Judith M. Rogers (1932–2023)

Judith Rogers was a trailblazing jurist in the last third of the twentieth century. She was also a dedicated activist in the effort to reform the juvenile justice system, regularly appearing before the Arkansas General Assembly to advocate for needed improvements.

Judith Meyer was born on January 14, 1932, in Newark (Independence County) to laborer William Moses Meyer and Florence Meyer. She attended the University of Florida, where she earned a BS in business administration in 1952. She married Arthur Rogers on August 4, 1951, and the couple had two daughters and a son.

After a number of years focusing on raising her children, Judith Rogers returned to school, earning her JD from the Indiana University School of Law at Indianapolis. She finished second—and was one of two women—in the Class of 1961. Despite her academic record, her job opportunities in Arkansas were limited, as the state had admitted not one woman to the bar in the period from 1957 to 1961. When Rogers took her oath in 1962, the ceremony was held at the Little Rock Club, an exclusive, then all-male establishment. Rogers launched her law career in Little Rock (Pulaski County) by entering into an agreement with fellow attorney Byron Bogard, whereby he got half of her gross income in return for office space.

As one of the few female attorneys in the male-dominated Arkansas legal community, Rogers gained a reputation as a tough advocate, with her early practice focusing on domestic relations. Her private practice, which she maintained until 1977, grew steadily, and she would eventually purchase a building and become an established figure in the Pulaski County legal community.

Long involved in Democratic Party politics, Rogers had attended the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968 and served as the vice president of the Young Democrats Club of America. She also served as the Arkansas representative on the steering committee of the National Women’s Political Caucus in the early 1980s.

In 1977, at the request of a friend, she served on an advisory board on the juvenile courts, which led to service as Juvenile Referee for Pulaski County, and in turn to a position as a Juvenile Court judge, a role she filled from 1977 to 1982. These experiences sparked a lasting interest in the juvenile justice system, and she would continue to be active in efforts to reform and improve the system throughout her career.

In 1982, Rogers was elected a chancery judge in Pulaski County to fill out the final two years of a term. She was reelected in 1984 without opposition, and she served in that capacity until 1988, when she became the first woman elected to the Arkansas Court of Appeals, taking office in Little Rock not long after the death of her husband in 1988.

She made one run at a seat on the Arkansas Supreme Court, in 1990. In an extremely hard-fought race, Rogers was defeated in the Democratic Primary by a little over 1,100 votes by Robert L. Brown, a former congressional aide and gubernatorial aide for Dale Bumpers. She would serve on the appellate court for another decade, retiring in April 2000.

She married Howard J. Weiss in 1997.

Rogers served as a member of the Arkansas Supreme Court’s Commission on Child Support and as president of the Arkansas Juvenile Judges Association. She also served on the National Council of Juvenile Judges, at one point chairing the organization’s Committee on Abuse and Neglect. Rogers was a fellow of the Arkansas Bar Association, where she served as a member of the Revisions Committee for the Handbook of Domestic Relations. She was also a member of the Appellate Practice Committee, as well as the Arkansas Judicial Council, where she served on the federal court liaison committee in 1998.

In the civic realm, Judith Rogers was a board member of the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, the United Way, and the Salvation Army, as well as being a member of the Arkansas Women’s Leadership Forum.

Rogers was named Gail Pettus Pontz Outstanding Female Attorney by the University of Arkansas School of Law in 1987 as well as one of Arkansas’s Top 100 Women by the Arkansas Public Group of Little Rock in 1996, 1997, and 1998.

Rogers retired in 2000 after a complaint filed against her alleged multiple instances of inappropriate professional conduct. These included a charge that she had abused her judicial office in a landlord/tenant dispute by having two men arrested and jailed without any legal basis, improperly using judicial stationery for personal business, and having judicial staff members perform personal business and tasks for her while on the court payroll. While she generally denied any inappropriate conduct, she apologized for having done anything that might have led to the integrity of her office being “called into question,” and as part of the resolution of the proceedings of the Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission, Rogers agreed to tender her early retirement, effective April 15, 2000.

Rogers’s husband died in December 2019, and she later moved to Miami, Florida. She died on November 13, 2023.

For additional information:
Clinton, Annabelle Davis, “Coming of Age: Women Lawyers in Arkansas, 1960–1984.” Arkansas Lawyer, April 1985, pp. 58–65.

Interview with Judge Ruth Rogers on Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, April 19, 1994. University of Arkansas at Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture. https://arstudies.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p1532coll1/id/12574/ (accessed May 5, 2026).

William H. Pruden III
Raleigh, North Carolina