First Lady Institution as Part of American Democracy

... President Theodore Roosevelt’s wife Edith Roosevelt was the first to be paid from federal funds. Does the First Lady have any legal status? What is the legal status of the First Lady? On June 22, 1993 a United States Court of Appeals backed up Hillary Clinton's assertion that the First Lady was a full-time government official and “Congress itself has recognized that the president's spouse acts as the functional equivalent of an assistant to the president.” Thus, the current legal status of the First Lady of the United ...