Happy Birthday Janet Reno — first female Attorney General of the United States
Happy Birthday, Janet Reno, the first female Attorney General of the United States! Janet was born on July 21, 1938, in Miami, Florida. Janet served as Attorney General in the Clinton White House from 1993–2001.
Spending her early life in Miami, Florida Janet later left to attend college at Cornell University where she majored in Chemistry. After receiving her undergraduate degree, Janet then attended Harvard Law School graduating in the 1963 and returning to Florida where she worked at a private law firm for four years. In 1971, she began working for the Florida House of Representatives and later went on to be appointed the first female Florida’s State Attorney in Miami — where she stayed for 15 years, earning a reputation of being tough and outspoken.
In 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed Janet as the first female US attorney general. She handled many high-profile cases during her time as attorney general including the stand-off in Waco, Texas, the trial of the “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, and the trial of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols who participated in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Despite seeing so many terrible things in her time as a lawyer and attorney general, Janet remained vigilant in her stand against hate and violence in a response to the Oklahoma City bombing:
“Speak out against the hatred, the bigotry and the violence in this land. Most haters are cowards. When confronted, they back down. When we remain silent, they flourish.”
Janet left her position as attorney general in 2001 and returned to Florida where she ran for Governor but failed to secure the Democratic nomination. In 2009, Janet was awarded the American Judicature Society’s Justice Award. At the ceremony, then Attorney General Eric Holder spoke highly of her:
“I don’t know how many times she said to me, ‘What’s the right thing to do?’. It was never what’s the easy thing, what’s the political thing, or the expedient thing to do.”
Janet Reno died in November 2016 after a 20 year battle with Parkinson’s Disease. Her dedication to hard work, justice, and perseverance will never be forgotten. Thank you, Janet, for your inspiration to all of us here at Smart Girls.
