Rita C. Davidson (September 1, 1928 – November 11, 1984) was a lawyer and public servant who was the first woman to serve on the

Maryland Court of Appeals The Supreme Court of Maryland is the highest court of the U.S. state of Maryland. Its name was changed on December 14, 2022, from the Maryland Court of Appeals, after a voter-approved change to the state constitution. The court, which is compose ...

. Davidson was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, the daughter of Lithuanian and Latvian Jewish immigrants by way of Russia. She graduated from

Goucher College Goucher College ( ') is a private liberal arts college in Towson, Maryland. It was chartered in 1885 by a conference in Baltimore led by namesake John F. Goucher and local leaders of the Methodist Episcopal Church.https://archive.org/details/h ...

in 1948 and

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & Worl ...

in 1951. She worked in private practice in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, and was active in politics in Montgomery County, Maryland. In 1970, Governor

Marvin Mandel Marvin Mandel (April 19, 1920 – August 30, 2015) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 56th Governor of Maryland from January 7, 1969, to January 17, 1979, including a one-and-a-half-year period when Lt. Governor Blair ...

appointed her as the secretary of Employment and Social Services, the first woman named to a Maryland governor's cabinet. In 1972, Davidson was appointed to the

Maryland Court of Special Appeals Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to i ...

. In 1978, acting governor

Blair Lee III Francis Preston Blair Lee III (May 19, 1916 – October 25, 1985) was an American Democratic politician. He served as the Secretary of State of Maryland from 1969 to 1971. He was Lieutenant Governor of Maryland from 1971 to 1979 and served ...

appointed her to a seat on the

vacated by the death of Justice Irving A. Levine. Davidson was the first woman appointed to the state's highest court.Lee selects woman for top court
, ''

The Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries. Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by T ...

'' (December 20, 1978), p. 1. Davidson died of cancer on November 11, 1984, at her home in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davidson, Rita 1928 births 1984 deaths Goucher College alumni Yale Law School alumni Judges of the Supreme Court of Maryland 20th-century American judges 20th-century American women lawyers Deaths from cancer in Maryland Lawyers from Brooklyn Lawyers from Washington, D.C. 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American women judges American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent American people of Latvian-Jewish descent

See also

References