“I had a great professor for constitutional law at Cornell. His name was Robert E. Cushman. And he wanted me to be aware that our country was straying from its most basic values. That is the right to think, speak and write as you believe. And not as a Big Brother government tells you is the right way to think, speak and write.
“And he made me aware that there were lawyers standing up for these people, reminding our Congress that we had a First Amendment that guarantees freedom of expression. We have a Fifth Amendment protecting us against self-incrimination.”
— Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Bill Moyers on the “Moyers on Democracy” podcast, February 2020
“I hesitate every time I say ‘gender-based discrimination’ because I have been strongly criticized by an academic colleague for whom I have the highest respect. He tells me, ‘That term belongs in the grammar books; the word for what you have in mind is ‘sex’ and why don‘t you use it?’ And I will tell you why I don’t use it.
“In the 1970s, when I was at Columbia and writing briefs, articles, and speeches about distinctions based on sex, I had a bright secretary. She said one day, ‘I have been typing this word, sex, sex, sex, over and over. Let me tell you, the audience you are addressing, the men you are addressing’—and they were all men in the appellate courts in those days—‘the first association of that word is not what you are talking about. So I suggest that you use a grammar-book term. Use the word ‘gender.’ It will ward off distracting associations.’”
Senator DeConcini: “That secretary obviously was a woman.”
“Yes. And Millicent, if you are somewhere watching this, I owe it all to you.”
— First session on her nomination
to be Associate Justice of the Supreme Court
of the United States, July 1993
“I tell law students … if you are going to be a lawyer and just practice your profession, you have a skill—very much like a plumber. But if you want to be a true professional, you will do something outside yourself … something that makes life a little better for people less fortunate than you.”
— to The Mercury News, Feb. 6, 2017
“[The] Constitution begins with the words, ‘We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union …’ Think about how things were in 1787. Who were ‘We the people’? Certainly not people who were held in human bondage because the original Constitution preserves slavery. Certainly not women whatever their color and not even men who own no property. It was a rather elite group, ‘We the people,’ but I think the genius of our Constitution is what Justice Thurgood Marshall said.
“He said he doesn’t celebrate the original Constitution but he does celebrate what the Constitution has become, now well over two centuries. That is the concept of ‘We the people’ has become ever more inclusive. People who were left out at the beginning—slaves, women, men without property, native Americans—were not part of ‘We the people.’ Now all the once left out people are part of our political constituency. We are certainly a more perfect union as a result of that.”
— lecture at Little Rock, Sept. 8, 2019
“Just as buildings in California have a greater need to be earthquake proofed, places where there is greater racial polarization in voting have a greater need for prophylactic measures to prevent purposeful race discrimination.”
— dissent in Shelby County V. Holder, 2013
“Another indelible memory, the day the Court decided Bush v. Gore, Dec. 12, 2000, I was in chambers, exhausted after the marathon: review granted Saturday, briefs filed Sunday, oral argument Monday, opinions completed and released Tuesday. No surprise, Justice Scalia and I were on the opposite sides. The Court did the right thing, he had no doubt. I disagreed and explained why in a dissenting opinion. Around 9 p.m. the telephone, my direct line, rang. It was Justice Scalia. He didn’t say, ‘Get over it.’ Instead he asked, ‘Ruth, are you still at the Court? Go home and take a hot bath.’ Good advice I promptly followed.”
— “My Own Words,” Ruth Bader Ginsburg with Mary Hartnett and Wendy W. Williams, 2016
“Marty was the first boy I ever dated who cared that I had a brain, and we started out as best friends. Marty had a girlfriend at Smith College, and I had a boyfriend at Columbia Law School.
“But there was a long cold week in Ithaca, and Marty had a gray Chevrolet. We would go to the movies together. We’d go to the college and speak about anything and everything. And then it dawned on me after not too long that Marty was ever so much smarter than my boyfriend at Columbia Law School.”
— the inaugural Herma Hill Kay Memorial
Lecture, Berkeley, Calif., Dec. 13, 2019 “People who are well represented at trial do not get the death penalty … I have yet to see a death case among the dozens coming to the Supreme Court on eve-of-execution stay applications in which the defendant was well represented at trial.”
— University of the District of Columbia,
David A. Clarke School of Law, April 9, 2001
“The decision whether or not to bear a child is central to a woman’s life, to her well-being and dignity. It is a decision she must make for herself. When the government controls that decision for her, she is being treated as less than a full adult human responsible for her own choices.”
— First session on her nomination to be
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the
United States, July 1993
“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.”
— to Nina Totenberg, National Public Radio,
July 28, 2019
“He’s a faker. He has no consistency about him. He says whatever comes into his head at the moment. He really has an ego … How has he gotten away with not turning over his tax returns? The press seems to be very gentle with him on that.”
— to Joan Biskupic, CNN legal analyst,
July 10, 2016
“I said something I should not have said and I made a statement that reads, ‘On reflection, my recent remarks in response to press inquiries were ill-advised. I regret making them. Judges should avoid commenting on a candidate for public office. In the future I will be more circumspect.’ And that’s exactly how I feel about this whole business.’”
— to Nina Totenberg, National Public Radio,
July 14, 2019
“My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”
— to granddaughter Clara Spera,
July 18, 2020
—––––– –––––—
Philip Martin is a columnist and critic for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at pmartin@adgnewsroom.com and read his blog at blooddirtandangels.com.