Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Legacy
A tribute to the renowned Supreme Court justice and activist
By Marilyn Weaver
A tribute to the renowned Supreme Court justice and activist
By Marilyn Weaver
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an associate justice of the Supreme Court since 1993, and is seen as one of the most progressive justices, as she was both an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and women’s rights. She pioneered the fields of the legal system as a law researcher, a lawyer, and a judge, all at a time when women were not welcome into these career fields.
In law school, Ginsburg was one of nine women in a class of 500 students at Harvard Law, further exemplifying her defiance of the societal standards weighing on her and every woman’s shoulders at the time. In 1993, Ginsburg was nominated to the Supreme Court by Bill Clinton, where she immediately began her tireless contribution to gender equality through her time on the Supreme Court. In 1996, she wrote the majority opinion which found that the Virginia Military Institute’s exclusion of women from its educational opportunities denied equal protection to women.
However, Ginsburg started her journey of law and activism at Cornell University and Columbia Law, followed by becoming a law clerk to a New York judge in the US district. She is known for her huge contribution to women’s rights, as she co-founded the women’s rights project with the American Civil Liberties Union in 1972. This project was major, and at times it was the only national legal branch supporting the rapid growth of gender equality, disputing the constitutionality of sex discrimination in a case that came to be known as Reed vs Reed, where the Supreme Court ruled that a classification based on sex was unconstitutional for the first time. From here, the project found that the court lacked proper coherence towards the Equal Rights Amendment. Then continuing the fight to enforce women’s statutory rights, including equal employment, pregnancy discrimination and educational opportunities and resources, while also advocating for poor women and women of color who are the most in danger.
Without Justice Ginsburg, we would not be on the path to true equality that we are today. With her death comes an open seat in the Supreme Court that the Trump administration has successfully filled with Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative woman.
Many see this as complete disrespect to Ginsburg as her dying wish was to not fill the seat until the upcoming election was finalized. This disregard showed the government’s deep hypocrisy as they did not allow Barack Obama to fill a seat when he was in the same position, and now the court has a 6-3 conservative majority.
We can’t be sure of how great the change will be in our future, but change, whether it benefits Americans or not, will surely come.
In law school, Ginsburg was one of nine women in a class of 500 students at Harvard Law, further exemplifying her defiance of the societal standards weighing on her and every woman’s shoulders at the time. In 1993, Ginsburg was nominated to the Supreme Court by Bill Clinton, where she immediately began her tireless contribution to gender equality through her time on the Supreme Court. In 1996, she wrote the majority opinion which found that the Virginia Military Institute’s exclusion of women from its educational opportunities denied equal protection to women.
However, Ginsburg started her journey of law and activism at Cornell University and Columbia Law, followed by becoming a law clerk to a New York judge in the US district. She is known for her huge contribution to women’s rights, as she co-founded the women’s rights project with the American Civil Liberties Union in 1972. This project was major, and at times it was the only national legal branch supporting the rapid growth of gender equality, disputing the constitutionality of sex discrimination in a case that came to be known as Reed vs Reed, where the Supreme Court ruled that a classification based on sex was unconstitutional for the first time. From here, the project found that the court lacked proper coherence towards the Equal Rights Amendment. Then continuing the fight to enforce women’s statutory rights, including equal employment, pregnancy discrimination and educational opportunities and resources, while also advocating for poor women and women of color who are the most in danger.
Without Justice Ginsburg, we would not be on the path to true equality that we are today. With her death comes an open seat in the Supreme Court that the Trump administration has successfully filled with Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative woman.
Many see this as complete disrespect to Ginsburg as her dying wish was to not fill the seat until the upcoming election was finalized. This disregard showed the government’s deep hypocrisy as they did not allow Barack Obama to fill a seat when he was in the same position, and now the court has a 6-3 conservative majority.
We can’t be sure of how great the change will be in our future, but change, whether it benefits Americans or not, will surely come.