I'm a woman.
When I grow up I want to be a lawyer.
When I say that in America it doesn't startle people, doesn't rattle them, doesn't take their breathe away. That is because of a generation of strong women before my time led by the legend known as Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Yesterday, on September 18th 2020 Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed near her family from complications related to cancer. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the second woman in the supreme court, an advocate for gender equality and a shatterer of the glass ceiling. This blog post is a tribute to her and the incredible work that she did that will last for generations and generations to come.
Early Life & Career
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born in Brooklyn, New York on March 15th, 1933. She grew up in a working class family. Her mother didn't go to college but instead straight to work in order to pay for her brother's college tuition. Her mother taught her the value of independence and education and marched for the women's suffrage movement. Her mother died when she was 17, a couple days before RBG's high school graduation. After high school, RBG went to college at Cornell in the year 1954. This is where she met her husband, Martin Ginsburg they married soon after college. Early in her marriage her husband was drafted to the war while they had their first child. When he returned they settled down at Harvard where RBG was studying. There were 500 students in her class, only 8 were women. She then became the first female member of the prestigious and renowned Harvard Law Review. Martin was then diagnosed with cancer and RBG had to take care of her daughter and husband. She would go to his classes (as well as her own) and take notes for him, he was able to graduate. Her husband then got a job in New York so RBG transferred to Columbia where she also got elected to their law review. She graduated first in her class.
Gender Discrimination
When RBG when to law school in 1954 it had only been 34 years since women got the right to vote. When RBG started schooling there were 178 laws that differentiated on the basis of sex. Just a few included: women weren't allowed to register a credit card without their husband's name or women couldn't work overtime and then 176 more. After graduating first in her class at Columbia university, she STILL had a problem finding a job because of sexism and that she was a mother. At the time only two women in America had been federal judges and most lawyers were men. In 1965, her former professor at Columbia convinced a judge to give her a position as a clerk. After her stunning resume, it's outstanding that someone had to convince a person to hire her.
Shattering The Glass Ceiling
In 1970 she became involved professionally in the issue of gender discrimination. She wrote in law review about gender discrimination. She then partnered with ACLU two file to federal court cases one based off of the law that loosely said that didn't let single males receive a social security when serving as caregivers to their families (reverse discrimination). The other one was about this "an Idaho state law that expressly preferred men to women in determining who should administer the estates of people who die without a will" according to Britannica. The second case, known as Reed v. Reed (1971) the supreme court decided that it was in fact sexist and stuck it down because of the "equal protection clause." That was the first time that the clause had protected a woman in supreme court. She then went on to be on the founder's counsel of ACLU's Women's Rights Project. That year she co-authored a book and then went on to be a professor at Columbia, she was the first woman to ever do so. In the years following RBG took 6 cases up to the supreme court, she won 5.
"I Dissent"
In 1980, President Jimmy Carter gave RBG the position at the court of appeals of the District of Columbia. Then on June 14th, 1993 the was nominated by Bill Clinton to be on the supreme court. She was confirmed by the Senate in a vote of 96-3. RBG was the first Jewish female on the Supreme court and the second woman ever. While on the Supreme court, one of her more well known cases decisions that helped fight gender discrimination was United States v Virginia . A case in which the Virginia Military Institute had a male only acceptance policy, the final ruling was 7-1. But, some of her most memorable statements were dissents. Dissents are opinions in a case, where one or a couple of judges that don't have the majority opinion can come together and write a piece about how they disagree. Her most popular dissent was probably Bush V Gore. She and her three other colleagues all wrote, hers stated "The court’s conclusion that a constitutionally adequate recount is impractical is a prophecy the court’s own judgment will not allow to be tested. Such an untested prophecy should not decide the presidency of the United States."She also wrote a dissent for the case of Ledbetter V. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. In this case 5-4, Ledbetter was not allowed to sue her boss for gender-based pay discrimination because of the time that had passed since it took place. RBG wrote: "Our precedent suggests, and lower courts have overwhelmingly held, that the unlawful practice is the current payment of salaries infected by gender-based (or race-based) discrimination – a practice that occurs whenever a paycheck delivers less to a woman than to a similarly situated man." Her most popular and well known dissent was against the removal of part of the voting right's act. She also wrote dissents about abortion, women's rights and other issues. Usually, it's customary when giving out a dissent to say: "I respectfully dissent" but RBG had a line of her own, a simple "I dissent."
The Notorious R.B.G
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was given the nickname 'the notorious RBG' because of the famous rapper "The Notorious B.I.G" which they were both from Brooklyn. RBG served on the Supreme court for 27 years and gave a lifetime for women's rights. She will go down in herstory as an icon, badass, warrior who's fight changed the lives of every American woman after her. Justice Ginsburg died (a couple hours before) the starting night of Rosh Hannash, a Jewish holiday and according to the author Ruth Franklin, she tweeted "According to Jewish tradition, a person who dies on Rosh Hashanah, which began tonight, is a tzaddik, a person of great righteousness."
Rest in love, peace, power and righteousness Justice RBG.
You leave our hearts heavy but we will continue your fight every day of our lives.
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