On October 1st, 1993, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg took her place on the Supreme Court, only the second woman to do so in the Court’s history. Her work as an American lawyer, jurist, and a Justice of the U.S Supreme Court, where she diligently fought to ensure a safer future for everyone, has forever solidified her legacy as a pioneer towards the future of equality in America. Before that, she worked as a law professor at both Rutgers and Columbia Law School, where she became one of the first to ever teach civil procedure, while also being a full-time mother and grandmother to a family she gave everything to.
Justice Bader, who argued and won multiple cases at the Supreme Court in the 1970s before her appointment, trailblazed her way to enacting the 14th Amendment, which covers the equal protection clause to sex-based discrimination; a case she won and continued to protect. Her work in ensuring gender equality, protecting LGBTQ+ rights, and banning the death penalty are all topics that defined her ideals.
She handled cases such as Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, (2006,) which handled workplace discrimination suits, and Obergefell v. Hodges, (2015,) a landmark case that granted same-sex couples the ability to marry. These cases and her work as a co-founder for ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project, where she demanded justice for women who had suffered from a disparity in the workforce based on their gender, and how they were too often overlooked, set the standards for what a leader should look like. In a quote regarding Ginsburg’s work, a professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, Lee Epstein, said: “She was the least likely member of the current court to favor business over governments, unions, shareholders, and employees.”
As the world mourns the loss of a political icon, we remember her legacy of one filled with honor and dignity and remember her fight for gender equality and the equality of marginalized groups. In the time of her passing, we recognize her last wish: "my most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed," she said to her granddaughter, Clara Spera, (NPR, 2020). The late Justice Ginsburg understood the need for proper leadership and solidarity in America, and as the country is left scrambling to get a foothold without her leadership, America takes a moment to mourn the loss of a leader, but looks to her legacy for insight on how to reel back and control our own narrative, come what may.
Rest in Power Justice Ginsburg. (1933-2020)
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Published September 20, 2020
Written by Amanda Chapa ~ Edited by Farrah Diogene, Farah Mourad ~ Graphics created by Elwin Fu
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