By Judge Michael Warren
Oakland County Circuit Court
“Trailblazer” is the most fitting moniker attributable to Judge Alice L. Gilbert. Her trailblazing cut across many paths and the paths that she blazed are more aglow now than ever. Back when the glass ceiling was made of marble, she smashed all gender barriers.
Gilbert, a Bloomfield Hills resident who served two stints on the Oakland County Circuit Court, died Dec. 9. She was 88.
A private family service was held Dec. 13 at the Ira Kaufman Chapel in Southfield.
Growing up in the Chicago area, Gilbert resolved to attend the best college possible and moved across the country. Majoring in political science and economics, she attended Wellesley College outside Boston, leaving in her last year for Northwestern Law School which offered a new program combining the bachelor, L.L.B. and J.D. degrees.
A life-long learner, her post-graduate studies included work at the Harvard Graduate School of Public Administration, Wayne State Law School, University of Detroit School of Law, the University of Michigan and several courses at the National College of the State Judiciary at the University of Nevada.
Her trailblazing continued in law school — she was just one of two women.
In 1961, she was elected as a justice of the peace for Bloomfield Township in 1961 and re-elected in 1965. Since those were not full-time positions, she was also appointed as a justice of the peace for the city of Bloomfield in 1963. She was admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court bar in 1964.
Before and while serving as a justice of the peace, she practiced law for 11 years.
Her trailblazing exploded outside of the courtroom. She was a founding member of the Michigan Chapter of the National Organization of Women (NOW), the first woman member of the Oakland County Bar Association and a founder of the Oakland County Women’s Bar Association.
Under the Michigan Constitution of 1963, the state established district courts, and Gilbert was elected to the 48th District Court in the first wave of elections in 1968 and re-elected in 1974, eventually serving as chief judge.
Her trailblazing also involved how she worked. She was the first judge in Michigan to utilize and implement computer technology for court administration. Not content with just serving in office, she continued her impressive leadership by founding the Michigan District Court Judges Association, serving as its first president, and drafting its constitution and bylaws. She also assisted in the formulation of the District Court Rules of Procedure.
In 1976, Gilbert become just the third woman elected as a circuit court judge in the history of the state and the first in Oakland County.
The GOP nominated her to run for Supreme Court in 1978 — taking on the revered former Gov. Soapy Williams — but the voters decided she was better suited as a trial judge.
Gilbert served on the Oakland County Circuit Court until 1992, when in mid-May she made a surprise resignation announcement.
She had decided to run for U.S. Congress but lost in the primary by soon-to-be Congressman Joe Knollenberg.
She went back into private practice as a mediator, arbitrator, special master, and receiver with the law firm of Hyman Lippitt.
Yet the siren song of the bench re-captivated her. In 1994, she ran for a vacant seat and was back on the circuit court.
She served another eight years before her retirement of December 2002.
Over her career, she had presided over 110,000 cases. As impressive a resume as that is, it hardly reveals the woman.
Bucking all custom, when she married, she maintained her maiden name. When she was sworn in as a lawyer in 1957, the Wayne County clerk required that she use her married name and admitted her to practice law as Alice Greenblatt.
She would have none of that — she sued. She prevailed in In Re: Alice Gilbert and was permitted to practice law as “Alice Gilbert.”
When she ran for justice of the peace, she was pregnant with her second child.
“I refused to go out in public, because nobody was going to vote for a pregnant woman to be their judge,” she said.
She won anyway — and delivered the baby 36 hours after the polls closed.
During her time at the district court, she was dubbed “Hangin’ Alice” because of her firm sentences and no-nonsense demeanor. She did not mind — in defiance of prevailing stereotypes, it assured the public that a woman would not be too soft.
However, with all that under her belt, we might be surprised that she reported to The Oakland Press that her proudest accomplishment was her involvement in the late 1970s with the National Women's Political Caucus. She moved at its convention that it establish a committee to help women garner appointments for federal judicial appointments at a time that the federal bench was expanding by one-third.
Gilbert made international headlines when she permanently enjoined retired pathologist Dr. Jack Kevorkian from using his “suicide machine” (as Gilbert termed it, or the “Thantron” as the doctor termed it). To make a very lengthy discussion simple, Kevorkian assisted Janet Adkins to end her life by creating a machine that would intravenously dispense three life ending drugs.
Adkins was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
The case went to trial on January 1991 and Gilbert rendered a searing 35-page opinion issued Feb. 5, 1991. The judge read her opinion in court, at times squarely looking at Kevorkian. In the course of her opinion, she wrote:
“This court finds it difficult to believe that the physicians of the past 2,000 years have been blind to the need, and only Dr. Kevorkian has the vision to lead them out of the darkness.” Gilbert said. “ At the present time, patient self-determination does not encompass self-extermination effectuated by a physician. Patients can not confer a right upon a doctor to assist a suicide. Patients can not dictate to a physician how to practice medicine.”
The trial and opinion captivated The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, People Magazine and many other leading media outlets.
When Gilbert decided to step down early, on her own terms, she reflected, “It was just time for me to move on. I wanted to do other things with my life. As a judge, you hold the fate of other people in your hands. That is a lot of responsibility.”
Life changed in many ways upon her retirement. Not only was she freed from the responsibility of judging, she had more time for family and travel.
She also practiced law again, joined the Michigan Film Commission, and began writing projects. There was an unexpected consequence as well: "I went from Judge to Alice. I rediscovered I had a first name. People are actually calling me ‘Alice’ again.”
Gilbert was the wife of the late Murray P. Greenblatt and the late Dr. Herbert J. Bloom. She was the mother of Gwen Gilbert, Greg (Carolynn) Gilbert, and Dean (Christina) Greenblatt.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Jewish Hospice & Chaplaincy Network in West Bloomfield or the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills.
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