Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 4.djvu/692

law at the Vigo County bar, through the efforts of Judge William Mack, and had a number of cases in the courts of Indianapolis. Eighteen years later Mrs. Antoinette D. Leach, although properly qualified, was refused a license to practice in Greene County. The lower court based its refusal on a clause in the State Constitution which says: "Every person of good moral character, being a voter, shall be entitled to practice law in all the courts of the State." She carried the case to the Supreme Court which reversed this judgment. Its decision, June 14, 1893, says that "while voters are granted admission to practice there is no denial of such right to women, and it must be held to exist as long as not forbidden by law. That which is expressed does not make that which is silent cease." (See Suffrage on previous page.) The decision continued:

The right to practice law is not a political question, but belongs to that class of rights inherent in every citizen, and pertains to the fundamental duty of every inhabitant to gain a livelihood. Judge Cooley says: "To forbid to an individual or a class the right to the acquisition or enjoyment of property in such manner as should be permitted to the community at large, would be to deprive them of liberty in particulars of primary importance." In Story on the Constitution it is said that the right to acquire, possess and enjoy property and to choose from those which are lawful the profession or occupation of life, are among the privileges which the States are forbidden by the Constitution to abridge.^[1]

Basing her claims on this decision, a woman the next year, 1894, applied for license to sell liquor. This was refused on the ground that the statute reads: "Any male inhabitant having certain other specified qualifications may obtain a license." The Supreme Court decided that "by the use of the word 'male' women are inhibited from obtaining license to vend intoxicating liquor at retail." Thus within three years 1893, '94, '95 the same Supreme Court rendered three decisions each absolutely reversing the others.

Education: The State University was opened to women in

1. Some of the highest legal authorities in the State declare that this is not the law and that it will be so decided whenever the question is presented to another Supreme Court. If this should happen then women could practice law only by an amendment of the constitution. What then would be the status of the cases in which Mrs. Leach and other women had acted as attorney?