Judge Ursula A. Hall

04/16/2026

Happy National Librarians Day! Thank you to our knowledge heroes: librarians everywhere!

Read All About It: April Is The Month For National Librarian Day https://asbaonline.org/read-all-about-it-april-is-the-month-for-national-librarian-day/ Ursula

04/04/2026

03/15/2026

The first women to serve as judges in Texas were appointed to a special all-woman Texas Supreme Court in 1925. Hortense Ward, Hattie Henenberg, and Nellie Robertson were appointed by Governor Pat Neff to hear a specific case, marking the first time women sat on the state bench in Texas. Sarah T. Hughes later became the first female district court judge in 1935.

Sources: https://www.txcourts.gov/supreme/about-the-court/court-history/all-woman-supreme-court/ ; https://www.tshaonline.org/texas-day-by-day/entry/838 ; https://www.texasalmanac.com/articles/the-texas-all-woman-supreme-court Ursula

Celebrating the International Day of Women Judges. Around the globe, women judges strengthen courts, expand perspectives on the bench, and help ensure justice systems better reflect the communities they serve. While progress has been made, many regions still have far too few women in judicial roles.

The National Association of Women Judges supports efforts to increase opportunities, mentorship, and pathways for women to serve as judges, especially in areas where they remain underrepresented, domestically and internationally. A more inclusive judiciary helps build greater public trust and advances equal justice for all.

07/04/2025

"What the people want is simple: they want an America as good as its promise—that as a nation we live up to our historical promise of equality of opportunity. We believe that the gap between the promise and reality can one day be closed, if each of us remembers that we share a common destiny." - Congresswoman Barbara Jordon Ursula

07/01/2025

Beautiful Things: leadership, foresight and courage.

Ursula

On this day in 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite Valley Grant Act. The legislation gave California the Yosemite Valley and the nearby Mariposa Big Tree Grove “upon the express conditions that the premises shall be held for public use, resort, and recreation.”

In March 1903, President Teddy Roosevelt wrote to naturalist John Muir. "... I wish to write you personally to express the hope that you will be able to take me through Yosemite," the letter stated.

Roosevelt had read some of Muir’s writings in which he explained how the wild forests were vanishing as ranchers and developers destroyed the wilderness for their own uses and for money. While most of Roosevelt’s advisors thought that America’s wilderness was too large to ever be depleted, Roosevelt wondered if this were really so and if the government could help.

While the National Park Service wasn't officially created until 1916 with an act of Congress, Roosevelt returned to Washington after his trip to the west (during which he also visited Yellowstone) refreshed and enthusiastic about conserving America’s forests and its wilderness areas. He pushed Congress to pass laws to protect the wild lands. He also transferred the responsibility of looking after the forest reserves to the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1905 by establishing the U.S. Forest Service.

Image: Photograph shows Theodore Roosevelt, full-length portrait, standing on mountain top. Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 1903. New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

06/22/2025

"Written in 1787, 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗱 [𝗼𝗻 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝟮𝟭,] 𝟭𝟳𝟴𝟴, and in operation since 1789, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 is the world’s longest surviving written charter of government. Its first three words – “We The People” – affirm that the government of the United States exists to serve its citizens. The supremacy of the people through their elected representatives is recognized in Article I, which creates a Congress consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives. The positioning of Congress at the beginning of the Constitution affirms its status as the “First Branch” of the federal government..." https://www.senate.gov/about/origins-foundations/senate-and-constitution/constitution.htm Ursula

𝗢𝗻 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝟮𝟭, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱, President Donald J. Trump, 𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝘀𝗹𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰 𝗼𝗳 𝗜𝗿𝗮𝗻 (𝗜𝗥𝗜), without Congressional authority. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/does-trump-have-the-authority-to-order-u-s-strikes-on-iran

06/20/2025

"Igbo Landing is a historic site at Dunbar Creek on St. Simons Island, Glynn County, Georgia. In 1803 one of the largest mass su***des of enslaved people took place when Igbo captives from what is now Nigeria were taken to the Georgia coast. In May 1803, the Igbo and other West African captives arrived in Savannah, Georgia, on the slave ship the Wanderer. They were purchased for an average of $100 each by slave merchants John Couper and Thomas Spalding to be resold to plantations on nearby St. Simons Island. The chained slaves were packed under deck of a coastal vessel, the York, which would take them to St. Simons. During the voyage, approximately 75 Igbo slaves rose in rebellion, took control of the ship, drowned their captors, and in the process caused the grounding of the ship in Dunbar Creek.
..[T]he Igbo marched ashore, singing, led by their high chief. Then at his direction, they walked into the marshy waters of Dunbar Creek, committing mass su***de.
..[T]he deaths signaled a powerful story of resistance as these captives overwhelmed their captors in a strange land, and many took their own lives rather than remain enslaved in the New World. The Igbo Landing gradually took on enormous symbolic importance in local African American folklore. The mutiny and subsequent su***de by the Igbo people was called by many locals the first freedom march in the history of the United States.." https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/igbo-landing-mass-su***de-1803/ Ursula

06/14/2025

Houston, Harris County, Texas, June 14, 2025, National "No Kings Protest."
Ursula

06/01/2025

1 in 5 people will experience a mental health condition in any given year, and everyone faces challenges that can affect their mental health.

Healing together is easier than struggling alone. 💚 If you need support, don’t be afraid to reach out.

Learn more about the importance of peer support: mhanational.org/may Learn how you can take action for your mental health today: mhanational.org/may

Ursula