Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away on September 18, 2020. Over the course of her 87 years the noted feminist and surprisingly unlikely popular cultural icon smashed glass ceilings and delivered plenty of wisdom—both inside and outside the courtroom.
On Bader-Ginsburg’s passing, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, issued this statement lauding her service to the nation and her important contributions to the country’s laws:
“Our nation has lost a jurist of historic stature and we at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn, but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her — a tireless and resolute champion of justice.”
Chief Justice John Roberts
Her life was filled with notable accomplishments which included graduating with the highest honors from Cornell University in 1954 and from Harvard and Colombia Law Schools at the top of her class.
She slowly worked her way up through the male-dominated law profession beginning with a clerking job in the United States District Court of Appeals in New York, followed by teaching jobs at Rutgers University School of Law and Columbia Law School – where she became the school’s first tenured female professor.
Her teaching and litigation in the 70’s on behalf of the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project, drew national attention when the legal briefs she wrote led the Supreme Court to strike down laws that favored men over women.
When she was appointed to the United States Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton in 1993, she was only the second woman to sit on the bench in the court’s 212 year history. RBG quickly became known for her scholarly, balanced opinions and her forthright personal courage.
But it wasn’t all those legal accomplishments that made RBG so loved – it was her laser-focused attention to be a champion for all those who suffered from injustice and inequality.
She had the Old Testament words “Justice, justice, thou shalt pursue” prominently displayed on the wall of her chamber and it epitomized the mission she pursued throughout her career – to eliminate gender-based stereotyping in legislation and regulations.
Blessed are the peacemakers and RBG should be counted among them because justice and peace have always been inextricably linked. It was Dwight Eisenhower who remarked that “peace and justice are two sides of the same coin“; Martin Luther King who preached that “true peace cannot exist without justice“; and Pope Paul the 6th who advised his flock “If you want peace, work for Justice“.
RBG focused on removing injustice in all its forms and her work helped to codify the important gains won by the women’s and civil rights movements into the nation’s laws; thus bringing a measure of peace to millions of American citizens who had suffered under laws that were not fair.
One of the best ways to appreciate RBG is to examine her own words of wisdom about the topics that were near and dear to her:
ON HER MOTHER
“My mother told me two things constantly. One was to be a lady, and the other was to be independent. The study of law was unusual for women of my generation. For most girls growing up in the ’40s, the most important degree was not your B.A., but your M.R.S... My mother made reading a delight and counseled me constantly to be able to fend for myself, whatever fortune might have in store for me.“
ON HER HUSBAND
“I had a life partner who thought my work was as important as his, and I think that made all the difference for me.”
ON TURNING REJECTION INTO OPPORTUNITY
“You think about what would have happened… Suppose I had gotten a job as a permanent associate. Probably I would have climbed up the ladder and today I would be a retired partner. So often in life, things that you regard as an impediment turn out to be great good fortune.”
ON FEMALE SUPREME COURT JUSTICES
“When I’m sometimes asked when will there be enough [women on the supreme court]? I say ‘When there are nine.’ People are shocked. But there’d been nine men, and nobody’s ever raised a question about that.“
ON WRITING DISSENTING OPINIONS
“Dissents speak to a future age. It’s not simply to say, ‘my colleagues are wrong and I would do it this way,’ but the greatest dissents do become court opinions... [you have to} fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.“
ON CRITICISM AND NOT GETTING A MAJORITY VOTE
“I’m dejected, but only momentarily, when I can’t get the fifth vote for something I think is very important. But then you go on to the next challenge and you give it your all. You know that these important issues are not going to go away. They are going to come back again and again. There’ll be another time, another day. Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.“
ON HAVING IT ALL
“You can’t have it all, all at once. Who—man or woman—has it all, all at once? Over my lifespan I think I have had it all. But in different periods of time things were rough. And if you have a caring life partner, you help the other person when that person needs it.”
ON DISCRIMINATION
“I try to teach through my opinions, through my speeches, how wrong it is to judge people on the basis of what they look like, color of their skin, whether they’re men or women... Our daughters and sons should be free to achieve whatever their talents equip them to accomplish, with no artificial barriers blocking their way.”
ON GENDER EQUALITY
“Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn’t be that women are the exception… A gender line helps to keep women not on a pedestal, but in a cage.”
ON FEMINISM
“Feminism… I think the simplest explanation, and one that captures the idea, is a song that Marlo Thomas sang, ‘Free to be You and Me.’ Free to be, if you were a girl—doctor, lawyer, Indian chief. Anything you want to be. And if you’re a boy, and you like teaching, you like nursing, you would like to have a doll, that’s OK too. That notion that we should each be free to develop our own talents, whatever they may be, and not be held back by artificial barriers—manmade barriers, certainly not heaven sent.“
ON HER FELLOW SUPREME COURT JUSTICES
“We care about this institution more than our individual egos and we are all devoted to keeping the Supreme Court in the place that it is, as a co-equal third branch of government and I think a model for the world in the collegiality and independence of judges.“
ON THE 5-4 HOBBY LOBBY RULING
“Justices continue to think and can change. I am ever hopeful that if the court has a blind spot today, its eyes will be open tomorrow.”
ON BEING GIVEN THE NICKNAME THE NOTORIOUS RBG
“I think a law clerk told me about this Tumblr and also explained to me what Notorious RBG was a parody on. And now my grandchildren love it and I try to keep abreast of the latest that’s on the tumblr. … In fact I think I gave you a Notorious RBG T-shirt. I have quite a large supply.“
ON BEING AN INTERNET SENSATION
“My grandchildren love it. At my advanced age—I’m now an octogenarian—I’m constantly amazed by the number of people who want to take my picture.“
ON HER PLACE IN HISTORY
“How fortunate I was to be alive and a lawyer when, for the first time in United States history, it became possible to urge, successfully, before legislatures and courts, the equal-citizenship stature of women and men as a fundamental constitutional principle. Feminists, caring men among them, had sought just that for generations. Until the late 1960s, however, society was not prepared to heed their plea.“
ON HOW SHE’D LIKE TO BE REMEMBERED
“Someone who used whatever talent she had to do her work to the very best of her ability. And to help repair tears in her society, to make things a little better through the use of whatever ability she has. To do something, as my colleague David Souter would say, outside myself. Cause I’ve gotten much more satisfaction for the things that I’ve done for which I was not paid.“
As Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s body arrived in Washington for the high honor of being the only woman in the history of the United States to lie in state in the nation’s Capitol building – the Rabbi Lauren Holzbatt paid tribute to the woman who miraculously overcame all the odds to become a modern day prophet for the soul of the American nation:
‘To be born into the world that does not see you, that does not believe in your potential, that does not give you a path for opportunity, or a clear path for education and despite this, to be able to see beyond the world you are in, to imagine that something can be different. That is the job of a prophet. And it is the rare prophet who not only imagines a new world, but also makes that new world a reality in her lifetime. This was the brilliance and vision of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg,’ she said.
Rabbi Lauren Holtz Tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Rest in Peace RBG. A grateful nation thanks you for a job well done.
Words to Live By... 
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