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Ruth Bader Ginsburg isn't a perfect person and she definitely has decisions worth criticizing but I'm not here for the anti-feminist need for perfection that erases her trailblazing work so here is a thread of some of her most important decisions and work /1
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a cofounder of the Women's Rights Project at the ACLU and was a pioneer in establishing heightened scrutiny for sex classifications under the Equal Protection Clause & argued 6 landmark cases in front of SCOTUS to that end https://www.oyez.org/justices/ruth_bader_ginsburg /2
In United States v. Virginia (1996) RBG rejected the "separate but equal" justification of gender discrimination in admissions to VMI and threw out the social science data claiming to support the gender difference justifications of this policy /3
In Olmstead v. LC (1999) RBG wrote the majority opinion in support of the "integrated mandate" in which she reinforced an important right afforded to individuals with disabilities, including mental illnesses to live in their own communities not institutions /4
In Bush v Gore (2000) RBG wrote the dissent in which she famously wrote "I dissent" without the custom of adding "respectfully" after /5
In Board of Education of Independent School District No. 92 of Pottawatomie County v. Earls (2002) RBG wrote in her dissent in support of the civil rights of minors to not be forced to submit to drug testing /6
In Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (2007) RBG wrote a dissent strongly against the pay disparity and gender discrimination at the company. She made sure to read her dissent aloud from the bench to urge public pressure on this issue /7
In Shelby v Holder (2013) RBG wrote a scathing dissent opposing gutting the VRA “[t]hrowing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.” /8
RBG wrote a masterful dissent in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby (2014) “The exemption sought by Hobby Lobby and Conestoga would…deny legions of women who do not hold their employers’ beliefs access to contraceptive coverage” /9
In Vance v. Ball State University (2013) & University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar (2013) RBG wrote dissents for decisions that undermined Title VII civil rights protections for people in the workplace /10
RBG wrote the opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) that guaranteed same sex couples the right to marry in all 50 states. As a long time officiant of gay marriages RBG is credited with helping to move public support on this issue /11
RBG wrote a concurring opinion in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt (2016) writing “When a State severely limits access to safe and legal procedures, women in desperate circumstances may resort to unlicensed rogue practitioners...at great risk to their health and safety." /12
In Friends of the Earth v. Laidlaw Environmental Services (2000) RBG helped make federal courts a bit more accessible, ruling that plaintiffs need not prove particular harm and could claim injury from harm to the "aesthetic and recreational values" of an area /13
In Virginia House of Delegates v. Bethune-Hill (2019) RBG wrote the opinion upholding the lower courts ruling that the House of Delegates didn't have standing to challenge throwing out the racist gerrymander map /14
Sorry for the mistake on Obergfell y’all https://twitter.com/queenmab87/status/1276585651387928577?s=21 https://twitter.com/queenmab87/status/1276585651387928577
Another perspective worth considering https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/notorious-rbg-scotus-dissent/
RBG signed on to Breyer's dissent in Glossip v. Gross questioning the constitutionality of the death penalty. So far only RBG and Breyer have made their positions supporting the abolition of the death penalty clear https://www.themarshallproject.org/2016/01/12/could-one-of-these-cases-spell-the-end-of-the-death-penalty
Oddly enough only RBG and Gorsuch objected to a double jeopardy loophole that allows "separate sovereigns" of state and federal governments to try criminal defendants separately in Gamble v. US https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/06/rbg-ruth-bader-ginsburg-neil-gorsuch-double-jeopardy-supreme-court-gamble.html
RBG joined Sotomayor's dissent arguing against police immunity in a shooting. "the Court misapprehends the facts and misapplies the law, effectively treating qualified immunity as an absolute shield.” https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/04/03/ariz-woman-survives-police-shooting-but-supreme-court-says-the-officer-is-immune-from-her-lawsuit/
