Last Saturday, I woke up to a text that our beloved Supreme Court Justice and equal rights warrior had passed on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, September 18th, 2020. This NPR news story confirmed the bad news. The supreme court blog has a detailed post honoring her life. This video is a quick summary of her in her own words, something she was passionate about using.
Like so many that have admired her work, I have been struggling to mourn her loss and make sense of what her absence might mean. For me, that means reading the words she leaves behind.
Some favorite quotes:
“My mother was very strong about my doing well in school and living up to my potential. Two things were important to her and she repeated them endlessly. One was to ‘be a lady,’ and that meant conduct yourself civilly, don’t let emotions like anger or envy get in your way. And the other was to be independent, which was an unusual message for mothers of that time to be giving their daughters.”
― Ruth Bader Ginsburg, My Own Words
“I tell law students… if you are going to be a lawyer and just practice your profession, you have a skill—very much like a plumber. But if you want to be a true professional, you will do something outside yourself… something that makes life a little better for people less fortunate than you.” – The Mercury News, February 6, 2017
“So often in life, things that you regard as an impediment turn out to be great, good fortune.”
“Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.”
“Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”
“When I’m sometimes asked when will there be enough [women on the Supreme Court] and I say, ‘When there are nine,’ people are shocked. But there’d been nine men, and nobody’s ever raised a question about that.”
“I don’t say women’s rights—I say the constitutional principle of the equal citizenship stature of men and women.”
“Women will have achieved true equality when men share with them the responsibility of bringing up the next generation.”
“Reliance on overbroad generalizations … estimates about the way most men or most women are, will not suffice to deny opportunity to women whose talent and capacity place them outside the average description,” said Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a majority opinion that allowed women into a military academy, frequently using examples of how discrimination based on sex hurts men too. But “Some of my favorite opinions are dissenting opinions,” Ginsburg told NPR. “I will not live to see what becomes of them, but I remain hopeful.”
In 1979, she shared Some Thoughts on Judicial Authority to Repair Unconstitutional Legislation. She introduced the topic with, “Among governing institutions, the judiciary has been described as”the least dangerous branch.”‘ Courts in our system have the awesome power to declare laws unconstitutional, but judges command no troops, and are said to lack the power of the purse. My remarks address a facet of the purse power supposition: When a legislative product is constitutionally infirm because it is under-inclusive, what remedies lie within the judicial province? Discussion will focus on the question whether a court may order inclusion of a category of persons left out by the legislature, a question particularly pointed when the court’s inclusion order would mandate increased government spending.”
In 2010, she shared The Role of Dissenting Opinions, opened saying “It is a subject I have had to think about more than occasionally in recent terms.” and closed with, “although I appreciate the value of unanimous opinions, I will continue to speak in dissent when important matters are at stake.”
May her memory be a blessing.