Remembering the Notorious.

By: Bonne Leung    

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaks during the Cinema Café at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival at Filmmaker Lodge on Jan. 21 in Park City, Utah. Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by Robin Marchant/Getty Images.

Waking up to a world changed, as it would turn out, is a shockingly mundane experience. On the 19th of September, I woke up to the sound of my iPhone’s alarm going off, the dreaded ‘radar’ noise pulling me away from that senseless void and back into the four walls of my bedroom, cast with a blue-grey shadow from the heavy clouds drooping from unfallen rain. I went about my morning rituals, getting out of bed and scrolling through my Instagram notifications, checking what people have sent me on Snapchat, and put it away to go get ready for school. Again, stupefyingly mundane. 

I sat down for breakfast with my Mum, the smell of her morning coffee, and the itching of my school sweatshirt before I correctly adjusted it comfortingly familiar. The condiments clinked together as they stirred from their sleep, light flooding the refrigerator as I reached for the tub of yogurt. Returning with my breakfast, as one might read the morning paper, I continued to scroll through my Instagram feed. Colourful artworks streamed past, white hearts appearing beneath my thumb, reading poems and writings as they came up. Then, a black and white picture, stark against the myriads of colours on my screen. It was of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, rectangular glasses perched upon her nose, dressed in her usual attire of a judge’s robes and a lace collar. I smiled. A powerful woman first thing at 7:43 AM is always a welcoming sight. But reading the caption, I froze. 

I can’t recall what was written exactly, the post lost in the endless currents of memes, but I do remember the white heart and the dove. The world stopped around me, my spoon of yogurt halfway through its journey to my lips, my mother’s question about my plans after school was forgotten. I frantically opened Safari, fingers shaking with each key I pressed, the dreaded question unfurling: ‘Is Ruth Bader Ginsburg dead?’ Deceased. The emboldened word read, harsh on the white screen. March 15, 1933 - September 18, 2020. It had been announced while I was lost in darkness’ embrace, and emerging from it, I had awoken to a world changed. You would think that waking up to such a doleful declaration would garner some feeling of dread or premonition of something being off even before you find out what exactly happened. Yet, the aftermath of the death of a woman I had looked up to felt just as ordinary as any other day. 

World leaders, celebrities, people from all around the world mourned the loss of a revolutionary, and as we approach the third week of a world without her, let us remember her for who she was, and all that she has done for us. 

Who was Ruth Bader Ginsburg? 

Born Joan Ruth Bader on March 15, 1933, to a low-income family in Brooklyn, the New Yorker’s infamy would grow and lead her to become a pop culture icon, referred to as ‘a titan of justice’. She attended Cornell University in 1950, finishing first in her class, and going on to marry Martin Ginsburg (who had also attended Cornell) in the same year. She went on to study at Harvard Law School in 1956, shortly after the birth of her daughter. Entering the law school with her husband, she was confronted by a hostile male-dominated environment, with only eight other female students in her class of 500. To illustrate the prejudice that Ginsburg had to face, she and the other women enrolled in the law school were invited to a dinner with the dean, where they were lambasted for daring to take up places of ‘more qualified males’. However, she would become the first woman to ever make the Harvard Law Review, a prestigious law journal, and when she transferred to Columbia Law School, she was also elected for the Columbia Law Review too, becoming the first person to have ever been elected for two distinguished law journals.

If you’re still not yet convinced that she was a woman with serious zeal, it’s worth mentioning that she had accomplished these feats while bringing up a young daughter, taking care of her husband who had been diagnosed with testicular cancer, taking notes for him in class, and all the while being a woman during the 1950s. She graduated from Columbia in 1959, but despite finishing at the top of her class (again), she continued to encounter gender discrimination. No law firm was willing to interview her, much less hire her. She was eventually hired and started to clerk for District Judge Edmund L. Palmieri. After her clerkship, she went on to teach at Rutgers University Law School in 1963, and then became the first tenured female professor at Columbia Law School in 1972. During this time, she was also the director of the Women’s Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, for which she argued six landmark cases of gender discrimination before the Supreme Court. 

Ginsburg had been a strong believer in ‘gender-blind law’ and that all groups deserved equal rights. In 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed her to the U.S. Supreme Court, making her the second-ever female justice. There, in the high court where she served for twenty-seven years, she would continue to advocate for gender equality. Ginsburg would become a pop-culture icon in 2013 when a New York University student created a Tumblr account with the name ‘Notorious RBG’ as a play on Biggie Smalls’ ‘Notorious B.I.G’ nickname, despite her small build. 

Even in death, she is making history, becoming the first-ever woman to lie in state in the U.S. capital. The honour of such a feat had only ever been reserved for men, with only presidents, vice-presidents, and members of congress making up the some three-dozen recorded lay-ins. 

What did Ruth Bader Ginsburg do for us?

It’s hard to imagine a woman with Ginsburg’s stature—standing at a mere 5 feet—to cut such an imposing figure in the courtroom, but imposing she was as she uttered her most famous phrase in the face of inequality: “I dissent.” 

Here are five things that RBG has done not only for women but for all of us. 

1. Advocated for women’s education. 

Up until 1996, state-funded schools, which are institutions subsidized by tax-payer dollars, could bar women from enrolling. Ginsburg argued in the United States v. Virginia case that it was unconstitutional to bar women from educational institutes funded by taxpayer money. “There is no reason to believe that the admission of women capable of all the activities required of (Virginia Military Institute) cadets would destroy the institute rather than enhance its capacity to serve the ‘more perfect union,’’’ she wrote for the majority opinion. The case had a 7-to-1 decision, the majority agreeing that the male-only admissions at the Virginia Military Institute were unconstitutional as it offered its male cadets more opportunities than the female cadets from the associated Virginia Women’s Institute for Leadership. 

2. Preserved women’s right to choose. 

In the Struck v. Secretary of Defence case, an Air Force Captain who was given an ultimatum when she became pregnant: get an abortion or be discharged from the military. Captain Susan Struck, who was Roman-Catholic, did not want to get the procedure, and instead arranged for the child to be adopted and use her leave for pregnancy. Despite this, she was dismissed, and so the legal battle began. 

Ginsburg, who had been working for the ACLU at the time, would represent the captain, proving that she had been an advocate for women’s rights long before she presided on the high court. She prepared for the case to be heard before the Supreme Court, but it was dismissed before it could. Struck’s discharge was waived and the Air Force policy was changed. However, in the Roe v. Wade case, Jane Roe (a fictional name used to protect the identity of the plaintiff) filed a lawsuit against Henry Wade and challenged the Texas law that made abortion illegal except in the case of a doctor’s orders to save a woman’s life. She alleged that the laws were unconstitutional and abridged her rights of personal privacy. Ginsburg believed that restricting access to abortion impeded gender equality, and by winning the case, it essentially legalized the procedure across the states. 

3. Legalised same-sex marriages. 

Had the Obergefell v. Hodges case in 2015 ended any other way, same-sex couples may not have the rights to marriage that they have now. The case came to a 5-4 decision, so without Ginsburg, the outcome might have been very different. The case recognized the bans on same-sex marriages as unconstitutional, subsequently striking down bans in every state and legalizing the practice throughout the country. 

4. Fought for equality, regardless of gender. 

In the Moritz v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue case, Ginsburg represented a man named Charles Mortiz, who was the sole caretaker of his elderly mother but was denied caregiver tax deduction because he was an unmarried man. She fought for the notion that law should not be decided based on sex. Winning the case for Ginsburg meant finding her ‘foundational argument’ against gender-based discrimination. 

5. Paved the way towards equal pay. 

The Ledbetter v. Goodyear case was an integral step towards equal pay. Lily Ledbetter had worked at a Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. Plant in Alabama for more than two decades, endured sexual harassment, and stated that she was paid less than her similarly titled male colleagues because of her sex. The 5-4 decision ruled that Ledbetter’s complaint didn’t comply with the statute of limitations period as she didn’t file for discrimination when her first paycheck was disbursed. However, less than two years later, President Barack Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 into law, which made discriminatory pay to be able to be filed without such strict time restrictions. 

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, pictured here celebrating her 20th anniversary on the bench, passed away on Friday at the age of 87. (Photo by Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post via Getty Images) THE WASHINGTON POST VIA GETTY IMAGES

How should we remember her? 

As I am writing this on the 1st of October, the world has been nearly two weeks without one of the loudest voices that advocated for gender equality. Her casket was buried beside her beloved husband on the 29th, finally put to rest after tirelessly striving to change the world. But, now what? How should we remember her? How will we remember her? 

For me, I’ll always remember her as the person that sparked my interest in law—in what I could accomplish if I worked hard enough. I’ll always remember her as the woman who was adamant in her decision to feminise a traditionally man’s garments, donning her lace collars not as accessories but as armour. As for the Notorious RBG herself, she said simply this when asked how she wanted to be remembered: “Just as someone who did whatever she could—with whatever limited talent she had—to move society along in the direction I would like it to be for my children and grandchildren.”

It should also be noted that one of her last wishes was to be replaced after the Presidential Election was over, saying on Twitter, “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.” However, rumours of conservative Amy Coney Barrett to be appointed for her replacement surfaced a mere four days after the former Justice’s death. This replacement could skew the court’s ideological balance, giving conservatives a 6-3 majority. The nominated judge was humbled by the nomination, saying, “I am truly humbled by the prospect of serving on the Supreme Court… Should I be confirmed, I will be mindful of who came before me,″ Barrett said. “She not only broke glass ceilings, she smashed them—and, for that, she has won the admiration of women across the country.” This not only goes against Ginsburg’s final wishes but could endanger the future of women’s rights in the U.S. 

Ginsburg’s legacy should be remembered as unwaveringly righteous in her pursuit of equality for all, regardless of gender, age, sex, race, or sexuality. Amy Coney Barrett could pose a threat to what she strove to do, threatening health care and reproductive rights for all. To learn more about President Trump’s nominee, visit https://demandjustice.org/stop-amy-coney-barrett/ and if you wish, sign the petition. If you’re in the United States, you can email your senators and representatives to demand no confirmation until the inauguration. Resources all in the link provided.