Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Bader Ginsburg
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Name	Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Caption	Ginsburg in 2016
Office	Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Nominator	Bill Clinton
Term start	August 10, 1993
Term end	September 18, 2020
Predecessor	Byron White
Successor	Amy Coney Barrett
Office1	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Term start1	June 30, 1980
Term end1	August 9, 1993
Nominator1	Jimmy Carter
Predecessor1	Harold Leventhal
Successor1	David S. Tatel
Birth name	Joan Ruth Bader
Birth date	15 March 1933
Birth place	Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.
Death date	18 September 2020
Death place	Washington, D.C., U.S.
Spouse	Martin D. Ginsburg, 1954, 2010
Children	2, including Jane C. Ginsburg
Education	Cornell University (BA), Harvard University, Columbia University (LLB)

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in 2020. Appointed by President Bill Clinton, she was the second woman to serve on the nation's highest court, following Sandra Day O'Connor. Ginsburg became a prominent cultural icon and a leading voice for gender equality, civil liberties, and a principled liberal jurisprudence during her tenure.

Early life and education

Joan Ruth Bader was born in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn to a Jewish family. Her mother, Celia Bader, was a significant influence, emphasizing the importance of education and independence. She attended James Madison High School before enrolling at Cornell University, where she graduated first in her class with a Bachelor of Arts in government in 1954. That same year, she married Martin D. Ginsburg, a fellow student who would become a prominent tax attorney. She began her legal studies at Harvard Law School, where she was one of only nine women in a class of over 500 and faced significant discrimination, later transferring to Columbia Law School to graduate tied for first in her class in 1959.

Legal career and advocacy

Despite her academic excellence, Ginsburg faced difficulty securing a position at a major law firm due to her gender. She eventually became a professor at Rutgers Law School and later at Columbia Law School, where she was the first woman to earn tenure. In the 1970s, as the founding director of the ACLU's Women's Rights Project, she developed a strategic litigation campaign to challenge laws that discriminated on the basis of sex. She argued six landmark cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, winning five, including the pivotal decision in Frontiero v. Richardson (1973). Her advocacy established the principle that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment applied to gender discrimination.

Supreme Court tenure

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where she served for thirteen years. In 1993, President Bill Clinton nominated her to the Supreme Court to fill the seat vacated by retiring Justice Byron White. Her confirmation hearings were notable for her detailed discussions of judicial philosophy, and she was confirmed by the United States Senate with a vote of 96–3. On the Court, she formed part of the liberal bloc, often joining opinions written by Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, and Stephen Breyer. She authored significant majority opinions, such as in United States v. Virginia (1996), which struck down the male-only admission policy at the Virginia Military Institute.

Jurisprudence and legacy

Ginsburg was known for her meticulous, incrementalist approach to the law and her powerful dissents, which she sometimes read from the bench to emphasize her disagreement. Notable dissents include her opinion in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (2007), which later inspired the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. Her jurisprudence consistently emphasized equality, access to justice, and the separation of church and state. She became a cultural phenomenon in her later years, nicknamed "The Notorious R.B.G.," celebrated in films like On the Basis of Sex and the documentary RBG. Her legacy is that of a pioneering advocate whose work fundamentally reshaped American law regarding gender equality and civil rights.

Personal life and death

Ginsburg was married to Martin D. Ginsburg for 56 years until his death in 2010; they had two children, Jane C. Ginsburg and James Steven Ginsburg. She was an opera enthusiast and maintained a close, famous friendship with her ideological opposite on the Court, Justice Antonin Scalia. Ginsburg battled multiple forms of cancer, including colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer, and lung cancer, undergoing numerous treatments and surgeries while continuing to serve on the bench. She died at her home in Washington, D.C., from complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer on September 18, 2020. Her death sparked a major political battle over her successor, leading to the swift confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett by President Donald Trump and the Republican-led Senate.

Category:Associate justices of the Supreme Court of the United States Category:American women judges Category:2020 deaths