Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Lessons on Becoming Notorious

RUTH BADER GINSBURG:

LESSONS ON BECOMING NOTORIOUS

BY CONNIE WARDMAN (SHE, HER, HERS)

"SOME OF MY FAVORITE OPINIONS ARE DISSENTING OPINIONS. I WILL NOT LIVE TO SEE WHAT BECOMES OF THEM, BUT I REMAIN HOPEFUL."

On September 18 we lost Ruth Bader Ginsburg, an associate justice of the U. S. Supreme Court for 27 years, following a long battle with cancer. A remarkable human being in every way, she was an indefatigable champion of women and members of the LGBTQ+ community, in particular. Even after five bouts with multiple cancers (colon cancer in 1999, pancreatic cancer 10 years later, lung cancer in 2018, pancreatic cancer again in 2019 and liver lesions in 2020) she endured radiation, chemotherapy and toward the end of her life the terrible pain of chronic shingles, she never missed a beat when it came to her job. She was the embodiment of true grit in every area of her life,

Extremely close to her mother who died the day before she graduated from high school, Ginsburg lived by the two pieces of advice her beloved mother gave her. The first was to always be a lady, and by that she meant to not let herself be overcome “by useless emotions like anger.” The other was to always be independent. She described that as it being alright to meet Prince Charming and live happily ever after … but to still be able to take care of herself.

The daughter of Jewish working parents, one a furrier, the other a garment worker, Ginsburg grew up in New York’s Brooklyn area and loved doing things the boys did, including climbing garage roofs and jumping from one roof to another – easy to get away with as a girl but she learned that women weren’t permitted to do all the things men did.

Her rise to the highest court of the land is a story of facing religious, cultural and gender prejudice that many women in the U.S. and beyond have faced for millennia. In her case she was Jewish, she was a woman and finally, she was a wife and mother – the trifecta of barriers to having a career suited to her brilliance and education. Yet she persisted, becoming the first female tenured professor at Columbia Law School, the founder of the Women’s Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union and prime mover behind the legal fight for women’s rights and gender equality.

She never complained about the prejudices she faced. In an NPR interview Ginsburg said, "I do think that I was born under a very bright star. Because if you think about my life, I get out of law school. I have top grades. No law firm in the city of New York will hire me. I end up teaching; it gave me time to devote to the movement for evening out the rights of women and men." And it was her steady persistence that led to her appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Learning about her celebrity status as the fierce and fabulous Notorious RBG tickled her; she even bought a number of Notorious RBG T-shirts and gave them out. In addition to a sense of humor, she was best friends with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, the conservative justice who was as diametrically opposed to her liberal views and she was to his conservative views.

While I could write pages about RBG’s amazing accomplishments, I think there are a couple of important lessons for all of us in today’s chaotic environment. First is the way she and Justice Scalia were able to have a wonderful friendship while knowing how to disagree and argue vehemently for their constitutional points of view without the anger and incitement to violence we see happening today. RBG followed her mother’s advice to not be overtaken by anger; she always maintained a sense of dignity and perspective, focusing on the legal issues rather than personally attacking her opponent.

That leads to lesson number two. RGB was a strategist who knew how to play the long game. She understood that societies change and evolve slowly, but old customs and beliefs that once prevented a more equal life experience for everyone, including the LGBTQ+ community would eventually give way with enough sound legal arguments available for future courts to consider.

It was RBG’s dissenting opinions that contained her full passion because she believed them to be a chance to persuade future courts to change rulings to ones more in line with the equality she lived and worked for. In an NPR interview she said, "Some of my favorite opinions are dissenting opinions. I will not live to see what becomes of them, but I remain hopeful."

I remain hopeful as well; hopeful that we employ the civility, decency, dedication, passion, humor and long-term thinking in our approach to growing the sports diversity movement. May we all become as wonderfully notorious as RBG!