On March 1, 1953, Judge Cline retired from the U.S. Customs Court after roughly 25 years of service, succeeded by fellow pioneer Judge Mary H. Donlon.
On March 1, 1953, Genevieve R. Cline retired from the United States Customs Court after a distinguished tenure of approximately twenty-five years. Her retirement marked the conclusion of a judicial career that began with her historic appointment in 1928 as the first woman ever named to the federal judiciary.
Over her quarter-century on the bench, Cline built a reputation as a meticulous, knowledgeable, and fair jurist, particularly skilled in matters of customs valuation and classification—an area in which she had deep expertise dating back to her years as a merchandise appraiser. Her decisions helped shape customs law during a period of significant growth in American international trade.
Cline's retirement was notable not only for closing out her own historic career but also because she was succeeded by Judge Mary H. Donlon, another pioneering woman in the federal judiciary. This succession underscored the slow but steady progress of women's inclusion in federal judicial appointments that Cline herself had helped initiate a generation earlier.
By the time of her retirement, Cline had become a revered figure among legal historians and women's rights advocates, remembered as a trailblazer who had proven, through decades of competent service, that women were fully capable of serving with distinction in the federal judiciary. Her retirement was covered by legal publications as the end of an era for a true pioneer of American law.