RBG's Personal and Political Legacy
A mural in Washington, D.C. honoring the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away from complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer, which was her fifth time battling cancer. This is representative of the kind of woman she was; strong, determined, and more capable than anyone would have expected.
Ginsburg grew up in a working-class home in Brooklyn to Jewish immigrant parents, where she excelled in school. She attended Cornell University for her undergraduate degree and then moved on to Harvard for her law degree. Despite the discrimination she faced there, including her own professor asking the few women in the class how they could justify taking the spot from a man, Ginsburg excelled and was able to become the first female member of the Harvard Law Review. She transferred to Columbia University for her final year of law school in 1959, so that she could be close to her husband, who was in New York for his job as a tax lawyer. She was also able to make the law review at Columbia, making her the first woman to work at both schools’ law reviews. Despite all of these accomplishments and glowing recommendations, she was not offered a single job after graduation. Ginsburg attributed this to the discrimination that was legal at the time: “I struck out on three grounds: I was Jewish, a woman and a mother.” However, she was eventually able to become a law professor at Rutgers University (1963-72) and then Columbia (1972-80), where she became tenured. Ginsburg spent much of her time in the 1970s working with the Women’s Rights Project, an organization she started at the ACLU. There, she argued six cases on gender equality before the Supreme Court, of which she won 5. The first of these cases, Reed v. Reed, which dealt with whether or not men could be automatically preferred over women as estate executors, was the first time the Supreme Court had struck down a law due to gender discrimination. She was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in 1980 by President Carter, and then she was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1993 by President Clinton. The Senate voted her in by a landslide: 96-3. As a justice, she contributed to many landmark cases, such as the upholding the Affordable Care Act in 2015 and legalizing same sex marriage in 2013.
She became famous for her strong opinions and even her “dissenting collar,” a neckpiece she wore over her robes to let the public know that she didn’t agree with something - or someone. The combination of her signature collars, her rigorous workout routines, and her general strong demeanor despite her meager size, turned her into something of a pop culture icon in the last few years; you can find her on T-shirts, pins, coloring books, and jewelry, earning her the nickname “The Notorious RBG.” Now, people across America are banding together to remember her and grieve together. Even here at Galloway, a banner adorns the West Wing porch with a painting of RBG and the words “Rest in Power.” The phrase “Rest in Power” is typically used as a way to pay respect to members of the LGBTQ+ and Black communities who have faced severe discrimination in their lives or died as a result of this discrimination. However, many are using the phrase for Ginsburg too because of the ramifications of her death in our government.
Ginsburg’s death just over a month before the presidential election has thrown America into a melee; most democrats want to wait for the presidential election to appoint a new member to the Supreme Court, hoping that Joe Biden will win the election and will appoint another liberal justice and possibly expand the Supreme Court. They also claim that Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell is being hypocritical for wanting to proceed with Trump’s nominee because in 2016, he did not want to have a floor vote for Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, because it was an election year. McConnell, however, claims that that only applied because the White House and Senate were controlled by different parties. Republicans have also retorted that Democrats wanted to appoint Garland in an election year, to which Democrats have responded that Republicans set a new precedent in 2016 that they should not reverse now. These arguments are certainly cyclical; it seems like two people running in a circle, each chasing the other but never quite catching up.
There are a series of possible outcomes: a vote could be rushed in before election day, the vote could be postponed until after the election as a way to sway conservative undecided voters toward voting for Trump, the vote could happen during the lame duck period even if Biden wins - essentially, anything could happen.
For now, people are watching the swing votes in the Senate very closely. These senators include: Susan Collins, a moderate republican, Lisa Murkowski, a senator without fear of the president since she’s not up for reelection (though she’s said she’s open to the idea of confirming someone before the election). If both Murkowski and Collins vote with the Democrats, that would still leave a majority vote in favor of the nominee with 51 votes. If one more Republican changed their mind, like Romney or Gardner, who were initially believed to be possible swing votes but have since moved more towards Trump’s side, then Mike Pence would break the tie.
Ginsburg knew that her death would be politicized; in her last days, she said that her ‘most fervent wish’ was to not be replaced until a new president was installed. “Honor her wish” has since become a rallying cry for her supporters, who chanted this message at President Trump at Ginsburg’s funeral. Trump has since said that Ginsburg’s dying wish was nothing more than a hoax invented by Democrats, but he did acknowledge that Ginsburg was “an amazing woman.” His plans to nominate a new justice during his term, however, were not taken well by democrats, some of whom booed Trump as he visited Ginsburg’s memorial.
It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the political turmoil that has resulted from Ginsburg’s death, but it’s important to take time to celebrate Ruth Bader Ginsburg as an individual who contributed to this country and its people in the best way she knew how, not just as the symbol or the justice that must now be replaced. Because Ginsburg was a remarkable woman - someone who, despite the discrimination she faced from this country, was able to change it for the better. She once said that, as a dissenter, you are “writing not for today, but for tomorrow.” Ginsburg was able to fulfill this hope for herself; may her writings and legacy continue to influence our country today and every tomorrow.