Emily Murphy

Canada's constitution allowed "qualified persons" to sit in the Senate, and governments argued that women were not persons in law. Murphy, an Alberta magistrate whose own authority had been challenged on those grounds, recruited four other women, the Famous Five, to petition for a ruling. The Supreme Court of Canada said no in 1928; the Privy Council in London reversed it in October 1929, calling the constitution a "living tree". Murphy was never appointed herself. Her support for eugenic sterilisation and her writing on race are also part of her record.