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Catherine Roraback
American, 1920 - 2007
BiographyCatherine Gertrude Roraback (1920-2007), was an attorney and civil liberties activist. She was born to the Rev. Albert and Gertrude Dittmars Roraback in Brooklyn, New York on September 17, 1920. Her father, a Congregational minister, came from a family of lawyers in Litchfield County, Connecticut. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1941 with a degree in economics. In 1948, she graduated from Yale Law School, where she was the only woman in her class.
Roraback developed a civil and criminal trial practice in New Haven, Connecticut and later in Canaan, Connecticut, where she took over her uncle's practice upon his death in 1955. She helped to found the Connecticut Civil Liberties Union in 1948 and acted as legal counsel to Planned Parenthood of Connecticut. She was also active in the National Lawyers Guild, and she served on the board of the American Civil Liberties Union.
During her 50 year career, she litigated several major cases, including Griswold v. Connecticut, which overturned a Connecticut law that banned the prescription and use of contraceptives. Griswold established a constitutional right to privacy, and it laid the foundation for the landmark abortion rights case of Roe v. Wade.
In 1971, she defended Ericka Huggins, a Black Panther Party member accused of murdering a fellow party member in New Haven. Huggins was freed when a mistrial was declared because the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict; they had voted 10-2 for acquittal. Shortly thereafter, in 1974, Roraback defended Peter Reilly, a young Connecticut man, on a charge of murdering his mother. Roraback demonstrated that some of the evidence against Reilly was illegally obtained and that he was forced to sign a confession, and she was able to form the basis of an appeal which granted Reilly a new trial. This high-profile case revealed many abuses by the Connecticut State Police.
Roraback received many honors throughout her career, including awards from the National Abortion Rights Action League, Planned Parenthood of Connecticut, and the Connecticut National Organization for Women. She was inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame in 2001.
Catherine Roraback died on October 17, 2007 in Salisbury, Connecticut.
Source: Biographical Note. Catherine G. Roraback Papers, Emory Law Archives, Hugh F. MacMillan Law Library, Emory University. https://archives.libraries.emory.edu/repositories/4/resources/3613
Roraback developed a civil and criminal trial practice in New Haven, Connecticut and later in Canaan, Connecticut, where she took over her uncle's practice upon his death in 1955. She helped to found the Connecticut Civil Liberties Union in 1948 and acted as legal counsel to Planned Parenthood of Connecticut. She was also active in the National Lawyers Guild, and she served on the board of the American Civil Liberties Union.
During her 50 year career, she litigated several major cases, including Griswold v. Connecticut, which overturned a Connecticut law that banned the prescription and use of contraceptives. Griswold established a constitutional right to privacy, and it laid the foundation for the landmark abortion rights case of Roe v. Wade.
In 1971, she defended Ericka Huggins, a Black Panther Party member accused of murdering a fellow party member in New Haven. Huggins was freed when a mistrial was declared because the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict; they had voted 10-2 for acquittal. Shortly thereafter, in 1974, Roraback defended Peter Reilly, a young Connecticut man, on a charge of murdering his mother. Roraback demonstrated that some of the evidence against Reilly was illegally obtained and that he was forced to sign a confession, and she was able to form the basis of an appeal which granted Reilly a new trial. This high-profile case revealed many abuses by the Connecticut State Police.
Roraback received many honors throughout her career, including awards from the National Abortion Rights Action League, Planned Parenthood of Connecticut, and the Connecticut National Organization for Women. She was inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame in 2001.
Catherine Roraback died on October 17, 2007 in Salisbury, Connecticut.
Source: Biographical Note. Catherine G. Roraback Papers, Emory Law Archives, Hugh F. MacMillan Law Library, Emory University. https://archives.libraries.emory.edu/repositories/4/resources/3613
Person TypeIndividual
Mohegan, 1899 - 2005
