“If you want to be a true professional you will do something outside yourself. Something to repair tears in your community. Something to make life a little better for people less fortunate than you. That’s what I think a meaningful life is—living not for oneself, but for one’s community.” –
Justice RBG.
She firmly believed, “Dissents speak to a future age. It’s not simply to say, ‘My colleagues are wrong and I would do it this way.’ But the greatest dissents do become court opinions and gradually over time their views become the dominant view. So that’s the dissenter’s hope: that they are writing not for today, but for tomorrow.” It would not be wrong to say that her dissents did pave the way for future.
Hon’ble Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an American Jurist, who became the Court’s second female justice. She spent her lifetime working for the social drawback of gender discrimination and unified the liberal block of the court. She at- tended James Madison High School, where a courtroom in her honour was dedicated to her later. She attended Cornell University in Ithaca, New York and Harvard Law School, where she was one of the 9 female students among a class of 500 male students.
She faced a lot of gender discrimination for being a female student trying to rise up to the level of men. She had an exceptional academic record throughout and became the first woman to be on two major law reviews, the Harvard Law Review and Columbia Law Review.
She argued on some very famous cases and kept on fighting for women’s rights while practicing as an advocate before she began her career as a justice. The majority opinion was written by her in the case of United States v. Virginia, “where it was held that admission cannot be denied in Virginia Military Institute to qualified women.” At all stages of her career, whether it was being an advocate or being a justice, she always used a calculated, slow and steady approach, which was always evident in all her actions. Instead of creating sweeping limitations on gender discrimination, she attacked specific areas of discrimination and violations of women’s rights one at a time, so as to send a message to the legislatures on what they can and cannot do. She stood for women’s abortion rights and fought for the issue of sexual equality for a very long time.
She even asserted a legislation to impede women’s access to abortion rights. She influenced and inspired many of her colleagues as well to stand for women empowerment, so that no woman ever becomes a part of gender discrimination.
At Vice-President Al Gore’s request, Justice Ginsburg administered him the oath of office to a second term during the second inauguration of Bill Clinton. In 2012, she went to Egypt for discussions with people associated with law and believed that Egypt should be “aided by all Constitution-writing that has gone on since the end of World WarII”. During separate interviews in 2016, she criticised Donald Trump and didn’t even want to think about the possibility of his presidency, later apologising for giving her ill-advised remarks on the presumptive Republican nominee. Her first book titled, “My Own Words” was released in 2016, which debuted on the New York Times Best Seller List.
During her promotions for the same, she criticised Colin Kaepernick for being “dumb” and not standing during the national anthem, for which she later apologized calling her comments “dismissive and harsh”. She conveyed her support for the #MeToo movement, as it encouraged women to break their silence and speak up about their experiences of sexual harassment. She even shared her personal disturbing experience regarding sexual harassment, in support of the movement. She has received huge recognition for her contribution to the field of law and in bringing about some major reforms. To name a few, she was named in the 100 Most Powerful Women in 2009 and was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. A glamour magazine in 2012 named her the Woman of the Year and in 2015, she was one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. She received the 2019 $1 million Berggruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture. She has always been seen as an inspiring and encouraging person, standing for human rights and gender equality.
Some of her very promising judgment including the one discussed above includes- (a) Gonzales v. Carhart, here the court upheld Congress Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. Ginsburg strongly dissented to it and I quote, “The Court deprives women of the right to make an autonomous choice, this way of the right to make an autonomous choice, this way of thinking reflects ancient notions about women’s place in the family and under the constitution- ideas that have long since been discredited.”
In Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, while addressing the wage gap in the year 2007, she dissented in support of equal wage and called the congress to take action, which later on resulted in the passing of the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Notably and strongly, she was the only judge to have dissented in the bench of 9 and said, “In our view the court does not comprehend, or is different to, the insidious way in which women can be victims of pay discrimination.”
Yet another landmark dis- sent of RBG can be traced in another notable decision of the Court in Shelby County v. Older (2013) and Rucho v. Common Cause (2019). These notable decisions pose discriminatory voting practices regarding the blacks and other racial-ethnic minorities’ voters from exercising their voting rights. RGB strongly dissented to this in her words, “throwing out pre- clearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in rainstorm because you aren’t getting wet.”
She firmly believed that, “Dissents speak to a future age. It’s not simply to say, ‘My colleagues are wrong and I would do it this way.’ But the greatest dissents do become court opinions and gradually over time their views become the dominant view. So that’s the dissenter’s hope: that they are writing not for today, but for tomorrow.” It would not be wrong to say that her dissents did pave the way for future.
Unfortunately, she lost her life to complications of pancreatic cancer on September 18, 2020. Justice Ginsburg has proven time and again that she is a force to be reckoned with, and those who doubt her capacity to effectively complete her judicial duties need only to look at her record in oral arguments, where she has always been among the most avid questioners on the bench today. Though, we have lost her but her work and contribution to the society and fraternity will always keep her alive amongst all of us.
