Lady Hale is the Chief Judge of Britain’s highest court, the court that unanimously rebuked Prime Minister Boris Johnson for trying to suspend Parliament for five weeks so it could not discuss or delay his intention to leave the EU on October 31  (Brexit).

This is a delightful profile of a very accomplished woman, the daughter of two schoolteachers.

When the full weight of Britain’s Supreme Court came down on Tuesday against the suspension of Parliament, it was dropped like a hammer on Prime Minister Boris Johnson by the first woman to serve as the court’s president: Lady Hale.

In calm, clipped, riveting tones, she read the damning judgment from a sheaf of papers ruling on the act of suspension, called “prorogation.” “The decision to advise Her Majesty to prorogue Parliament was unlawful because it had the effect of frustrating the ability of Parliament to carry out its constitutional functions without reasonable justification,” the judge said.

She added: “The prorogation was void and of no effect — Parliament has not been prorogued.”

There were gasps in the court and tears from the lawyers who had argued the case, according to the BBC. Superlatives erupted on television and social media, as visibly stunned journalists delivered the news:

“Unprecedented.”

“Extraordinary.”

“Gobsmacked.”

“Speechless.”

“No one expected this.”

Minutes later, “Lady Hale” became a trending term on Twitter. Who is Lady Hale?…The appointment in 2017 of Brenda Haleas president of the Supreme Court was a landmark decision: She was the first woman to hold the position, just as she had been the first woman appointed to Britain’s highest court.

An academic, legal reformer and feminist, the judge took the office at 72 after being described as “one of the most forthright and liberalizing influences on the court.”…

Born in Yorkshire, England, to two teachers, both of whom became school principals, she attended Girton College at Cambridge University, where as a law student she graduated at the top of her class in 1966, “one of six women in a year of well over a hundred men,” according to British Vogue….

In 2004, Brenda Hale became Baroness Hale, Britain’s first female law lord, as the country’s most senior judges were then known. On her appointment, she chose a coat of arms with the Latin motto “Omnia Feminae Aequissimae”: “Women are equal to everything.”