Ruth Bader Ginsburg | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2016 | |
| Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States | |
| In office August 10, 1993 – September 18, 2020 | |
| Nominated by | Bill Clinton |
| Preceded by | Byron White |
| Succeeded by | Amy Coney Barrett |
| Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit | |
| In office June 30, 1980 – August 9, 1993 | |
| Nominated by | Jimmy Carter |
| Preceded by | Harold Leventhal |
| Succeeded by | David Tatel |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Joan Ruth Bader March 15, 1933 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | September 18, 2020 (aged 87) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Resting place | Arlington National Cemetery |
| Political party | Democratic[1] |
| Spouse | |
| Children | |
| Education | |
| Signature |  |
| This article is part of a series on |
| Liberalism in the United States |
|---|
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Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg (/ˈbeɪdər ˈɡɪnzbɜːrɡ/ BAY-dər GHINZ-burg; née Bader; March 15, 1933 – September 18, 2020)[2] 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.[3] She was nominated by President Bill Clinton to replace retiring justice Byron White, and at the time was viewed as a moderate consensus-builder.[4] Ginsburg was the first Jewish woman and the second woman to serve on the Court, after Sandra Day O'Connor. During her tenure, Ginsburg authored the majority opinions in cases such as United States v. Virginia (1996), Olmstead v. L.C. (1999), Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services, Inc. (2000), and City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York (2005). Later in her tenure, Ginsburg received attention for passionate dissents that reflected liberal views of the law. She was popularly dubbed "the Notorious R.B.G.",[a] a moniker she later embraced.[5]
Ginsburg was born and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Just over a year later her older sister and only sibling, Marilyn, died of meningitis at the age of six. Her mother died shortly before she graduated from high school.[6] She earned her bachelor's degree at Cornell University and married Martin D. Ginsburg, becoming a mother before starting law school at Harvard, where she was one of the few women in her class. Ginsburg transferred to Columbia Law School, where she graduated joint first in her class. During the early 1960s she worked with the Columbia Law School Project on International Procedure, learned Swedish, and co-authored a book with Swedish jurist Anders Bruzelius; her work in Sweden profoundly influenced her thinking on gender equality. She then became a professor at Rutgers Law School and Columbia Law School, teaching civil procedure as one of the few women in her field.
Ginsburg spent much of her legal career as an advocate for gender equality and women's rights, winning many arguments before the Supreme Court. She advocated as a volunteer attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union and was a member of its board of directors and one of its general counsel in the 1970s. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where she served until her appointment to the Supreme Court in 1993. Between O'Connor's retirement in 2006 and the appointment of Sonia Sotomayor in 2009, she was the only female justice on the Supreme Court. During that time, Ginsburg became more forceful with her dissents, such as with Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (2007).
Despite two bouts with cancer and public pleas from liberal law scholars, she decided not to retire in 2013 or 2014 when President Barack Obama and a Democratic-controlled Senate could appoint and confirm her successor.[7][8][9] Ginsburg died at her home in Washington, D.C., in September 2020, at the age of 87, from complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer. The vacancy created by her death was filled 39 days later by Amy Coney Barrett. The result was one of three major rightward shifts in the Court since 1953, following the appointment of Clarence Thomas to replace Thurgood Marshall in 1991 and the appointment of Warren Burger to replace Earl Warren in 1969.[10]
- ^ Roth, Gabe (February 3, 2020). "Why Are Supreme Court Justices Registered as Democrats and Republicans?". Bloomberg Law. Retrieved April 10, 2024.
- ^ "Ruth Bader Ginsburg". National Women's History Museum. Archived from the original on August 11, 2021. Retrieved August 11, 2021.
- ^ "Ruth Bader Ginsburg". HISTORY. Archived from the original on March 29, 2021. Retrieved September 21, 2020.
- ^ Richter, Paul (June 15, 1993). "Clinton Picks Moderate Judge Ruth Ginsburg for High Court: Judiciary: President calls the former women's rights activist a healer and consensus builder. Her nomination is expected to win easy Senate approval". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on March 1, 2016. Retrieved February 19, 2016.
- ^ Kelley, Lauren (October 27, 2015). "How Ruth Bader Ginsburg Became the 'Notorious RBG'". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on January 25, 2019. Retrieved January 24, 2019.
- ^ "Ruth Bader Ginsburg | Biography & Facts | Britannica". Encyclopædia Britannica. September 14, 2023. Retrieved September 30, 2023.
- ^ Biskupic, Joan (August 2014). "U.S. Justice Ginsburg hits back at liberals who want her to retire". Reuters. Archived from the original on July 11, 2021. Retrieved July 11, 2021.
- ^ Dominu, Susan; Savage, Charlie (September 25, 2020). "The Quiet 2013 Lunch That Could Have Altered Supreme Court History". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 27, 2021. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
- ^ Prokop, Andrew (September 24, 2014). "Some liberals want Ruth Bader Ginsburg to retire. Here's her response". Vox. VoxMedia. Archived from the original on July 11, 2021. Retrieved July 11, 2021.
- ^ Thomson-DeVeaux, Amelia; Bronner, Laura; Wiederkehr, Anna (September 22, 2020). "What The Supreme Court's Unusually Big Jump To The Right Might Look Like". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 25, 2020. Retrieved September 26, 2020.
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