Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dead at 87
Larry McShane
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who ascended from a working class Brooklyn neighborhood to a pivotal liberal role on the nation’s highest court during a groundbreaking career in the law, has died, the Court announced Friday.
She was 87.
“Our nation has lost a jurist of historic stature,” said Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. “We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn, but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her — a tireless and resolute champion of justice.”
Ginsburg struggled with health problems after she hit age 85, including three ribs broken in a November 2018 fall and surgery one month later at the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan to remove two cancerous nodules from her left lung.
Flowers and light candies outside the Supreme Court Friday, Sept. 18, in Washington, after the Supreme Court announced that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died of metastatic pancreatic cancer at age 87.
Flowers and light candies outside the Supreme Court Friday, Sept. 18, in Washington, after the Supreme Court announced that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died of metastatic pancreatic cancer at age 87. (Alex Brandon / AP/)
Ginsburg stood just 5-foot-1 and weighed about 100 pounds. Her slight physical presence belied her towering legal mind and formidable powers as she fought for the rights of women and minorities.
She followed Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to the Supreme Court in June 1993 to become only its second female justice.
Ginsburg shattered the glass ceiling in the male-dominated legal profession as the first woman on the editorial staff at the Harvard Law Review, founder of the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project, and the first tenured female faculty member at Columbia Law School.
In 1993, President Clinton nominated her to the nation’s highest court, and the Senate approved her by a vote of 96-3. She served for the next 27 years — generally voting with her fellow liberal justices while maintaining friendly relationships with her conservative counterparts.
Past presidents Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush issued statements praising the groundbreaking jurist and her storied career.
Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court William Rehnquist (R) administers the oath of office to newly-appointed U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (L) as U.S. President Bill Clinton looks on Aug. 10, 1993.
Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court William Rehnquist (R) administers the oath of office to newly-appointed U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (L) as U.S. President Bill Clinton looks on Aug. 10, 1993. (KORT DUCE / AFP/Getty Images/)
Ginsburg was honored in 1999 with the American Bar Association’s Thurgood Marshall Award, honoring her effort on behalf of gender equality and civil rights.
And she emerged late in her career as a pop culture touchstone — a plastic action figure, complete with gavel; subject of the biopic “On The Basis of Sex”; and holder of the nickname “Notorious R.B.G.,” a nod to fellow Brooklynite and hip-hop icon Christopher Wallace, aka the Notorious BIG.
Fans carried tote bags with Ginsburg’s face on the side, and Kate McKinnon famously played her on “Saturday Night Live.” Her likeness appeared so frequently on the internet that Ginsburg was dubbed the “Meme Supreme.”
Joan Ruth Bader was born the younger of two daughters welcomed by Brooklyn merchant Nathan Bader and his wife Celia, a garment factory worker. The older girl, Marilyn, died of meningitis when her sister was only 14 months old.
FILE - In this April 6, 2018 photo, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg applauds after a performance in her honor after she spoke about her life and work during a discussion at Georgetown Law School in Washington.
FILE - In this April 6, 2018 photo, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg applauds after a performance in her honor after she spoke about her life and work during a discussion at Georgetown Law School in Washington. (Alex Brandon/)
The surviving sibling became known as Ruth to distinguish her from other students named Joan in their kindergarten class.
She was a brilliant student by any name, earning excellent grades while keeping busy with student activities at James Madison High School and earning a full Ivy League scholarship at Cornell University.
Her cancer-stricken mother passed away the day before Ginsburg’s graduation.
“My mother told me two things constantly,” she once recalled. “One was to be a lady and the other was to be independent.”
The Cornell freshman from Brooklyn met her future husband in her first semester: Fellow student Marty Ginsburg, who would become a nationally-known tax attorney.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg is pictured in the 1950 James Madison High School yearbook.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg is pictured in the 1950 James Madison High School yearbook. (James Madison High School/)
The bright young co-ed also met a pair of university professors who shaped her future. Vladimir Nabakov, the Russian-born novelist and author of “Lolita,” influenced her approach to writing. And constitutional lawyer Robert Cushman inspired her to pursue a law degree.
Ginsburg would become the first woman on the editorial staff of the Harvard Law Review. She was one of just eight women in the class of more than 500 at Harvard, where she endured in a male-dominated and often hostile environment.
Later, she transferred to Columbia Law School, where she completed her degree.
Breaking into the legal profession proved difficult for a married woman with a child, just the first of many gender barriers that Ginsburg was forced to clear.
When hired as an assistant professor in 1963 at Rutgers School of Law, she received a lowball salary offer because of her husband’s high-paying position.
When she became pregnant two years later, Ginsburg wore oversized clothes to hide her condition over fears the college would not renew her contract.
By the early 1970s, Ginsburg was recognized as an important new voice on women’s issues like gender equality, gender discrimination and women’s liberation. In 1972, she became the founding counsel of the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project.
A man touches the door of the Supreme Court Friday, Sept. 18, in Washington, after the Supreme Court announced that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died of metastatic pancreatic cancer at age 87.
A man touches the door of the Supreme Court Friday, Sept. 18, in Washington, after the Supreme Court announced that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died of metastatic pancreatic cancer at age 87. (Alex Brandon/)
By the decade’s end, she argued a half-dozen cases before the Supreme Court. Ginsburg walked away the winner in five of her arguments.
President Carter appointed Ginsburg to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., where she honed a reputation for pragmatic liberalism. Her colleagues included conservative judges Robert Bork and Antonin Scalia, both later Supreme Court nominees. Scalia was named to the Supreme Court in 1986, while Bork was rejected in 1987.
Ginsburg’s shared love of opera with Scalia, the court’s first Italian-American justice, inspired the comic opera “Scalia/Ginsburg.” She joined him on the Supreme Court in 1993, filling the spot left vacant by retiring Justice Byron White.
Georgetown Law Professor Martin D. Ginsburg (L) accompanies his wife U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (R) during a reception for new Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor in the East Room of the White House August 12, 2009 in Washington, DC.
Georgetown Law Professor Martin D. Ginsburg (L) accompanies his wife U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (R) during a reception for new Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor in the East Room of the White House August 12, 2009 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images/)
While still a relatively new justice, Ginsburg wrote the court’s landmark 1996 decision overturning the Virginia Military Institute’s policy barring the admission of women.
Ginsburg became the senior justice of the court’s liberal bloc after the retirements of justices David Souter in 2009 and John Paul Stevens in 2010 — the same year that her husband of 56 years died of cancer.
The couple had two children, Jane and James Ginsburg.
This image provided by the Supreme Court shows Ruth Bader at age 15 in 1948 giving a sermon as the camp rabbi at Che-Na-Wah in Minerva, N.Y.
Ruth Jane Bader is pictured in 1954, in the Cornellian, Cornell University's yearbook, the year she graduated Phi Beta Kappa as a government major. Born on March 15, 1933, in Brooklyn, she excelled in academia from a young age and was also first in her class at Columbia Law School in 1959. As a wife and young mother, facing huge gender-based discrimination hurdles, she continued to break barriers. In 1972, Ginsburg became the first female professor at Columbia to earn tenure and co-founded the American Civil Liberties Union’s Women’s Rights Project. She oversaw over 300 gender discrimination cases for the ACLU in the 1970s, including arguing six cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1980, she was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia by President Carter and in 1993, President Clinton appointed her to the U.S. Supreme Court.
This image provided by the Supreme Court shows Ruth Bader Ginsburg, her husband Martin and their daughter Jane in 1958.
This image provided by the Supreme Court shows Ruth Bader Ginsburg typing while on a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship in Italy in 1977. Ruth Bader Ginsburg died at her home in Washington, on Sept. 18, 2020, the Supreme Court announced.
In this image provided by the Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her husband Martin Ginsburg, pose for a photo in Fort Sill, Okla., when Martin was serving in the U.S. Army at Artillery Village at Fort Sill.
In this image provided by the Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, her husband Martin Ginsburg, and their children Jane and James are pictured on a boat off the coast of St. Thomas in 1979.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, right; her husband, Martin Ginsburg, left; and their children, Jane, second from left; and James, visit Abu Simbel in 1985, during a vacation in Egypt.
Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg is in her office on April 3, 1993, at U.S. District Court in Washington D.C.
Federal Appeals Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg meets with Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the ranking Republican of the Senate Judiciary Committee June 15, 1993, on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. She went to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to pay a courtesy call on the senators who will vote on her nomination. Judge Ginsburg is President Clinton's choice to fill the vacant Supreme Court seat of Byron White.
Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg meets with Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.), left, and Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on June 15, 1993, on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. Sen. Moynihan escorted the appeals judge, President Clinton's choice for the Supreme Court vacancy, who was paying a courtesy call on Capitol Hill Tuesday. Sen. Biden's committee will hold her nomination hearings.
Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, President Clinton's choice for the Supreme Court vacancy meets with Sen. Howell Heflin (D-Ala.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on June 17, 1993, in Sen. Heflin's Capitol Hill office in Washington D.C. The judge has been paying courtesy calls with senators who will vote on her nomination.
This image provided by the Supreme Court shows Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her husband Martin at a dinner.
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), gestures while meeting with Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, President Clinton’s choice to fill the vacant Supreme Court seat on June 29, 1993, on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C.Judge Ginsburg paid a courtesy call on Sen. Boxer.
Supreme Court nominee Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg is greeted by her husband Martin after the morning session of her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill on July 20, 1993, in Washington D.C. Judge Ginsburg's son James and Lisa Mara Brauston are at left.
Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, President Clinton's first Supreme Court nominee, displays a book on July 20, 1993, in Washington D.C., titled "My Grandma is Very Special," which was written by Paul Spera, her grandson. Judge Ginsburg spoke about the book during her first day of confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Supreme Court nominee Ruth Bader Ginsburg pauses during testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on July 21, 1993, on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. On the second day of her confirmation hearings, Ginsburg firmly stated her support for abortion.
Newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, left, and U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, greet admirers at the American Bar Association's annual meeting on Aug. 8, 1993, at New York's Hilton Hotel. Both are in attendance at the Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement awards luncheon. Justice Ginsburg is among the recipients.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg takes the oath to defend the Constitution from Chief Justice William Rehnquist, right, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House on Aug. 10, 1993, in Washington, D.C. Justice Ginsburg's husband, Martin, holds the Bible as President Clinton looks on at left.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg poses for her official portrait at the Court on Oct. 1, 1993, in Washington D.C. The Court will officially open its 1993 term on October 4.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, center, poses with her family at the Court on Oct. 1, 1993, in Washington D.C. From left are George Spera, Jane Ginsburg Spera, Martin Ginsburg and James Ginsburg. George and Jane's children, Clara and Paul, are in front.
As President Clinton looks on, Chief Justice William Rehnquist helps the Supreme Court's newest member, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, sign the court's oath card on Oct. 1, 1993, at the Court in Washington D.C.
President Clinton is photographed with members of the Supreme Court at the Court on Oct. 1, 1993, in Washington, D.C. From left are, Justice Antonin Scalia, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Justice Anthony Kennedy, Justice John Paul Stevens, Chief Justice William Rehnquist, President Clinton, Justice Harry Blackmun, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Justice David Souter and Justice Clarence Thomas.
Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, second from left, meets with the Court's newest member, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, on Oct. 1, 1993, in Washington D.C. Chief Justice William Rehnquist, second from left, and fellow Associate Justice John Paul Stevens, right stand at the rear.
Chief Justice William Rehnquist walks hand-in-hand with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg outside the Court on Oct. 1, 1993, in Washington D.C.
Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, left, and Antonin Scalia, center, pose with members of the cast of "Ariadne auf Naxos" following a performance on Jan. 8, 1994, at the Washington Opera in Washington, D.C.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is applauded by her husband, Martin Ginsburg, left, and Virgin Islands Lt. Gov. Kenneth E. Mapp, at a welcoming ceremony for Justice Ginsburg at Government House on Jan. 28, 1996, in St. Thomas. Ginsburg is on St. Thomas for one week to help celebrate the Hebrew congregation of St. Thomas' bicentennial.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg stands acknowledging the applause of the audience at the 45th commencement at Brandeis University on May 19, 1996, in Waltham, Mass. Justice Ginsburg was honored with an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the university.
Prominent American Jews pose for a photograph while standing in a maze on Ellis Island on Sept. 18, 1996, in New York, as part of a project by Frederic Brenner. In the front row from left are artist, Roy Lichtenstein; actress, Lauren Bacall; violinist, Itzhak Perlman; playwright, Arthur Miller; and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Vice-President Al Gore is sworn on Jan. 20, 1997, in Washington D.C. by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, with his wife, Tipper Gore, at center.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg answers a question during a lecture on Women and the Law on Nov. 15, 2000, in New York.
Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, center, and Anthony M. Kennedy, watch a ballet dancer as they play the roles of themselves in the Washington Opera's production of "Die Fledermaus" at Independence Hall on Sept. 6, 2003, in Washington D.C. Despite their limited performing arts resumes, the three made rare special appearances, with non-singing roles, in the opera.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, right, shares laugh with her husband, Martin, as they listen to Justice Stephen Breyer speak at Columbia Law School on Sept. 12, 2003, in New York. The occasion celebrated the 10th anniversary of her appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg delivers the College of Law Bellwood Lecture at the University of Idaho in Moscow on Sept. 18, 2003, in Idaho. Her speech was entitled, "Looking Beyond Our Borders: The Value of a Comparative Perspective in Constitutional Adjudication."
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg delivers a speech to the United Jewish Communities 2004 International Lion of Judah Conference on Oct. 18, 2004, in Washington D.C.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg attends the unveiling ceremony of the new Chief Justice John Marshall Silver Dollar on May 4, 2005, in Washington D.C. The new silver dollar is the first to honor a Supreme Court Justice.
From left, Supreme Court Justices Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Roberts and John Paul Stevens arrive for the inauguration of Barack Obama as president and Joe Biden as vice-president on Jan. 20, 2009, at the Capitol in Washington D.C.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is applauded in the House Chamber on Feb. 24, 2009, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., before President Barack Obama's address to a joint session of Congress.
President Barack Obama hugs Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before his address to a joint session of Congress on Feb. 24, 2009, in the House Chamber of the Capitol in Washington D.C.
President Barack Obama greets Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before his address to a joint session of Congress on Feb. 24, 2009, in the House Chamber of the Capitol in Washington D.C.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, right, hugs Sec. of State Hillary Rodham Clinton before President Barack Obama's address to a joint session of Congress on Feb. 24, 2009, in the House Chamber of the Capitol in Washington D.C., with Justice Clarence Thomas observing.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaks at a reunion of Columbia Law School graduates on June 20, 2009, in New York. Justice Ginsburg graduated from Columbia Law School in 1959.
Georgetown University law professor Martin D. Ginsburg, left; accompanies his wife, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, center; with Justice John Paul Stevens, second from left; during a reception for new Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor (not shown) in the East Room of the White House on Aug. 12, 2009, in Washington, D.C. Justice Sotomayor, who is the first Hispanic and the third woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court, is expected to begin hearing oral arguments with the other justices in September.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is photographed at the Supreme Court Building on Sept. 29, 2009, in Washington, D.C., as part of a ceremony welcoming the Supreme Court's newest member, Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is photographed on Aug. 3, 2010, in her chambers in Washington D.C.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, center, attends an annual Women's History Month reception hosted by Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi in the Capitol Building on March 18, 2015, in Washington, D.C. This year's event honored the women of the Supreme Court: Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg speaks with German Amb. Peter Wittig at the ELLE and HUGO BOSS Women in Washington Power List dinner at the residence of the German ambassador on March 18, 2015, in Washington, D.C.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, left, is greeted by Robbie Myers, the editor-in-chief at ELLE, at the ELLE and HUGO BOSS Women in Washington Power List dinner at the residence of the German ambassador on March 18, 2015, in Washington, D.C.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and other members of the Supreme Court arrive before Pope Francis addresses a joint session of Congress on Sept. 24, 2015, in Washington, D.C. The Pope is the first leader of the Roman Catholic Church to address a joint meeting of Congress, including more than 500 lawmakers, Supreme Court justices and top administration officials including Vice President Joe Biden.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaks at the Jewish Federations of North America conference on Nov. 14, 2016, in Washington D.C.
From left, Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer arrive on the West Front of the Capitol on Jan. 20, 2017, in Washington, D.C. for the inauguration ceremony of Donald J. Trump as the 45th president of the United States.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, center, speaks with Dean for Religious Life Jane Shaw, right, at Stanford University, on Feb. 6, 2017, in Stanford, Calif.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg acknowledges applause as she arrives to speak at Georgetown University on April 27, 2017, in Washington D.C., while holding an RBG tote bag.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaks at the annual Utah State Bar convention on July 28, 2017, in Sun Valley, Idaho. Justice Ginsburg talked about the evolution of the women's rights movement, what it's like to be interrupted on the bench and life as a pop culture icon during a presentation to a group of lawyers and judges.
From left, Nadine Natour, Miriam Cutler, Betsy West, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Julie Cohen, and Carla Gutierrez attend the "RBG" premiere during the 2018 Sundance Film Festival at The Marc Theatre on Jan. 21, 2018, in Park City, Utah.
Georgetown Law School Dean William M. Treanor, left, applauds as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg arrives to speak about her life and work during a discussion at Georgetown Law School on April 6, 2018, in Washington D.C.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg places some items in her RGB bag before speaking at Georgetown Law School on April 6, 2018, in Washington D.C.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaks after the screening of "RBG," the documentary about her, on July 5, 2018, in Jerusalem. Days after her injuring three ribs from a fall, the 85-year-old Supreme Court justice is back on the job, capping a year in which she's emerged as a true pop-culture heroine. Already in the spotlight for "RBG," the documentary in which she's shown doing pushups among other things, she's also the subject of a popular "Saturday Night Live" rap video, and by year's end a new feature film about her life, "On the Basis of Sex," is scheduled to be released.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg participates in a panel discussion at Columbia Law School on Sept. 21, 2018, in New York.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg receives a gift after speaking to first-year students at Georgetown Law on Sept. 26, 2018, in Washington D.C.
From left, Justices Samuel Alito and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Chief Justice John Roberts wait in the audience before President Trump arrives for a Medal of Freedom ceremony on Nov. 16, 2018, in the East Room of the White House in Washington D.C.
The justices of the Supreme Court gather for a formal group portrait at the Supreme Court Building on Nov. 30, 2018, in Washington D.C. Seated from left are Justice Stephen Breyer, Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Justice Samuel Alito Jr. Standing behind from left are Justice Neil Gorsuch, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Justice Elena Kagan and the newest member, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg appears at an event organized by the Museum of the City of New York with WNET-TV on Dec. 15, 2018, at the New York Academy of Medicine in New York.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg gestures as the invited guests applaud while she gets seated at Georgetown University Law Center on July 2, 2019, in Washington D.C.
Her dissenting opinions became must-reads, particularly her critique of the majority vote on Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores Inc., in which Hobby Lobby refused on religious grounds to provide contraception for workers under the Affordable Care Act.
The majority, Ginsburg wrote, had “ventured into a minefield (by ruling) that commercial enterprises can opt out of any law they judge incompatible with their religious beliefs.”
As always, her opinion was signed simply “I dissent” rather than the usual “I respectfully dissent.”
