Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Supreme Court Justice

• Born: March 15, 1933
• Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York
• Died: September 18, 2020
• Place of death: Washington, D.C.

As an attorney and a law professor, Ginsburg was a leader in the legal movement seeking to enhance the rights of women. In 1993, she became the first Jewish woman to serve on the US Supreme Court.

Early Life

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 13, 1933. She was raised in the city and educated in its public schools. Her mother, who died of cancer the day before her graduation from high school, was a significant influence on her and encouraged her to work hard on her education. Ginsburg attended Cornell University in New York, where she met her future husband, Martin Ginsburg. Both began their legal studies at Harvard Law School, where she was one of few women in her class. When her husband was hired by a major New York law firm, she transferred to Columbia University Law School. There, she graduated as a member of the law review, tied for first in her class. She then served as a law clerk for two years. One of her professors strongly urged that she be chosen for a highly prestigious Supreme Court clerk position, but this was a not a position open to women at that time. For the same reason, in spite of her stellar academic credentials, Ginsburg was unable to find a job with a major law firm in New York. Consequently she took a position teaching at Rutgers University Law School in 1963, where she first became interested in gender discrimination law. While there, she cowrote the first casebook in that field. In 1972, she joined the Columbia Law School faculty and became head of the Women’s Rights Project, which was created by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Life’s Work

When Ginsburg began to work with the Women’s Rights Project, there were a large number of laws, both state and federal, that treated men and women differently, often to the disadvantage of women. She challenged many of these laws, and she was successful getting them rewritten. Her work contributed significantly to the advancement of women’s rights.

In 1980, Ginsburg was appointed to the Federal Court of Appeals for Washington, DC, by President Jimmy Carter. While on this court she developed a reputation as being a moderately progressive judge, one who would interpret the law in a liberal fashion but not seek to push rapid change. In that vein, while on this court, she published an article criticizing the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade (the decision that overturned existing laws banning and regulating abortion) for going too far too fast and for not making its primary focus the rights of the woman.

In 1993, when Supreme Court Justice Byron R. White, who was appointed by John F. Kennedy, retired, President Bill Clinton was given the opportunity to fill the vacancy. At that time there were no Jewish justices on the Court; indeed there had not been one since Abe Fortas stepped down from the Court in 1969 amid accusations of bribery. It took President Clinton some time to decide on the first nominee of his presidency, but he eventually chose Ginsburg. She was easily confirmed by the US Senate, winning her seat by a vote of ninety-six to three.

After Ginsburg joined the Court, she became a member of its liberal bloc. Analyses of her decisions show she tended, in non-unanimous decisions, to vote with such justices as John Paul Stevens, David Souter, and (fellow Clinton appointee) Stephen Breyer. Those with whom she tended to disagree most were Justice Samuel Alito and her former colleagues on the court of appeals, Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia. She also voted with the majority in the case invalidating a Texas law prohibiting private sexual relations between consulting adults of the same gender. She made it clear that she considered laws seeking to restrict access to abortions to be unconstitutional. She also supported of the rights of the accused against the power of the state in cases of criminal law.

Because of the conservative ascendancy on the Court, Ginsburg often voted with the minority. For instance, when the majority of the Court held that large punitive damages in lawsuits are unconstitutional, she voted in the minority. She also voted with the minority when the Supreme Court upheld California’s “three strikes" law, and she did the same in a case in which the majority took the position that made it difficult for citizens to effectively pursue pay-discrimination lawsuits. She also voted with the dissenters in Bush v. Gore, the case that determined the outcome of the 2000 US presidential contest. Because she tended to vote with the minority a significant amount of the time, she had therefore written fewer opinions of the Court (majority opinions) and more dissenting opinions than many of her colleagues.

Although Ginsburg had philosophical differences with some of her peers on the bench, Ginsburg was able to maintain good personal relationships with many of them. For instance, though she and Sandra Day O’Connor (the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court) did not always vote the same, they became good friends. The Ginsburgs also had a close personal relationship with the Scalias, though Anthony Scalia and Ginsburg disagreed often in their votes.

Ginsburg became a popular culture icon and internet sensation, famous for her pointed dissents, in the 2010s, particularly after Shana Knizhnik, a law student, hailed her as the Notorious R.B.G., a nod to the late rapper and fellow Brooklyn native Notorious B.I.G. In 2015, Knikzhnik and Irin Carmon published their biography of the justice,Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which became a New York Times Best Seller the day after it was released. That same year, Ginsburg, with Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt, published the essay "The Heroic and Visionary Women of Passover," which highlights five women who played large roles in the Jewish Passover story. In 2016, she published the New York Times Best Seller My Own Words, a collection of her writings and speeches and Simon and Schuster published I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark, a biography of Ginsburg for children written by Debbie Levy and illustrated by Elizabeth Baddeley. In 2018, two films were released based on Ginsburg's life, the documentary RGB, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, and the biographical drama On the Basis of Sex, starring Felicity Jones as Ginsburg and Armie Hammer as her husband, Martin. Ginsburg herself made a cameo appearance in On the Basis of Sex.

Ginsburg experienced several serious health issues that in large part neither slowed her down nor inhibited her presence on the Court. In 1999, she underwent surgery for colon cancer, which was followed by radiation and chemotherapy. Despite the debilitating effects of such therapies, Ginsburg never missed a day on the bench. In 2009, she again had a cancerous tumor removed, this time from her pancreas. She was back at work and hearing arguments less than two weeks following surgery. In November 2014, Ginsburg underwent surgery again to have a heart stent implanted in order to clear a blocked artery. She was rushed to the hospital when she complained of discomfort during exercise with her personal trainer. The surgery was performed on a Thursday, and Ginsburg was back at work the following Monday. In November 2018, Ginsburg was hospitalized for three broken ribs. While she returned two work after a day of rest, her hospital visit revealed cancer in her lungs. She underwent surgery to remove the cancerous nodules in December 2018 and returned to the Supreme Court in February after a period of recuperation in which she was compelled to miss oral arguments for the first time.

Ginsburg died at her home in Washington, DC, on September 18, 2020, of complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer. She was predeceased by her husband, Martin Ginsburg, in 2010. She was buried next to her husband in Arlington National Cemetery. Her survivors include her children, Jane C. Ginsburg and James S. Ginsburg; four grandchildren; two step-grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.

In the days before Ginsburg died, she declared to her granddaughter, Clara Spera, "My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed," a reference to the 2020 presidential election. Within hours of her death, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, announced that President Donald Trump's nominee to replace Ginsburg would receive a vote in the Senate. McConnell's announcement prompted Democrats and others on the left to accuse him of hypocrisy for not following a precedent he himself set upon the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in early 2016. At that time, about nine months before the 2016 presidential election, McConnell had prevented the Senate from considering Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama's nominee to fill Scalia's vacancy on the Court, stating that "the American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president." Her wish was denied, however, when Trump nominee Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed by the Senate on October 27, 2020, just days before the conclusion of the 2020 presidential election.

Significance

Ginsburg had a significant impact on American life as a role model, a leader in the women’s rights movement, and as a judge. When she entered Harvard Law School, a female lawyer was a rarity. Her role in the crusade for greater legal equality for women has been compared to Thurgood Marshall’s role in integration of racial minorities into the legal profession. Ginsburg was also the first Jewish woman to attain the position of justice of the United States Supreme Court. She was known as a jurist who carefully built on existing law to extend it in liberal directions. As both an attorney and a judge, she was an intelligent and effective spokesperson for equality for all under the law. In recognition of her work, Ginsburg was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2002 and was named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People in 2015. In addition, she was featured in a painting of the four women who served on the Supreme Court that was unveiled at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in 2013. After her death, Ginsburg became the first woman and the first Jewish American to lie in state in the US Capitol.

Bibliography

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Barnes, Robert, and Michael A. Fletcher. “Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Supreme Court Justice and Legal Pioneer for Gender Equality, Dies at 87.” 18 Sept. 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/ruth-bader-ginsburg-dies/2020/09/18/3cedc314-fa08-11ea-a275-1a2c2d36e1f1‗story.html. Accessed 21 Sept. 2020.

Greenhouse, Linda. “Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Supreme Court’s Feminist Icon, Is Dead at 87.” The New York Times, 21 Sept. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/09/18/us/ruth-bader-ginsburg-dead.html. Accessed 21 Sept. 2020.

Lithwick, Dahlia. "Ruth Bader Ginsburg Is Irreplaceable." Slate, 19 Mar. 2014, slate.com/news-and-politics/2014/03/ruth-bader-ginsburg-shouldnt-retire-shes-irreplaceable.html. Accessed 27 Dec. 2014.

Malkin, Marc. "Ruth Bader Ginsburg Films Cameo in Biopic." The Hollywood Reporter, 17 Apr. 2018, www.hollywoodreporter.com/rambling-reporter/ruth-bader-ginsburg-films-cameo-biopic-notorious-1101485. Accessed 19 Mar. 2019.

O’Brien, David M. “Judicial Legacies: The Clinton Presidency and the Courts.” The Clinton Legacy. Edited by Colin Campbell and Bert A. Rockman, Chatham House, 2000.

Porterfield, Carlie. "Ruth Bader Ginsburg Becomes the First Woman and the First Jewish Person to Lie in State at the US Capitol." Forbes, 25 Sept. 2020, www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2020/09/25/ruth-bader-ginsburg-becomes-first-woman-jewish-person-to-lie-in-state-at-the-us-capitol/#68268a7a1519. Accessed 28 Oct. 2020.

Rosen, Jeffrey." "Ruth Bader Ginsburg Is an American Hero." New Republic, 28 Sept. 2014, newrepublic.com/article/119578/ruth-bader-ginsburg-interview-retirement-feminists-jazzercise. Accessed 27 Dec. 2014.

Strum, Philippa. Women in the Barracks: The VMI Case and Equal Rights. UP of Kansas, 2002.

Toobin, Jeffrey. "Heavyweight: How Ruth Bader Ginsburg Has Moved the Supreme Court." The New Yorker, 11 Mar. 2013, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/03/11/heavyweight-ruth-bader-ginsburg. Accessed 27 Dec. 2014.

Tushnet, Mark. “Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Equal Protection Clause.” A Court Divided: The Rehnquist Court and the Future of Constitutional Law. W. W. Norton, 2005.