{"id":12694,"date":"2019-12-04T18:41:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-04T23:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/juris\/?p=12694"},"modified":"2019-12-04T18:41:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-04T23:41:00","slug":"justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-honored-for-lifetime-achievement-in-women-and-human-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/juris\/2019\/12\/04\/justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-honored-for-lifetime-achievement-in-women-and-human-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Honored for Lifetime Achievement in Women and Human Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Photo provided courtesy of Shonia.<\/em><\/center><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Elizabeth Fitch, Staff Writer <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe most looked-up-to person in Washington stands just 5-foot-1\u2026 The diminutive justice, who has barely cracked 100 pounds on the scale for most of her adult life, is a giant to liberals.\u201d[1]<\/sup><\/a> She may even challenge you to a push up contest.[2]<\/sup><\/a> \u201cI do 10, and then I breathe, and then I do 10 more.\u201d[3]<\/sup><\/a> Easy, says the 86-year-old legal genius.[4]<\/sup><\/a> All jokes aside, Ruth Bader Ginsburg is arguably one of the fiercest, most gracefully rebellious women of our time. \u201cA badass in every sense of the word, Ginsburg has for decades\u00a0defied\u00a0the rules and chose, instead to make her own, leading to her historic appointment to the nation’s highest court.\u201d[5]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1933.[6]<\/sup><\/a> She received her B.A. from Cornell University, got married shortly after graduation, and had her first child.[7]<\/sup><\/a> Just 14 months after the birth of her daughter, Ginsburg went on to attend Harvard Law School, where she was one of nine female students in a class of 500.[8]<\/sup><\/a> When applying, each of those nine female students was required to justify why they should be offered a seat that would have otherwise been taken by a male.[9]<\/sup><\/a> When her husband got a job at a prestigious law firm in New York City, she transferred to Colombia Law School to keep her family together.[10]<\/sup><\/a> Despite earning a seat on both the Harvard and Colombia Law Reviews, personal recommendations from Harvard Law professors, and graduating first in her class at Colombia, Ruth was met with numerous employment rejections upon graduation.[11]<\/sup><\/a> Men were simply \u201ctoo uncomfortable with the thought of a woman in [their] chambers.\u201d[12]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> Not only was she a woman, but she was also Jewish.[13]<\/sup><\/a> To challenge her further, she had a family.[14]<\/sup><\/a> At a time when female sterilization to permanently prevent women from becoming pregnant was practiced and near encouraged for female professionals, it was Ruth Bader Ginsburg against the world.[15]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Personal experiences with sex discrimination inspired Ruth to study women\u2019s rights and issues of gender equality, particularly in the workplace, more closely.[16]<\/sup><\/a> In 1972 she co-founded the Women\u2019s Rights Project.[17]<\/sup><\/a> She and Brenda Feigen, co-founder, sought out an unused area in the American Civil Liberties Union office, where they hung the sign: “WOMEN WORKING,” and started revolutionizing America.[18]<\/sup><\/a> A mere one year later, Ruth argued her first case in front of the Supreme Court of the United States: Frontiero v. Richardson<\/em>.[19]<\/sup><\/a> She advocated for the application of strict scrutiny to gender discrimination;[20]<\/sup><\/a> she challenged the United States Constitution with ease.[21]<\/sup><\/a> “I’ve never heard an oral argument as unbelievably cogent as hers\u2026 Not a single Justice asked a single question; I think they were mesmerized by her,” Feigen remembers.[22]<\/sup><\/a> Ruth, unfortunately, however, was one vote short of a majority.[23]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

In the years following, Ginsburg\u2019s voice did not go unnoticed. As a Justice on the United States Supreme Court, she joined majority opinions ruling that states could not operate all-male educational institutions with tax-payer dollars, opinions invalidating laws banning \u201cpartial birth\u201d abortions, and opinions that struck down laws making pregnant women ineligible for unemployment benefits.[24]<\/sup><\/a> All decisions that were immeasurable successes for women\u2019s rights in 1975. She was a vital contributor to the Pregnancy Discrimination Act,\u00a0an amendment to Title VII\u00a0that established that pregnancy discrimination in the workplace is unlawful sex discrimination.[25]<\/sup><\/a> Ginsburg heatedly dissented in\u00a0opinions where woman sued unsuccessfully for compensation for the years in which they had been paid substantially less than male colleagues.[26]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> She was, quite literally, making history with every decision she authored.<\/p>\n

This work has earned Ginsburg the recognition as one of the most respected, and most beloved, jurists of our time.[27]<\/sup><\/a> She has most recently been named the\u00a0recipient\u00a0of the 2019 Berggruen Prize, one given\u00a0annually to a thinker whose ideas \u201chave profoundly shaped human self-understanding and advancement in a rapidly changing world.\u201d[28]<\/sup><\/a> She has been celebrated for being a \u201cconstant voice for justice, equal and accessible to all.\u201d[29]<\/sup><\/a> In very Ruth-Bader-Ginsburg-like-fashion<\/em>, she intends to give her $1 Million-dollar prize directly to charity.[30]<\/sup><\/a> \u201cFew in our era have done more to bring vital philosophical ideas to fruition in practical affairs than Ruth Bader Ginsburg,\u201d philosopher Kwame Appiah states.\u00a0\u201cShe has been both a visionary and a strategic leader in securing equality, fairness, and the rule of law not only in the realm of theory, but in social institutions and the lives of individuals.\u201d[32]<\/sup><\/a> And don\u2019t forget, she will<\/em> beat you in a push up contest.<\/p>\n

\n

[1]<\/a> https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/life\/movies\/2018\/05\/01\/rbg-documentary-shows-how-ruth-bader-ginsburg-became-pop-icon\/562930002\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> https:\/\/fortune.com\/2016\/09\/22\/ruth-bader-ginsburg-pushups\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Id.<\/a><\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Id.<\/a><\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/life\/movies\/2018\/05\/01\/rbg-documentary-shows-how-ruth-bader-ginsburg-became-pop-icon\/562930002\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> https:\/\/www.supremecourthistory.org\/history-of-the-court\/the-current-court\/justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg\/<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> https:\/\/www.achievement.org\/achiever\/ruth-bader-ginsburg\/<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Id.<\/a><\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> https:\/\/shona.ie\/who-is-the-notorious-rbg\/<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> https:\/\/www.achievement.org\/achiever\/ruth-bader-ginsburg\/<\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> Id.<\/a><\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> Id.<\/a><\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> Id.<\/a><\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> Id.<\/a><\/p>\n

[15]<\/a> https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/other\/history-aclu-womens-rights-project<\/p>\n

[16]<\/a> Id.<\/a><\/p>\n

[17]<\/a> Id.<\/a><\/p>\n

[18]<\/a> Id.<\/a><\/p>\n

[19]<\/a> https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/other\/tribute-legacy-ruth-bader-ginsburg-and-wrp-staff<\/p>\n

[20]<\/a> https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/other\/tribute-legacy-ruth-bader-ginsburg-and-wrp-staff<\/p>\n

[21]<\/a> https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/other\/history-aclu-womens-rights-project<\/p>\n

[22]<\/a> https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/other\/tribute-legacy-ruth-bader-ginsburg-and-wrp-staff<\/p>\n

[23]<\/a> Id.<\/a><\/p>\n

[24]<\/a> https:\/\/www.achievement.org\/achiever\/ruth-bader-ginsburg\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[25]<\/a> https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/other\/tribute-legacy-ruth-bader-ginsburg-and-wrp-staff<\/p>\n

[26]<\/a> https:\/\/www.achievement.org\/achiever\/ruth-bader-ginsburg\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[27]<\/a> https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/10\/23\/arts\/ruth-bader-ginsburg-berggruen-prize.html<\/p>\n

[28]<\/a> Id.<\/a><\/p>\n

[29]<\/a> https:\/\/www.berggruen.org\/prize\/<\/p>\n

[30]<\/a> https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/ruth-bader-ginsburg-receive-1-million-berggruen-prize-philosophy-culture-n1070621<\/p>\n

[31]<\/a> https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/10\/23\/arts\/ruth-bader-ginsburg-berggruen-prize.html<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Elizabeth Fitch, Staff Writer \u201cThe most looked-up-to person in Washington stands just 5-foot-1\u2026 The diminutive justice, who has barely cracked 100 pounds on the scale for most of her adult life, is a giant to liberals.\u201d[1] She may even challenge you to a push up contest.[2] \u201cI do 10, [\u2026] <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

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