Ruth Bader Ginsburg

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Lore & Background

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born in Brooklyn, New York, the second daughter of Jewish immigrants. Her older sister Marilyn died of meningitis when Ginsburg was 14 months old. Her mother Celia, who had been denied a college education, encouraged her schooling; Celia died the day before Ginsburg's high school graduation. Ginsburg earned a bachelor's degree from Cornell University, married Martin D. Ginsburg, and became a mother before entering Harvard Law School, where she was one of only 9 women in a class of about 500 men. She transferred to Columbia Law School, graduating joint first in her class. After law school, Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter rejected her for a clerkship because of her gender. She clerked for Judge Edmund L. Palmieri, then worked on the Columbia Law School Project on International Procedure, learned Swedish, and co-authored a book on Swedish civil procedure with Anders Bruzelius. Her time in Sweden profoundly influenced her thinking on gender equality. She became a professor at Rutgers Law School and Columbia Law School, the first woman to attain tenure on Columbia's law faculty. Ginsburg spent much of her legal career as an advocate for gender equality and women's rights, winning many arguments before the Supreme Court as a volunteer attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1980. She served there until her Supreme Court appointment in 1993. Between Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement in 2006 and Sonia Sotomayor's appointment in 2009, Ginsburg was the only female justice on the Court.

Reader's Guide

Ruth Bader Ginsburg's significance lies in her long tenure on the Supreme Court and her earlier work as a litigator for gender equality. As an associate justice, she authored majority opinions in cases including United States v. L.C. (1999), which addressed the rights of individuals with disabilities. Later in her tenure, she became known for forceful dissents, such as in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (2007), reflecting her liberal views. Despite two bouts with cancer and public pleas from liberal law scholars, she decided not to retire in 2013 or 2014 when President Barack Obama and a Democratic-controlled Senate could have appointed and confirmed her successor. Ginsburg died at her home in Washington, D.C., on September 18, 2020, at the age of 87, from complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer. The vacancy created by her death was filled 39 days later by Amy Coney Barrett, contributing to one of three major rightward shifts in the Court since 1953. Ginsburg's legacy includes her role as a pioneer for women in law and her impact on gender equality jurisprudence.

Did You Know?

• Ginsburg was the first Jewish woman and the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court, after Sandra Day O'Connor.
• At Harvard Law School, she was one of only 9 women in a class of about 500 men.
• Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter rejected her for a clerkship because of her gender.
• She learned Swedish to co-author a book on Swedish civil procedure with Anders Bruzelius.
• Between O'Connor's retirement in 2006 and Sotomayor's appointment in 2009, Ginsburg was the only female justice on the Supreme Court.