Woman Law Professor Asks For Court Seat

Pauli Murray, Professor of Law at Brandeis and a woman, has written President Nixon asking to be considered for one of the two vacancies now open on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Murray said yesterday she sent the letter because she feels that "citizens should be able to approach the President directly to make suggestions on matters such as these appointments."

"The President is directly accountable to the people and I hope my action will encourage others to take an active role in making recommendations to the President," she said.

Murray applied to Harvard Law School in 1948, but was rejected. She received her L.I.B. degree at Howard, then took a Master of Laws degree and a Doctorate in Juris Science at Yale. Harvard Law began accepting women in 1950.

No token, she

Murray said she does not wish to be a token woman on the Supreme Court. "Just as Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall has a special insight into the racial experience, a woman justice would have native insight into the problems of women," she said.

She added that she sees no reason why there shouldn't be several women justices on the Supreme Court.

"Of course," "it wouldn't do any good for the president to appoint unqualified women or conservative women who are insensitive to the problems of women in our society," she said.

Murray is a founding member of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and has also served on the National Board of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Equal Opportunities Employment Commission.

Murray was tutor of Law at Yale from 1962-65. She also served for two years as a vice-president of Benedict College, a black university in Columbia, S.C., before coming to Brandeis in 1968.