Reed v. Reed

Supreme Court of the United States

404 U.S. 71

Reed  v.  Reed

Appeal from the Supreme Court of Idaho

No. 70-4  Argued: October 19, 1971 --- Decided: November 22, 1971

A mandatory provision of the Idaho probate code that gives preference to men over women when persons of the same entitlement class apply for appointment as administrator of a decedent's estate is based solely on a discrimination prohibited by and therefore violative of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

93 Idaho 511, 465 P. 2d 635, reversed and remanded.

BURGER, C.J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court.

Allen R. Derr argued the cause for appellant. With him on the briefs were Melvin L. Wulf, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Pauli Murray, and Dorothy Kenyon.

Charles S. Stout argued the cause for appellee. With him on the brief was Myron E. Anderson.

Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were filed by J. Lee Rankin and Norman Redlich for the City of New York; by Martha W. Griffiths, Phineas Indritz, Leo Kanowitz, Marguerite Rawalt, Sylvia Roberts, and Faith Seidenberg for American Veterans Committee, Inc., et al.; and by Birch Bayh for the National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs, Inc.