Sylvia Pressler

Sylvia Pressler (April 10, 1934 – February 15, 2010) was an American judge who served in a number of positions within the New Jersey judicial system. She is best known for deciding a landmark 1973 case which allowed girls to compete in Little League baseball in New Jersey, and which resulted in the organization changing its charter to allow girls to play in its league nationally. Pressler served as the Chief Judge of the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court for five years. Prior to this she was the Presiding Judge for 15 years. She officially retired from the bench in 2004. A graduate of Rutgers School of Law–Newark at a time when the legal profession was still dominated by men, Judge Pressler was the second woman to sit on the appellate division in New Jersey, and was one of the first women to clerk for an appellate division judge.

Biography Pressler was born as Sylvia Diane Brodsky in New York City, the daughter of Jewish immigrants from Belarus and Poland. Her father died when she was a young girl. and earned her law degree from Rutgers School of Law–Newark. She met her husband, with whom she would later have two children, when they were both working in a restaurant in 1953.

In 1973, when serving as a Hearing Examiner for the New Jersey Department of Civil Rights, Pressler ruled on the landmark case that opened Little League baseball to girls. The case had its origins in the previous year, when a twelve-year-old girl in Hoboken, New Jersey, was forced to quit a Little League baseball after only three games when national Little League authorities threatened to revoke the charter of the local league. A case was filed on behalf of the girl by the National Organization for Women. Pressler was assigned the case. She ruled in a strongly worded decision that the girl should have been allowed to play, writing:

Her decision forced Little League to allow girls to play everywhere in New Jersey, and was met with protests from the national Little League organization, which called the ruling vindictive and prejudicial. The following year, the organization changed its charter nationally to allow girls to play on its teams anywhere in the United States, and created a softball division as well. According to her husband, David Pressler, she did not think that the Little League case was a difficult one to decide. imposing a moratorium on the death penalty in New Jersey until the state's procedures could guarantee the rights of the defendant was followed three years later by legislative action banning the death penalty entirely. She retired from the bench in 2004. She was survived by her husband, David Pressler and their two children and three grandchildren.

Until her death, Pressler was the commentator and annotator of the Gann Law Books edition of the Rules Governing the Courts of the State of New Jersey, which are the most commonly used edition of the Court Rules in New Jersey; the duties have since been taken over by former Attorney General and Supreme Court Justice Peter Verniero, but Pressler is still credited on new editions.