May her memory be a blessing.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (March 15, 1933 - Sept 18, 2020)

A tribute; a life in pictures:

Born Joan Ruth Bader.
1) At the age of 2
2) At 13, seated directly left of her rabbi, in her Brooklyn synagogue
3) Also 13, skiing with her cousin in the Adirondacks

High school yearbook photo. Her brilliant mother Celia had been unable to attend college (the family sent her brother instead), so she took Ruth to the library often and insisted she get the best education possible. Celia died the day before her daughter's high school graduation.

1) In 1950, at 17, Ruth enrolled at Cornell
2) She met fellow student Martin Ginsburg on a "blind" date (actually, he asked a friend to set him up with her!)
3) In Dec 1953, they were engaged. She later recalled, "He was the first boy I ever knew who cared that I had a brain."

1) June 1954: a month after graduating Cornell, she married Martin and they moved to Fort Sill, OK (as he was called to active duty in Army Reserves)
2) They had 2 children: Jane (1955) and James (1965). She was demoted from her first job after becoming pregnant with Jane.

In 1956, she followed Marty to Harvard Law; she was one of 9 women in a class of 500. The Dean once invited her and the other female law students to dinner, and asked them, "Why are you at Harvard Law School, taking the place of a man?"

In 1958, Marty was diagnosed with cancer. Ginsburg cared for him, as well as 3yo Jane, while also organizing Marty's notes and typing his papers.

Somehow on top of all this she excelled in her own work too, & became an editor of the Harvard Law Review. (Harvard 1958 yearbook)

With her help, Marty graduated magna com laude. After his recovery, he got a job in NY; following him, she transferred for her final year to Columbia Law. There, she became the first woman to ever edit both the Harvard *and* the Columbia Law Review.

"When I graduated from Columbia Law School in 1959, not a law firm in the entire city of New York would employ me."
-RBG

Despite glowing recommendations, she was also rejected as a SCOTUS clerk due to her gender.

A CU prof finally threatened a US District judge never to recommend any Columbia students again if he did not take her as a clerk.

She worked there 2 years, then taught at Rutgers, and eventually Columbia. In 1963, she was one of only 20 female law profs in the US.

1) By 1977 she was the first tenured woman at Columbia and had founded the first US law journal focused on women's rights.

2) She was also an ACLU counsel for gender discrimination cases; here, she stands with son James after arguing a case before the Supreme Court in Nov 1978.

1) In 1980, Pres. Carter nominates her to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Marty works his client list as a tax lawyer to gain support for her nomination.
3) Ruth and Marty on vacation in France, 1988
4) Ginsburg reads to kids for the 10th anniversary of "Reading Rainbow" (1993)

In 1993, a Supreme Court seat comes open. Ginsburg is in fact far down Pres. Clinton's list, and even opposed by some women's groups for critical comments about Roe v Wade (she wished it had been done legislatively, and had been woman- rather than doctor-centered).

Clinton took a long time debating the decision, weighing how best to diversify the Court and the many political ramifications of his options. He finally agrees to meet with Ginsburg in June; within 15 minutes of sitting down together, he knew he had his pick.

At the press conference announcing her nomination in the Rose Garden, Ginsburg holds up a photo of Hillary Clinton singing "the toothbrush song" with Ginsburg's granddaughter Clara and her nursery school class.

1) Ginsburg speaks with reporters, with Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (left, bowtie) and Sen. Joe Biden (right).

2) Marty greets her at her confirmation hearing. He again campaigned tirelessly to get her the nomination, soliciting countless endorsements and persuading opponents.

1) Sworn in by Chief Justice Rehnquist, as Marty looks on, adoring.
2) After the ceremony, posing with family, she holds the hands of her granddaughter Clara and grandson Paul.
3) An informal group photo taken of the US Supreme Court in December 1993.

Despite being ideological opponents, she had a famously close friendship with conservative justice Antonin Scalia, who she knew from their time together on the DC Appeals Court in the 80s.

1) Touring India together
2) As extras for an opera, 1994

1) In 1995, she and Sandra Day O'Connor with basketballs given to them by the US Women's Basketball team.
2) In 2001 the first two female Justices prepare to address the Congressional Women’s Caucus. After 2005, Ginsburg called her years as the only woman on the Court "lonely."

1) 2002: Ginsburg in her Supreme Court chambers
2) 2003: Ruth and Marty listen to an address by Justice Breyer at Columbia
3) 2009: Ginsburg is greeted as she arrives to hear a Presidential address to Congress
4) 2010: the only four women Justices to date pose together.

1) Ginsburg had a lifelong love of opera; in 2011, receiving an honorary degree from Harvard, Ginsburg also receives a surprise serenade from Placido Domingo
2) Visiting with SoS Clinton in 2012
3) Pres Obama hugs Ginsburg as he arrives to deliver the SotU address, Jan 2015

Late in life, as the stalwart symbol of liberal resistance and dissent on a Supreme Court with a continual conservative majority, Ginsburg became an unlikely pop icon.

In 2010, after 56 years of marriage, she loses Marty to cancer. Ginsburg said that meeting Marty "was by far the most fortunate thing that ever happened to me."

He once called their marriage equitable: "I did the cooking, and she did the thinking."

(He was, of course, a distinguished academic and arguably the top tax lawyer in the country. But there's no question who mattered most in his world.)

In December 2019, Ginsburg was awarded the Berggruen Institute Prize for Philosophy and Culture. She announced she would donate the $1 million prize to a number of organizations that promote opportunities for women.

"When I'm sometimes asked 'When will there be enough [women on the Supreme Court]?' my answer is: 'When there are nine.' People are shocked. But there's been nine men, and nobody's ever raised a question about that."
-Ruth Bader Ginsburg

"Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you."
-Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ground-breaker. Writer. Mother. Icon.

May her memory be a blessing.

PS, a note I really regret leaving out (because I started this thread with 3 photos and no outline): Marty's illness in 1958 was a turning point in Ginsburg's life. Not only did she discover she was capable of (basically) superhuman things, but...

...she also realized it could happen again at any time. That she needed a career, to be able to support their family. Even once he was an established tax lawyer in NYC, and nobody would hire her, she persisted. Eventually she got her clerkship, than a faculty post, then tenure.