Americans are still mourning the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, an inspiration to all. Ginsburg was a strong advocate for gender equality and women’s rights, winning many of her persuasive arguments before the Supreme Court. While mourning her passing and the unstable political decisions that may stem from it, people must also recognize all the progress she made through her time on the court. She was both a brilliant jurist and a folk hero to many. In the popular imagination, the honors paid to her put her in the company of Congressman John Lewis and Senator John McCain.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born on March 15, 1933, in Brooklyn, New York into a German Jewish lower-middle-class household. Her mother, Celia Bader, was an employee at a garment factory, and her father, Nathan Bader, was a merchant. Justice Ginsburg’s mother died of cancer the day before her high school graduation, but the short time they spent together Celia planted the seed for Justice Ginsburg’s love of learning.
Ginsburg attended Cornell University for her undergraduate degree where she completed her studies in 1954 at the top of her class. In that same year, Justice Ginsburg married her husband, Martin Ginsburg. After she married, Justice Ginsburg put her education on hold for two years while Martin served in the military. During these two years, Justice Ginsburg cared for their firstborn, Jane Carol Ginsburg. Once Martin returned from his military service in 1956, both he and Justice Ginsburg enrolled at Harvard Law School. Later that year, Martin was diagnosed with testicular cancer. While he went through rigorous treatment, Justice Ginsburg took care of both his school work and her own and somehow still managed to remain at the top of her class. Furthermore, she was one of only nine women in her class of five-hundred students and was the first woman to be on the Harvard Law Review. Justice Ginsburg transferred to Columbia Law School for the final year of her graduate education and served on their law review as well. In 1959, Justice Ginsburg graduated from Columbia at the top of her class.
Despite Ginsburg’s impressive credentials, she was unable to find work. Not only did she face sex-based discrimination in the job market, but she also faced anti-semitism and anti-mother biases when people found out she had a young child at home. Eventually, with the help of her former teacher at Columbia, Justice Ginsburg got her first job as a clerk for U.S. District Judge Edmund L. Palmieri. Over the next twenty years, Justice Ginsburg joined the Columbia Project on International Civil Procedure and taught as a professor at Rutgers University and Columbia University.
Throughout the 1970s, Justice Ginsburg directed the Women’s Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. She led the fight against gender discrimination as she argued six cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter nominated her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. After thirteen years of serving on the Court of Appeals, she was nominated to the Supreme Court in 1993 by President Bill Clinton.
Justice Ginsburg served on the Supreme Court until her death in 2020, never missing a day of oral arguments until 2018. Justice Ginsburg was known for being on the Court’s liberal wing. She was recognized as a hero in American culture as she openly advocated for and consistently voted liberally on issues regarding abortion rights, same-sex marriage, immigration, affirmative action, voting rights, and health care. Justice Ginsburg’s way in which she fought gender discrimination is widely recognized. She did not fight gender discrimination as a whole, all in one swoop, but instead, she attacked specific violations of women’s rights one at a time. By doing this, Justice Ginsburg earned the title of one of the most avid scholars to ever sit on the bench and, more notably, the Notorious RBG.
The Notorious RBG passed away on September 18, 2020, in Washington D.C. due to complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer. The mourning of this incredible figure is happening in conjunction with the politics of replacing her. Justice Ginsburg died at a crucial time in American history. On the day of her death, the presidential election was only forty-six days away. Supporters of the current administration want President Donald Trump to replace Justice Ginsburg. However, many Americans think that if Trump takes action it would be hypocritical in light of what happened four years ago. In 2016, nine months before the presidential election, Justice Antonin Scalia died. Barack Obama, the president at the time, wanted to appoint Merrick Garland to replace Scalia but the Republicans in the Senate refused to hold a hearing. Given the fact that Justice Ginsburg died only one-and-a-half months before election day, and Justice Scalia died nine months before, many consider it to be unfair and hypocritical for President Trump to appoint a new justice to take Ginsburg’s place.
On September 23, 2020, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s funeral service was held, starting at the Supreme Court. A more private service was held a few days later at Arlington National Cemetery.
In recent years two movies were made in her honor. One, titled “RBG,” is a documentary about her life. The other, titled “On the Basis of Sex,” is about Justice Ginsburg’s time as an attorney before she was appointed to the Supreme Court. Today, in the wake of her passing Justice Ginsburg is being honored all over the country in a variety of different ways including on social media and at protests. Although it may be difficult to focus on Justice Ginsburg’s legacy amidst the current political uproar, it is important that Americans properly mourn and honor her.
Americans are left to ponder if Justice Ginsburg’s seat will be filled before the presidential election. While people are forced to consider the political consequences of Ginsburg’s death, the country must also recognize every advancement and every further step towards equality she made. Amongst many milestones, RBG is now the first woman in U.S. history to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol in Washington DC. Justice Ginsburg once said, “My mother told me to be a lady. And for her, that meant be your own person, be independent.”
Written by Elizabeth Walker and Rex Hechter
