Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Ruth Bader Ginsberg. (Photo by Ron Sachs/Consolidated News Pictures)
Gallery of Ruth Ginsburg
1993
1 First St NE, Washington, DC 20543, United States
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg extending a hand, poised outside the Supreme Court building. (Photo by Diana Walker)
Gallery of Ruth Ginsburg
1993
Ruth Bader Ginsburg testifying before Sen. Judiciary Comm. (Photo by Terry Ashe)
Gallery of Ruth Ginsburg
2001
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the Supreme Court of the United States in Washington, DC. (Photo by Liaison)
Gallery of Ruth Ginsburg
2001
First St SE, Washington, DC 20004, United States
Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, pose for a portrait in Statuary Hall March 28, 2001, surrounded by statues of men at the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. (Photo by David Hume)
Gallery of Ruth Ginsburg
2002
1 First St NE, Washington, DC 20543, United States
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg sits in her chambers at the Supreme Court on August 7, 2002, in Washington, DC. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly)
Gallery of Ruth Ginsburg
2006
1 First St NE, Washington, DC 20543, United States
Ruth Bader Ginsburg smiles during a photo session with photographers at the U.S. Supreme Court on March 3, 2006, in Washington DC. (Photo by Mark Wilson)
Gallery of Ruth Ginsburg
2006
Washington, DC, USA
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg arrives for a dinner to honor Michelle Bachelet, Chile's first female president May 8, 2006, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski)
Gallery of Ruth Ginsburg
2006
Washington, DC, USA
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg arrives for a dinner to honor Michelle Bachelet, Chile's first female president May 8, 2006, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski)
Gallery of Ruth Ginsburg
2006
First St SE, Washington, DC 20004, United States
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg smiles during a photo session with photographers at the United States Supreme Court on March 3, 2006, in Washington DC. (Photo by Mark Wilson)
Gallery of Ruth Ginsburg
2009
First St SE, Washington, DC 20004, United States
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg poses during a group photograph at the Supreme Court building on September 29, 2009, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Gallery of Ruth Ginsburg
2010
300 E Ocean Blvd, Long Beach, CA 90802, United States
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg attends California first lady Maria Shriver's annual Women's Conference 2010 on October 26, 2010, at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian)
Gallery of Ruth Ginsburg
2011
Washington, D.C., United States
Barack Obama (C) greets (L-R) Supreme Court Justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen Breyer before the State of the Union address on Capitol Hill on January 25, 2011, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla)
Gallery of Ruth Ginsburg
2014
529 14th St NW, Washington, DC 20045, United States
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg waits for the beginning of the taping of "The Kalb Report" April 17, 2014, at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong)
Gallery of Ruth Ginsburg
2015
1800 Foxhall Rd NW, Washington, DC 20007, United States
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg (L) and Robbie Myers at The Residence of the German Ambassador on March 18, 2015, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Paul Morigi)
Gallery of Ruth Ginsburg
2016
First St SE, Washington, DC 20004, United States
Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan, left, Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr., Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Anthony M. Kennedy react during prayers at a private ceremony in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court where late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia lies in repose on February 19, 2016, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jacquelyn Martin - Pool)
Gallery of Ruth Ginsburg
2016
1 E 65th St, New York, NY 10065, United States
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg holds a copy of her new book My Own Words after An Historic Evening with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the Temple Emanu-El Skirball Center on September 21, 2016, in New York City. (Photo by Michael Kovac)
Gallery of Ruth Ginsburg
2018
Park City, Utah, USA
Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaks during the Cinema Cafe with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Nina Totenberg during the 2018 Sundance Film Festival at Filmmaker Lodge on January 21, 2018, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Robin Marchant)
Gallery of Ruth Ginsburg
2018
600 New Jersey Ave NW, Washington, DC 20001, United States
Ruth Bader Ginsburg participates in a lecture on September 26, 2018, at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong)
Gallery of Ruth Ginsburg
2018
700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20408, United States
Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaks during a naturalization ceremony at the Rotunda of the National Archives on December 14, 2018, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Gallery of Ruth Ginsburg
2019
600 New Jersey Ave NW, Washington, DC 20001, United States
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg participates in a discussion at Georgetown University Law Center on July 2, 2019, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong)
Gallery of Ruth Ginsburg
2019
New York City, NY, USA
Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaks onstage at the Fourth Annual Berggruen Prize Gala celebrating 2019 Laureate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg In New York City on December 16, 2019, in New York City. (Photo by Eugene Gologursky)
Gallery of Ruth Ginsburg
2020
600 New Jersey Ave NW, Washington, DC 20001, United States
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg participates in a discussion at the Georgetown University Law Center on February 10, 2020, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Sarah Silbiger)
Gallery of Ruth Ginsburg
2020
101 Independence Ave SE, Washington, DC 20540, United States
(Back L-R) Karlie Kloss, Lana Condor, Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Diane von Furstenberg, Ria Tabacco Mar, (Bottom L-R) Saskia Nino de Rivera, Priti Patkar, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Iman attend 2020 DVF Awards on February 19, 2020, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris)
Gallery of Ruth Ginsburg
2020
101 Independence Ave SE, Washington, DC 20540, United States
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Ria Tabacco Mar speak at the DVF 2020 Awards at the Library of Congress on February 19, 2020, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Shannon Finney)
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Achievements
Membership
Phi Beta Kappa
Alpha Epsilon Phi
American Philosophical Society
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
British Academy
Awards
Berggruen Prize
2019
Nicolas Berggruen honors Ruth Bader Ginsburg at The Berggruen Prize Gala.
Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, pose for a portrait in Statuary Hall March 28, 2001, surrounded by statues of men at the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. (Photo by David Hume)
1 First St NE, Washington, DC 20543, United States
Ruth Bader Ginsburg smiles during a photo session with photographers at the U.S. Supreme Court on March 3, 2006, in Washington DC. (Photo by Mark Wilson)
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg arrives for a dinner to honor Michelle Bachelet, Chile's first female president May 8, 2006, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski)
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg arrives for a dinner to honor Michelle Bachelet, Chile's first female president May 8, 2006, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski)
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg smiles during a photo session with photographers at the United States Supreme Court on March 3, 2006, in Washington DC. (Photo by Mark Wilson)
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg poses during a group photograph at the Supreme Court building on September 29, 2009, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
300 E Ocean Blvd, Long Beach, CA 90802, United States
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg attends California first lady Maria Shriver's annual Women's Conference 2010 on October 26, 2010, at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian)
Barack Obama (C) greets (L-R) Supreme Court Justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen Breyer before the State of the Union address on Capitol Hill on January 25, 2011, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla)
529 14th St NW, Washington, DC 20045, United States
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg waits for the beginning of the taping of "The Kalb Report" April 17, 2014, at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong)
1800 Foxhall Rd NW, Washington, DC 20007, United States
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg (L) and Robbie Myers at The Residence of the German Ambassador on March 18, 2015, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Paul Morigi)
Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan, left, Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr., Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Anthony M. Kennedy react during prayers at a private ceremony in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court where late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia lies in repose on February 19, 2016, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jacquelyn Martin - Pool)
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg holds a copy of her new book My Own Words after An Historic Evening with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the Temple Emanu-El Skirball Center on September 21, 2016, in New York City. (Photo by Michael Kovac)
Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaks during the Cinema Cafe with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Nina Totenberg during the 2018 Sundance Film Festival at Filmmaker Lodge on January 21, 2018, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Robin Marchant)
700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20408, United States
Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaks during a naturalization ceremony at the Rotunda of the National Archives on December 14, 2018, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaks onstage at the Fourth Annual Berggruen Prize Gala celebrating 2019 Laureate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg In New York City on December 16, 2019, in New York City. (Photo by Eugene Gologursky)
600 New Jersey Ave NW, Washington, DC 20001, United States
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg participates in a discussion at the Georgetown University Law Center on February 10, 2020, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Sarah Silbiger)
101 Independence Ave SE, Washington, DC 20540, United States
(Back L-R) Karlie Kloss, Lana Condor, Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Diane von Furstenberg, Ria Tabacco Mar, (Bottom L-R) Saskia Nino de Rivera, Priti Patkar, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Iman attend 2020 DVF Awards on February 19, 2020, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris)
101 Independence Ave SE, Washington, DC 20540, United States
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Ria Tabacco Mar speak at the DVF 2020 Awards at the Library of Congress on February 19, 2020, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Shannon Finney)
(In this collection, Justice Ginsburg discusses gender equ...)
In this collection, Justice Ginsburg discusses gender equality, the workings of the Supreme Court, being Jewish, law and lawyers in opera, and the value of looking beyond United States shores when interpreting the United States Constitution.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an American associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in September 2020. She was the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court. Ginsburg successfully fought against gender discrimination and unified the liberal block of the court.
Background
Ethnicity:
Ruth Bader Ginsburg's father was a Russian Jewish emigrant, born in Podolsk. Her mother was born in New York, to Polish Jewish parents.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born as Joan Ruth Bader on March 15, 1933, in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, the United States, to a comfortable middle-class family. Her father, Nathan Bader, owned small clothing stores. When she was fourteen months old, her older sister Marylin died of meningitis at the age of six. Hence, she grew up without siblings in the Flatbush neighborhood.
Ginsburg's mother, Celia Bader, was a major influence in her life and taught her the value of independence and a good education. She was the driving force in her daughter's life, a role model at a time when women had to fight for the privileges and rights that men enjoyed by default.
Education
When Ginsburg started school and her mother learned that there were several Joans in her daughter’s class, Celia suggested that she go by her middle name, and Ruth Bader was born. She learned Hebrew at a young age as she was acquainted with East Midwood Jewish Center. At the age of 13, Ruth attended a summer program at Camp Che-Na-Wah, in which she performed as a rabbi in one of the plays.
She often visited the library along with her mother Celia Bader, who was determined to give her daughter the best possible education. Celia, who had sacrificed her own education in order to earn for her brother’s college education, served as an inspiration to Ruth right from her childhood. Celia wanted her daughter to earn a college degree, which she thought would secure the job of a teacher to her daughter. Unfortunately, she passed away the day before her daughter’s high school graduation from James Madison High School in Brooklyn.
After high school, Ginsburg attended Cornell University, where she met her future husband, Martin Ginsburg. An excellent student, she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Epsilon Phi and graduated as the top woman in her class in 1954.
She married law student Martin D. Ginsburg that same year. The early years of their marriage were challenging, as their first child, Jane was born shortly after Martin was drafted into the military in 1954. He served for two years and, after his discharge, the couple returned to Harvard, where Ginsburg also enrolled.
At Harvard, Ginsburg learned to balance life as a mother and her new role as a law student. She also encountered a very male-dominated, hostile environment, with only eight other females in her class of more than 500. The women were chided by the law school's dean for taking the places of qualified males. But Ginsburg pressed on and excelled academically, eventually becoming the first female member of the prestigious Harvard Law Review.
She transferred to Columbia University after two years, when her husband, who would become one of the country's preeminent tax attorneys, took a job in New York. But gender discrimination continued to overshadow her scholastic achievements. Although she graduated at the top of her class, law firms, which normally enter fierce bidding wars for such a star, refused to hire her.
Despite her outstanding academic record, however, Ginsburg continued to encounter gender discrimination while seeking employment. In 1960, her application for a clerkship position was rejected by Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter. She was eventually accepted for a clerkship position by Judge Edmund L. Palmieri and thus began her judicial journey, which would later transpire into a glorious career.
In 1961 she joined Columbia's comparative law project, traveling to Sweden to study that country's judicial system. Ginsburg's research resulted in a translation of Swedish judicial proceedings, as well as the book Civil Procedure in Sweden. In 1963 she joined the faculty of Rutgers University Law School and also worked as an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
But she was informed that her salary would be lesser than that of her male counterparts. After having been influenced by Sweden’s implementation of gender equality, Ruth, who was married by now, was determined to abolish gender inequality. Hence, she co-founded a journal called Women’s Rights Law Reporter in 1970, which was the first law journal to exclusively focus on women’s rights.
During the 1970s, she also served as the director of the Women's Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, for which she argued six landmark cases on gender equality before the United States Supreme Court. However, Ginsburg also believed that the law was gender-blind and all groups were entitled to equal rights. One of the five cases she won before the Supreme Court involved a portion of the Social Security Act that favored women over men because it granted certain benefits to widows but not widowers.
While going about her cases, she chose her plaintiffs carefully and was determined to prove that practices involving gender discrimination were harmful to both women and men. She soon earned a reputation as a skilled advocate as her works led to the end of gender discrimination in many areas within the law. She went on to argue and win multiple cases that defended the importance of gender equality and women’s rights in several fields. In one such case, she challenged a statute in Oklahoma, which was responsible for coming up with minimum drinking ages that were different for women and men.
Apart from defending what she believed in, she also continued to work on her Women’s Rights Project until 1980, when she was appointed to the Federal Bench. On April 14, 1980, she was nominated by President James Carter Jr. to the United States Court of Appeals, a position left vacant by Judge Harold Leventhal upon his death.
In 1980 President Carter appointed Ginsburg to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. She served there until she was appointed to the United States Supreme Court in 1993 by President Clinton, selected to fill the seat vacated by Justice Byron White. President Clinton wanted a replacement with the intellect and political skills to deal with the more conservative members of the Court.
The Senate Judiciary Committee hearings were unusually friendly, despite frustration expressed by some senators over Ginsburg's evasive answers to hypothetical situations. Several expressed concern over how she could transition from social advocate to Supreme Court Justice. In the end, she was easily confirmed by the Senate, 96-3.
As a judge, Ginsburg favored caution, moderation, and restraint. She was considered part of the Supreme Court's moderate-liberal bloc presenting a strong voice in favor of gender equality, the rights of workers, and the separation of church and state. In 1996 Ginsburg wrote the Supreme Court's landmark decision in the United States v. Virginia, which held that the state-supported Virginia Military Institute could not refuse to admit women. In 1999 she won the American Bar Association's Thurgood Marshall Award for her contributions to gender equality and civil rights.
Despite her reputation for restrained writing, she gathered considerable attention for her dissenting opinion in the case of Bush v. Gore, which effectively decided the 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore. Objecting to the court's majority opinion favoring Bush, Ginsburg deliberately and subtly concluded her decision with the words, "I dissent" - a significant departure from the tradition of including the adverb "respectfully."
She dissented vehemently in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire (2007), in which an Alabama woman sued unsuccessfully for back pay to compensate for the years in which she had been paid substantially less than junior male colleagues performing the same job. The United States Congress would later address the issue of pay equity through legislation known as the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.
Following Justice O’Connor’s retirement, and subsequent replacement by Samuel Alito, Justice Ginsburg became for a time the only female member of the Supreme Court. In later years she has been pleased to welcome not one but two new female members of the Court, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan.
In 2015, Ginsburg sided with the majority in two landmark Supreme Court rulings. On June 25th she was one of the six justices to uphold a critical component of the 2010 Affordable Care Act - often referred to as Obamacare - in King v. Burwell. The decision allows the federal government to continue providing subsidies to Americans who purchase health care through "exchanges," regardless of whether they are state or federally operated.
The majority ruling, read by Chief Justice John Roberts, was a massive victory for President Barack Obama and made the Affordable Care Act difficult to undo. Conservative justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Antonin Scalia were in dissent, with Scalia presenting a scathing dissenting opinion to the Court.
In 2016 Ginsburg released My Own Words, a memoir filled with her writings that date as far back as her junior high school years. The book became a New York Times Best Seller. Justice Ginsburg persevered in serving on the court through recurrences of her cancer, promising to remain on the bench as long as she was able to serve.
(In this collection, Justice Ginsburg discusses gender equ...)
2016
Religion
Ginsburg was shaped by her minority faith and passionate about Judaism’s concern for justice. Ginsburg said that she grew up in the shadow of World War II and the Holocaust and it left a deep and lasting imprint on her. Anti-Semitism was commonly accepted in those days, and families like the Bader's confronted the social difficulties of being Jewish while at the same time holding out hope that they could climb into the ranks of the middle class.
Politics
Ginsburg notably opposed the potential of a Donald Trump presidency in 2016, at one point calling him a "faker," before apologizing for publicly commenting on the campaign.
Views
As a justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was dedicated to equality not only on behalf of women. She cared as deeply for minority groups, immigrants, the disabled, and others. By most accounts, had Ginsburg gone the route of arguing only those cases in which women were the victims of discriminatory laws, she would not have effectively revealed the absurdity and unconstitutionality of all laws that treat men and women differently.
In 2018, she supported the Me Too Movement, which was initiated to criticize sexual harassment and assault. She even shared her own experience of facing sexual harassment and gender discrimination.
Quotations:
"Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you."
"Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time."
"The emphasis must be not on the right to an abortion but on the right of privacy and reproductive control."
"I do hope that some of my dissents will one day be the law."
"It helps sometimes to be a little deaf."
Membership
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Epsilon Phi societies. She was also an elected member of the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy.
Phi Beta Kappa
Alpha Epsilon Phi
American Philosophical Society
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
British Academy
Personality
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was known for her "jabots" or collars that she wore over her judicial robes. Sandra Day O’Connor and Ginsburg decided that since the traditional robes accommodate for showing a man’s shirt and tie, as women, they would wear something that put their own twist on the style. Ginsburg wore particular collars to denote her opinion on a ruling. Her majority-opinion lace collar was a gift from a former clerk, whereas a mirrored necklace served as her dissent collar.
Quotes from others about the person
"Thurgood Marshall of women's rights." - Bill Clinton
Interests
Opera
Politicians
Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama
Writers
Vladimir Nabokov, Amanda Cross, Dorothy L. Sayers
Artists
Mark Rothko, Josef Albers
Sport & Clubs
Golf, water skiing, horseback riding
Music & Bands
Antonín Dvořák, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, George Frideric Handel, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Connections
Ruth met her husband, Martin David Ginsburg while attending Cornell University. She and Martin married the year she graduated, 1954. The couple's law school plans were put on hold when Martin was drafted into the Army. They spent two years at Fort Sill in Oklahoma, where they had their daughter, Jane. In 1965, she hid her second pregnancy by wearing oversize clothes to avoid discriminatory employment practices. She gave birth to son James over the summer break and returned to work that fall.
Conversations with RBG: Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Life, Love, Liberty, and Law
In her own words, Ruth Bader Ginsburg offers an intimate look at her life and career, through an extraordinary series of conversations with the head of the National Constitution Center. This remarkable book presents a unique portrait of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, drawing on more than twenty years of conversations with Jeffrey Rosen, starting in the 1990s and continuing through the Trump era.