SubscribeLest we forget: Judge Sylvia Pressler
The jurist who opened the door for girls to play Little League baseball, died Feb. 16 at the age of 75.
From the NY Times obituary by Bruce Weber (author of As They See ‘Em):
…she was best known for her decision in the Little League case, which she made before she was elevated to the bench. This was in 1973, when discrimination cases in New Jersey were heard by the Division of Civil Rights before government-appointed examiners, of which Sylvia Pressler, then a lawyer, was one.
The previous year, a 12-year-old girl, Maria Pepe, had played three games for a Hoboken Little League team before national Little League officials learned of her participation and threatened to revoke the local league’s charter if she continued to play. The National Organization for Women brought suit on behalf of the girl and all others in New Jersey. Ms. Pressler’s ruling in favor of them was upheld by the New Jersey Appellate Court, and in 1974 Little League Baseball agreed to allow girls to play on its teams and to start a softball division especially for girls.
“The institution of Little League is as American as the hot dog and apple pie,” she wrote in her ruling. “There is no reason why that part of Americana should be withheld from girls.”
The obituary notes that Pressler’s parents “were Jewish immigrants, her mother from what is now Belarus and her father, who came to New York via Argentina, from what is now Poland.”
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