Missouri History Today December 9, 1824: State Approves Its First Liquor Ban
Law
On this day 33 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Cruzan vs. Director of the Missouri Department of Health. The Court found it was acceptable to require “clear and convincing evidence” of a patient’s wishes for removal of life support. A significant outcome of the case was the normalization of …
Two years ago today, Robin Ransom broke the color barrier, becoming Missouri’s first black female Supreme Court judge. Ransom earned her Juris Doctorate in 1991 from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law, and a Bachelor of arts, political science and sociology in 1988 from Douglass College–Rutgers University in New Jersey. Her law career includes …
Phoebe W. Couzins of St. Louis became Missouri’s first female law school graduate when she graduated from the Washington University Law Department on this day in 1871. Couzins was an outspoken supporter of women’s right to vote. She later was appointed the nation’s first female U.S. Marshal in 1887. Her parents were John E. D. and …
