265
Judge Jane Bolin: Ahead of the Times,
Part I
A Look at an Important Decision on
Juvenile Interviews, In re Rutane
JUDGE PATRIA FRIAS-COLÓN* & IRWIN WEISS**
Introduction
When Jane M. Bolin passed away in 2007, she was 98 years old.1 She
left behind a trail-blazing legacy from her experience as the rst African
American woman to (1) graduate from Yale Law School, (2) be hired as an
1. Douglas Martin, Jane Bolin, the Country’s First Black Woman to Become a Judge, Is
Dead at 98, N.Y. times, https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/10/obituaries/10bolin.html (last
updated Jan. 10, 2007).
* Judge Patria Frias-Colón is Supervising Judge of the Civil Court of the City of New York,
Queens County; she previously served as a Family Court judge.
** Irwin Weiss is court attorney to Judge Frias-Colón.
The authors gratefully acknowledge the outstanding research assistance provided by Todd
Fitch, Cardozo Law School Class of 2022 (Kings County Civil Court Judicial Internship
Program), and Rana Matared, New York Law School Class of 2023 (Dominican Bar
Association’s Faviola Soto Judicial Internship Program); as well as Robert Zamora, University
of Chicago Class of 2024 (Ron Brown Law School Preparation Internship Program), and Daniel
Li, Fort Hamilton High School Class of 2022 (Sonia & Celina Sotomayor High School Judicial
Internship Program), for their support and careful attention provided in the preparation of this
Article. Thank you to Family Law Quarterly student Editor-in-Chief April Pacis (NYLS ’22),
Executive Articles Editor Fatin Assaf (NYLS ’22), and all NYLS Family Law Quarterly editors
for excellent editorial work. Special thanks go to Lisa Grumet, faculty Editor in Chief, Family
Law Quarterly, and Director of the Diane Abbey Law Institute for Children and Families and
Associate Professor of Law at New York Law School; and Karlene Dennis of the Franklin
H. Williams Judicial Commission on Minorities. Judge Frias-Colón also thanks her former
colleagues from the New York City Law Department, especially the Family Court Division, for
their inspiration and assistance.
Published in Family Law Quarterly, Volume 55, Number 3, 2021–2022. © 2022 American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof
may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.
266 Family Law Quarterly, Volume 55, Number 3, 2021–2022
attorney for the New York City Law Department,2 and (3) be appointed as a
judge in the United States, specically to the Domestic Relations Court of
New York City (now called the New York City Family Court).3 Although
Judge Bolin’s long, productive, and pioneering career may not have
received all of the recognition owed, her life-story has been chronicled by
others.4 Accordingly, the authors have determined instead to present Judge
Bolin primarily through her cases, both civil and criminal, in two separate
articles. This rst article discusses In re Rutane,5 a juvenile delinquency
case Judge Bolin dismissed after determining that the 13-year-old child’s
confession had been involuntarily obtained by the police. Her decision
nding the confession involuntary was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in
In re Gault,6 its landmark decision concerning children’s right to counsel
and to certain procedural protections in juvenile delinquency proceedings.
The second article discusses other issues Judge Jane Bolin worked on as
an attorney for the New York City Law Department and later when she
served as a judge, with a focus on the area of child support.7
2. See id.; David L. Goodwin, Judge Jane Bolin, hist. soc’y oF the n.y. ct. (Feb. 21,
2018), https://history.nycourts.gov/judge-jane-bolin/. The Law Department, where Jane Bolin
served as an attorney from 1937 to 1939, has established an award in her honor: The Jane
M. Bolin Diversity Leadership Award “recognizes and celebrates the outstanding contributions
and signicant impact by an exceptional member of the Law Department in promoting and
advocating the ofce’s diversity goals.” Press Release, N.Y.C. Law Dep’t, Mayor Michael R.
Bloomberg to Honor Law Department Staff at 32nd Annual Awards Ceremony (Dec. 12, 2013),
http://www.nyc.gov/html/law/downloads/pdf/Annual%20Awards%202013.pdf.
3. Hon. Jane M. Bolin: Judging Across Decades, hist. soc’y oF the N.Y. cts., https://
history.nycourts.gov/hon-jane-m-bolin-judging-across-decades/ (last updated Apr. 21, 2021).
4. See JacQUeline a. mcleod, the liFe oF JUdge Jane Bolin: daUghteR oF the
emPiRe state (2011); see also, e.g., Goodwin, supra note 2. Jane Bolin was born and raised
in Poughkeepsie, New York, in Dutchess County. mcleod, supra, at 1. Her mother, Matilda
Emery Bolin, a white Northern Ireland–born immigrant, died when Judge Bolin was eight years
old. Id. at 10–12. Her father, Gaius Charles Bolin, who was born a year before the Civil War
ended, was the rst African American graduate of Williams College, then an all-male, liberal
arts college in Massachusetts. Id. at 5–6; Williams college Black stUdent Union, Black
Williams: a WRitten histoRy 4–6 (2011), https://unbound.williams.edu/williamsarchives/
islandora/object/bsu%3A6. After graduation, Gaius Bolin did a legal apprenticeship with a
lawyer and was subsequently admitted to practice. mcleod, supra, at 7. He began his own
general-practice rm in Poughkeepsie, where he raised Jane Bolin and her siblings. Id. at 7, 10.
Judge Jane Bolin graduated from Wellesley College, a liberal arts college in Massachusetts, and
then launched her legal education and career. Id. at 17–21.
5. 234 N.Y.S.2d 777 (Fam. Ct. 1962).
6. 387 U.S. 1 (1967).
7. See infra p. 281, Judge Patria Frias-Colón & Irwin Weiss, Judge Jane Bolin: Ahead of the
Times, Part II: A Look at Her Child Support Cases.
Published in Family Law Quarterly, Volume 55, Number 3, 2021–2022. © 2022 American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof
may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.
