Dolores Korman Sloviter

Dolores Korman Sloviter was a United States circuit judge who served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit from 1979 to 2013. Appointed by President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, she became the first woman to serve on the Third Circuit and only the fourth woman to serve on any United States Court of Appeals at the time of her confirmation in 1979. She served as Chief Judge of the Third Circuit from 1991 to 1998 and remained an active judge with a full caseload for more than three decades before assuming senior status in 2013. Born in Philadelphia in 1932, she died in October 2022 at the age of 90, having made significant contributions to federal jurisprudence over a judicial career spanning more than four decades.

Early life and legal career

Dolores Korman Sloviter was born on September 5, 1932, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to a Jewish-American family. She received her secondary education at Philadelphia High School for Girls, a selective public magnet school in the city. She went on to attend Temple University, where she earned her bachelor's degree in 1953. Following her undergraduate studies, Sloviter pursued legal education at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, one of the nation's leading law schools. During her time at Penn Law, she distinguished herself academically and served as a Comments Editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, a prestigious position typically reserved for top-performing students. She received her Bachelor of Laws degree from the institution in 1956.

While still in law school, Sloviter gained early legal experience working as a law clerk for the City of Philadelphia Law Department in 1955. After completing her legal education, she entered private law practice in Philadelphia, where she worked for a number of years representing clients in various legal matters. Her career took an academic turn in 1972 when she joined the faculty of Temple University Beasley School of Law as an associate professor of law. She was promoted to full professor of law at Temple in 1974, a position she held until 1979. During her years in legal academia, she contributed to the education of future lawyers and developed expertise that would later inform her work on the federal bench.

Federal appellate service

President Jimmy Carter nominated Sloviter to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on April 4, 1979. The nomination was to fill a newly created seat authorized by federal statute. The United States Senate confirmed her nomination on June 19, 1979, and she received her commission two days later, on June 21, 1979. Her appointment was historic: she became the first woman ever to serve on the Third Circuit and only the fourth woman to serve on any United States Court of Appeals in the nation's history. This milestone reflected the gradual but significant expansion of opportunities for women in the federal judiciary during the late 1970s.

Sloviter served with distinction on the Third Circuit for more than three decades. From 1991 to 1998, she held the position of Chief Judge of the circuit, the administrative head of the court responsible for managing its operations and representing it in the broader federal judicial system. The Third Circuit, which hears appeals from federal district courts in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and the Virgin Islands, is one of the thirteen federal appellate courts in the United States and handles a diverse array of cases involving federal law.

Although Sloviter became eligible to assume senior status—a form of semi-retirement that allows federal judges to continue hearing cases with a reduced workload—she chose not to take this option for many years. Instead, she continued to serve as an active judge, maintaining a full caseload and retaining full voting rights on the court. She finally assumed senior status on June 21, 2013, exactly thirty-four years after receiving her commission to the bench. This decision to remain active for so long demonstrated her commitment to the work of the court and her dedication to public service.

In April 2016, the then-Chief Judge of the Third Circuit announced that Sloviter would assume inactive status and cease hearing cases due to a serious medical condition. However, she remained involved with the court's internal committees and administrative work. Sloviter passed away on October 12, 2022, at the age of ninety.

Jurisprudence and legacy

One of the most significant cases in which Sloviter participated occurred in 1996, when she served on a three-judge panel that heard a constitutional challenge to the Communications Decency Act. This legislation, enacted as Title V of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, sought to regulate certain content on the Internet. The challenge was brought on grounds that the Act violated the free speech protections guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The panel, sitting in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, included Sloviter and two other judges.

On June 12, 1996, the panel issued a decision blocking enforcement of the Communications Decency Act. The court ruled that the statute was unconstitutional and also found it to be unworkable and impractical from a technical standpoint. The panel produced a detailed "Findings of Fact" document that was authored by the three judges. This document was notable not only for its legal analysis but also for its clear and accessible explanation of the Internet and related software technologies. The document was posted on the Internet itself and became widely cited as an unusually lucid introduction to these then-emerging technologies for readers without technical backgrounds. The significance of the panel's decision was affirmed when the United States Supreme Court upheld the ruling in June 1997.

Sloviter's influence extended beyond her judicial opinions. In 2007, a former law clerk published a book that was widely understood to be based on the author's experience working in Sloviter's chambers, suggesting that her mentorship and working style left a lasting impression on those who served under her. Throughout her career, Sloviter was recognized as part of a pioneering generation of women in the federal judiciary, helping to open doors for future generations of female lawyers and judges.

Her longevity of service—spanning from 1979 to 2016 in various capacities—placed her among the longest-serving federal judges in American history. Her work on the Third Circuit contributed to the development of federal law across a wide range of areas over more than three and a half decades, and her role as the first woman on that court marked an important chapter in the history of both the Third Circuit and the federal judiciary as a whole.