Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born March 15, 1933, in Brooklyn, New York. She grew up in a low-income working-class neighborhood with her parents, Nathan and Celia Bader. Celia was a huge influence in her daughter’s life. She herself couldn’t attend college and worked to help support her brother’s education, so she taught Ruth to value education and to be independent.
Ginsburg stated in an interview with CNN, “My mother told me two things constantly. One was to be a lady, and the other was to be independent.”
The day before Ruth’s high school graduation, her mother passed away from cancer. This was an important moment for her which can be seen as the point that motivated Ruth’s determination. “I pray that I may be all that she would have been, had she lived in an age when women could aspire and achieve,” said Ginsburg in Supreme Court Justice Nominee’s speech.
After high school, she went to Cornell University where she graduated at the top of her class in 1954. That same year she met the love of her life, Martin D. Ginsburg, got married and soon had their first child Jane.
In 1956, after Martin got back from his military deployment, the couple enrolled in Harvard. Sadly, shortly after Martin contracted testicular cancer and was in intense treatment/rehabilitation. During that rough time, Ginsburg learned how to balance life as a new mother, law student and her husband’s note-taker.
She was only one of a few women in her class of 500 students with the environment being obviously male-dominate. Even so, with the hostile environment, Ruth pushed on and excelled academically, and she eventually became the first female member of the reputable Harvard Law Review.
Martin eventually recovered from his cancer, and, thanks to Ruth, he graduated on time. He went on to accept a job in a law firm in New York, and Ruth followed, transferring to Columbia Law School, graduating in 1959. Finding work was very difficult for her due to the era. Not many married women worked outside the home, especially in law. Ruth was denied many times by many law firms and judged explicitly based on her gender.
Eventually, she found a job as a law professor at Rutgers University where she stayed for nearly a decade until she accepted a teaching job at Columbia University. This is where Ruth truly began her mission for gender equality.
She became the first female professor at Columbia to earn tenure and also directed the influential Women’s Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union during the 1970s. Ginsburg argued six landmark cases in front of the Supreme Court as a young lawyer for the ACLU, most of which fought for equal rights of a male client being involved.
The most notable being the case of Weinberger v. Westfield, which was a case where Stephen Westfield, a widower, got denied Social Security payments because only widows were eligible for those benefits. Ginsburg went to the Supreme Court and argued that this law incorporates a stereotypical assumption of the roles men and women play in the American family and how it should be deemed unconstitutional. She won this case, and it helped move her forward in her efforts to gender equality.
In 1980, Ginsburg was appointed to the U.S Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia by Jimmy Carter, she stayed there for 13 years until Bill Clinton appointed her to the U.S Supreme Court.
I state Ginsburg’s history so thoroughly because I want to drive home the point that she was already a force to be reckoned with before she even reached the Supreme Court. She proved time and time again that she was going to do what she felt was right and equal no matter how difficult it was to achieve.
Ginsburg’s nomination to the Supreme Court brought up some hesitation between Americans, most thinking she would rule with bias, but she won over critics by proving that she was there to use the knowledge and determination to rule in favor of what was best.
One of the important cases that brought public attention and favor to Ginsburg was the case of Obergefell v. Hodges. In the case of Obergefell v Hodges, Ginsburg fought for the extension of marriage rights to same-sex couples. Her arguments were persuasive and comprehensive as they made justices who were opposed to same-sex couples to become sympathetic and rethink what they were arguing.
“So you’re not taking away anything from heterosexual couples. They would have the very same incentive to marry, all the benefits that come with marriage that they do now,” said Ginsburg.
Ginsburg became a pop culture icon late in her life. So much so that she was given the nickname the “Notorious RBG” by her fans which was a play on the famous rapper, Notorious BIG. She reached and inspired people from different generations. Multiple books, movies, Halloween costumes and even Tumblr pages were inspired by the life and the hard work she did, trying to make the country somewhere everyone could be seen as equals.
On September 18, 2020, Ginsburg passed away at the age of 87 due to complications of cancer. Ginsburg had beaten colon cancer in 1999 and early-stage pancreatic cancer 10 years later. Ginsburg prospered through many rough patches in her life and was known as a fighter.
Her death came as a huge hit to many Americans. Losing a person who influenced many was something unimaginable and the grief was heavy. Even on her deathbed, Ginsburg was concerned about what would happen to the country after her passing.
Ginsburg’s granddaughter, Clara Spera, wrote down Ginsburg’s last wish, “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.” Protestors chanted, “Honor her wish!” during a vigil for Ginsburg on the Supreme Court steps.
Ginsburg’s dying wish has now sparked a debate, the question being, when and who will replace RBG’S spot? With election day around the corner, many want to honor her last wish by waiting for elections to be over before swearing in a new Supreme Court Justice, but President Trump has different plans.
“Yes, I think it’s very important. I think this will end up in the Supreme Court, and I think it’s very important that we have nine justices,” said President Trump in a meeting with Republican attorneys general.
No matter what happens and who you believe, we should not let this distract from the fact that Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an extraordinary woman and that her passing was a huge loss to the country.
She was a woman who inspired many, and she shaped the future as we know it. Her legacy will live on. She truly fought for equality and freedom. She was loved by many, and she was living proof that your voice matters, and you need to fight for what you believe in.
“Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.” – Ruth Bader Ginsburg