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...

in 1941 she drafted the Hawaii Defense Act, granting the governor emergency powers. She was later involved in ''

Duncan v. Kahanamoku ''Duncan v. Kahanamoku'', 327 U.S. 304 (1946), was a decision by the United States Supreme Court. It is often associated with the Japanese exclusion cases (''Hirabayashi v. United States'', ''Korematsu v. United States'' and ''Ex parte Endo'') beca ...

'', a case argued before the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

over martial law in Hawaii. Lewis helped revise Hawaiian laws by serving on a 1944 commission. The

Governor of Hawaii , insignia = Logo of the Office of the Governor of Hawaii.png , insigniasize = 110px , insigniacaption = Gubernatorial logo , flag = Flag of the Governor of Hawaii.svg , flagborder = yes , flagcaption = Standard of the Governor , image ...

, William Quinn appointed Lewis to the

in 1959. Lewis wrote forty three opinions, eight joint opinions, eight concurring opinions, and nine dissents while on the bench. A 1961 opinion she wrote for the court gave the family of a deceased person the right to gain some of their "projected life earnings" if it was discovered someone "negligently contributed" to their death. Lewis provided legal consultation the effort to gain Hawaii statehood, advocating on the issue in Washington, D.C. several times. Lewis left the court in 1967 and the following year was on the Hawaii Constitutional Convention of 1968. From 1971 to 1972 she worked as a reporter for the Committee on the Coordination of Rules and Statutes. Lewis died on September 12, 1991.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Rhoda Valentine 1906 births 1991 deaths Justices of the Hawaii Supreme Court Place of death missing 20th-century American women lawyers 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American judges 20th-century American women judges