Celebrating the Life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg
September 18, 2020 – The United States (and the world) lost the light of one of the most influential Supreme court justice to serve in history. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, also known as RGB and “The Notorious R.B.G.”, a play on the name of rapper The Notorious B.I.G. Rather than discuss the death of this influential and incredible politician, we’d like to celebrate her life.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born Joan Ruth Bader on March 15, 1933. RBG was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in 2020. She was nominated by President Bill Clinton and was on the liberal wing of the Court (as evidenced by her opposition to new policies brought on by administration and the outcry from the Democratic Party that we have lost a light and vote in our government).
Ginsburg was the second woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, after Sandra Day O’Connor. She also paved the way for other female justices. Following O’Connor’s retirement in 2006 and until Sonia Sotomayer joined the Court in 2009, she was the only female justice on the Supreme Court. During that time, Ginsburg became more forceful with her dissents, which were noted by legal observers and in popular culture.
As a result, Ginsburg authored notable majority opinions, including United States v. Virginia (1996), Olmstead v. L.C. (1999), and Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services, Inc. (2000).
Personal Life
Ginsburg was born and grew up in New York City (Brooklyn, to be exact). Ginsburg experienced great family loss. Her older sister passed when she was a baby, and her mother died shortly before Ginsburg graduated from high school.
A few days after Bader graduated from Cornell, she married her husband, Martin D Ginsburg, who later became an internationally prominent tax attorney. Upon her accession to the D.C. Circuit, the couple moved from New York to Washington, D.C., where her husband became professor. Their daughter, Jane C Ginsburg is a professor at Columbia Law School. Their son, James Steve Ginsburg is the founder and president of Cedille Records (classical music). Ginsburg had four grandchildren.
Professional Life
Ginsburg earned her bachelor’s degree at Cornell University. She transferred to Columbia Law School from Harvard Law School (Shower she was one of few women in her class). She graduated tied for first in her class from Columbia. After law school, Ginsburg entered academia as a professor at Rutgers Law School and Columbia Law School, teaching civil procedure as one of the few women in her field.
Ginsburg spent a considerable part of her legal career as an advocate for the advancement for gender equality and women’s rights, winning multiple arguments before the Supreme Court. Over her illustrious career, Ginsburg inspired many and
Ginsburg died at her home in Washington, D.C., on September 18, 2020, from complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer, at the age of 87. And, while we are so impacted and sad for her loss, we are absolutely glad that she made the major changes in her life that she did. And, we hope that her life and impacts on the United States will be amplified on this day, not silenced or dampened.