The next court case was that of Mrs. Belva Ann Lockwood, of Washington, D. C., who graduated from the Law School of the National University, and was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the District, in 1873. The same year a motion was made for her admission to the bar of the U. S. Court of Claims. This Court refused to act upon the motion, “for want of jurisdiction.” The opinion concludes in these words: “The position which this Court assumes is that under the Constitution and Laws of the United States a court is without power to grant such an application, and that a woman is without legal capacity to take the office of attorney.” (Court of Claims Reports, vol. ix. p. 346.) At the October term, 1876, of the Supreme Court of the United States, Mrs. Lockwood applied for admission as practitioner of that court. Her application was denied. The decision has not been officially reported, but, upon the record of the Court, it is thus stated: “Upon the presentation of this application the Chief Justice said that, notice of this application having been previously brought to his attention, he had been instructed by the Court to announce the following decision upon it: By the uniform practice of the Court from its organization to the present time, and by the fair construction of its rules, none but men are admitted to practice before it as attorneys and counselors. This is in accordance with immemorial usage in England, and the law and practice in all the States, until within a recent period; and the Court does not feel called upon to make a change until such a change is required by statute or a more extended practice in the highest courts of the States.”