Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whose legal career in the fight for women’s rights, equal rights and human dignity culminated with her ascent to the U.S. Supreme Court, was a cultural hero and arguably the most beloved justice in American history. Ginsburg’s protection of equality and the advancement of the rights of all people, particularly women, helped to transform American society.
Working at the American Civil Liberties Union in 1972, she founded the Women’s Rights Project. She researched and argued... moreRuth Bader Ginsburg, whose legal career in the fight for women’s rights, equal rights and human dignity culminated with her ascent to the U.S. Supreme Court, was a cultural hero and arguably the most beloved justice in American history. Ginsburg’s protection of equality and the advancement of the rights of all people, particularly women, helped to transform American society.
Working at the American Civil Liberties Union in 1972, she founded the Women’s Rights Project. She researched and argued six gender discrimination cases before the Supreme Court in the 1970s, winning five. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter appointed Ginsburg to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. President Bill Clinton nominated her to the Supreme Court to replace retiring Justice Byron White in 1993. Clinton interviewed Ginsburg and later said he was instantly impressed, submitting her nomination to the Senate the next day.
Born Joan Ruth Bader on March 15, 1933 in New York City to Celia and Nathan Bader, she grew up in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn and graduated from James Madison High School in 1950. Bader Ginsburg’s undergraduate education at Cornell from 1950-54 served as a strong foundation for her subsequent legal education and notable career. Noted for her precisely worded decisions on the Supreme Court, Ginsburg, in public talks credited two influential Cornell professors: Robert Cushman, professor of government, and Vladimir Nabokov, then a professor of European literature for the importance of choosing the correct word and word order.
Joan Ruth Bader majored in government in the College of Arts and Sciences. As an undergraduate, she worked for Cushman as a researcher tracking entertainment industry blacklists for Cushman during the McCarthy era, and she cited Cushman for elevating her own awareness of the Constitution and prompting her to apply to law school. Before that, Ginsburg said, “I didn’t want to think about these things; I really just wanted to get good grades and become successful – but Cushman was both a teacher and consciousness raiser.” After graduating from Cornell near the top of her class, Bader married Ginsburg, whom he met on a blind date – and followed him to Harvard Law School, becoming one of nine women there in a class of 500. After her husband graduated, joining a law firm in New York City, Bader Ginsburg finished her final year of law school in 1959 at Columbia University.
Ginsburg received attention in American popular culture for her passionate dissents in numerous cases, widely seen as reflecting paradigmatically liberal views of the law. Notably in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (2007), Ginsburg's dissenting opinion was credited with inspiring the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act which was signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2009, making it easier for employees to win pay discrimination claims. In the 2013 landmark Supreme Court case, Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529, the court struck down two key provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, in a 5-4 decision. Ginsburg wrote the dissenting opinion. New York University law student Shana Knizhnik was dismayed by the decision, but heartened by Ginsburg’s dissent. Knizhnik created a Tumblr blog, naming it “Notorious R.B.G. – Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in all her glory.” The blog helped turn octogenarian Ginsburg into a cultural icon for youth and young adults, creating a modern hero. Knizhnik and journalist Irin Carmon then turned the blog into a book, “The Notorious R.B.G.” that landed on the New York Times bestseller list, spawning T-shirt sales and other sundries, including a “dissent” jabot sold by Banana Republic that replicates Ginsburg’s lace ruffles adorning her judicial robes.
By 2018, the associate justice’s life story was turned into a major motion picture, “On the Basis of Sex,” with Felicity Jones portraying Ginsburg as a young lawyer. Martin Ginsburg predeceased her in 2010. She was survived by her daughter Jane Ginsburg, a professor of law at Columbia University, and son James Ginsburg, a music executive.
