RBG dies at 87
Paulina Longoria | THE RIDER
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, died Sept.18 at age 87 from complications of metastatic pancreas cancer.
Ginsburg’s death came as a shock to the country. With so little time to mourn for her, politicians already started wondering who will be the next to fill the vacancy, a big void that she left behind.
Instead of getting into politics, let us remember “RBG,” as she was called by her supporters, for her accomplishments and contributions to the nation.
RBG graduated from Cornell University in 1954 with a bachelor’s degree. She met Martin D. Ginsburg at Cornell and married him after her graduation.
Subsequently, she attended Harvard Law School as “one of only nine women in 1956,” according to the American Civil Liberties Union’s tribute.
“Ginsburg and her female classmates were asked by the dean why they were occupying seats that would otherwise be filled by men,” the tribute states.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) nonprofit organization was founded in 1920. It “works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States,” according to its website.
Despite facing sex discrimination, Ginsburg graduated from Columbia Law School, where she finished her last year of law school. Her major accomplishment was making the Harvard Law Review in 1957 and at Columbia.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines law review as “a periodical (as one published by a law school or bar association) containing notes and articles analyzing and evaluating subject areas and developments in the law.”
For Ginsburg, the sex discrimination was not over. She was recommended for a clerkship with Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter by her Harvard Law School Professor Albert Sachs. But, Frankfurter asked Sachs to recommend a man because he was not ready to hire a woman, according to the ACLU’s tribute.
Eventually, Ginsburg was hired for a clerkship with then-Judge Edmund L. Palmieri of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York from 1959 to 1961.
The ACLU referred sex discrimination complaints to Ginsburg and, along with her own experiences, she founded the ACLU’s Women’s Right Project in 1972 to remove barriers for women.
Nowadays, the project “empowers poor women, women of color and immigrant women who have been subject to gender bias and who face pervasive barriers to equality,” according to its website. It also “works to ensure that women and their families can enjoy the benefits of full equality and participation in every sphere of society.”
In 1980, President Jimmy Carter appointed Ginsburg to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. After serving 13 years, she accepted President Bill Clinton’s nomination to the Supreme Court and took her seat on Aug. 10, 1993, according to The Supreme Court Historical Society.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg is remembered as a feminist icon by her supporters and for her pursuit of social justice.
I was not aware of all of her accomplishments and cannot name them all. Thank you, RBG, for becoming an inspiration to me and many others.
