The tributes to Chief Justice Ellen Ash Peters, who passed away on April 17, 2024 at the age of 94, are accumulating quickly and for good reason. Her extraordinary life was full of groundbreaking accomplishments, from being one of just a handful of women in her class at Yale Law School (class of ’54), to becoming the first female tenured professor at Yale Law School in 1964, to becoming the first woman on the Connecticut Supreme Court in 1978 and then its first female Chief Justice in 1984.

Chief Justice Peters pursued her love of the law despite the many obstacles she faced, and she maintained the highest regard and respect for the role the law plays in promoting justice in our community. As chief justice for 12 years, she took seriously the court’s development of a coherent body of jurisprudence under state law, including the state Constitution and its obligation to deliver rulings in a manner accessible to the public.