Yesterday, Catherine G. Roraback died at the age of 87. She represented the appellants in Griswold v. Connecticut. A short bio is here. Some key excerpts:
Long before the advent of public interest law Roraback made it part of her practice to protect the legal rights of”dissenters and the dispossessed”. During her 50 year career, she litigated several landmark cases, including Griswold v. Connecticut , which established reproductive health rights for women, securing the right to birth control and establishing a constitutional right to privacy. She then litigated Women v. Connecticut , the Connecticut counterpart to Roe v. Wade , which struck down Connecticut’s anti-abortion statutes. She defended the Black Panthers in New Haven, Civil Rights workers in Mississippi, and citizens in the denaturalization proceedings during the McCarthy era.
Roraback helped found the Connecticut Civil Liberties Union in 1948 and served as legal counsel to Planned Parenthood of Connecticut. She was the former president of the National Lawyers Guild (1973-1985), and a former board member of the American Civil Liberties Union (1973-1985).
– David S. Cohen
I think why we try so hard to remember and be remembered is the fact that there is this “time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin…into the future” thing. To be remembered for such deeds is great, but more importantly, the benefits of those deeds far outlast the memory, so even as we fade from view, some of us will still live, eternaly. To be such a person must be the greatest gift one can posses, and to give it away is truely blessed.