FEATURE
Remembering
Justice Ginsburg BY RANDY J. HOLLAND
Portrait of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, painted by Simmie Knox in 2000. Image found on Wikimedia Commons.
I
was asked to recount some of my interactions with Justice Ginsburg. It has rekindled wonderful memories. Our first meetings were in the late 1990s at American Inns of Court events in the United States Supreme Court. Our correspondence began with her letter of congratulations to me on August 7, 2000 when I became the National President of the American Inns of Court. For the next 20 years, we exchanged letters and hand-written notes. We also met once or twice each year. We met several times at the Second Circuit Judicial Conference. She was the Second Circuit Justice and I was presenting the American Inns’ Professionalism Award. After one of those occasions, I sent Justice Ginsburg a copy of The Bencher with a photograph of her, Justice Breyer, the award recipient, and me. She thanked me in a letter and requested a copy of the photograph “for my souvenirs.” In the letter, she also mentioned that she had just been named an Honorary Bencher of Lincoln’s Inn in London. The next year, when (to my surprise) I also became an Honorary Bencher she wrote to me, “so glad to know that you and I are Lincoln’s Inn colleagues.” Although several Americans are Honorary Benchers 30
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at the Middle Temple and other two Inns in London, Justice Ginsburg, Justice Stevens, and I were the only three Americans who were Honorary Benchers at Lincoln’s Inn. Justice Ginsburg arranged for the three of us to be photographed at the Supreme Court. That photo is in my office. Over the years, I periodically went to the Supreme Court to move the admission of groups of attorneys from the Delaware Law School. Justice Ginsburg always accepted my invitation to attend a reception after each admission ceremony and speak to our group. My law clerk was with me at one of those receptions. She was expecting a baby. Justice Ginsburg spoke to her about her own experience as an expectant mother in the legal profession. A few times when I went to Washington with my law clerks, I asked Justice Ginsburg if we could stop by for a visit. She always found time to host us in her Chambers. Many of Justice Ginsburg’s clerks were selected for the American Inns of Court Temple Bar program in London. We talked about that program on several occasions. One of our other mutual interests was teaching law school in Venice, Italy. We taught for different law schools and exchanged suggestions on things to do. Not surprisingly, the opera in Venice topped her list. We once talked about the Scalia/Ginsburg Opera based on texts from their judicial opinions. She told me that she attended the opening performance and especially liked a scene where she rescued Justice Scalia. A few years later, I invited her to see it in Wilmington. She wrote, “To my disappointment, I must miss the Delaware Opera’s Scalia/Ginsburg
