Justine W. Polier

Justine W. Polier
Justine Wise Polier
Born	Justine Wise (1903-04-12)April 12, 1903 Portland, Oregon
Died	July 31, 1987(1987-07-31) (aged 84) New York, New York
Nationality	American
Education	Radcliffe College
Alma mater	Yale University Law School
Occupation	Judge, lawyer, civic leader
Years active	1926–1987
Spouse(s)	Leon Arthur Tulin (first, his death), Shad Polier (second)

Justine Wise Polier (April 12, 1903 – July 31, 1987) was the first woman Justice in New York. An outspoken activist and a "fighting judge," for 38 years she used her position on the Family Court bench to fight for the rights of the poor and disempowered.

Justine Wise was born April 12, 1903 in Portland, Oregon to Rabbi Stephen Wise and Louise Waterman Wise. Her father was a prominent rabbi who helped found the American Jewish Congress (1918) and the NAACP (1909). He was also a leading advocate of a Jewish state and a pro-labor activist. Her mother was an artist and social worker who founded the Free Synagogue Adoption Committee in 1916 in New York.

As a young woman, she studied labor relations and advocated for workers’ rights, while also working at Elizabeth Peabody Settlement house and a textile mill. She attended Horace Mann High School, Bryn Mawr College, Radcliffe College, and Barnard College. In 1925, she enrolled in Yale Law School, where she eventually became editor of the Yale Law Journal. She commuted to support the 1926 Passaic Strike.

Preferring social legislation to practicing law, Polier worked as the first woman referee and in 1934 Assistant Corporate Council for the Workman's Compensation Division.

In 1935, New York City Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia made her a judge on the Domestic Relations Court: at age 32, she became the first woman judge in New York State.

In her time serving as judge, Polier was deeply involved in combating de facto segregation in the New York school system and institutional racism elsewhere in the public sector.