by Irin Carmon
civil service exam Von Drehle, Conventional Roles; fact-checking by Irin Carmon with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in Boston, MA (May 29, 2015).
33“Ruth, if you don’t want to go to law school” Saulnier, Justice Prevails.
34“to combine the power and beauty” Tamar Lewin, Herbert Wechsler, Legal Giant, Is Dead at 90, NEW YORK TIMES, Apr. 28, 2000.
“I wanted to know more” E.g., Judith Richards Hope, Pinstripes and Pearls: The Women of the Harvard Law Class of ‘64 Who Forged an Old Girl Network and Paved the Way for Future Generations 105 (2003).
“We try to take people” Lynn Gilbert, Particular Passions: Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1988).
“something strange and singular” Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Keynote Speech at Harvard Law School Celebration 25 (Apr. 15, 1978) (on file with the Library of Congress Manuscript Division).
35“You felt in class” ACAD. OF ACHIEVEMENT.
Lamont Library Nomination of Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States: Hearings Before the S. Comm. on the Judiciary, 103rd Cong. 134 (1993) [hereinafter Senate Judiciary Hearings].
36Rhoda Isselbacher Jill Abramson, Class of Distinction: Women Find Success After Harvard Law ‘59, Despite the Difficulties—Judge Ginsburg’s Classmates Balanced Lives, Careers, Helped Shape Profession—“Ecstatic” Over Appointment, WALL STREET JOURNAL, Jul. 20, 1993, at A1 [hereinafter Abramson, Class of Distinction].
Cancer, which had already ONLY IN AMERICA
37she could get by Robert Barnes, The Question Facing Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Stay or Go?, WASHINGTON POST, Oct. 4, 2013 [hereinafter Barnes, The Question Facing Ruth Bader Ginsburg].
“Only your first and second years” ONLY IN AMERICA.
Griswold refused Georgetown Remarks.
Hazel Gerber Interview by Irin Carmon with David Schizer.
37“the smartest person on the East Coast” David Margolick, Trial by Adversity Shapes Jurist’s Outlook, NEW YORK TIMES, June 25, 1993.
38Marty wrote a letter Martin D. Ginsburg, Spousal Transfers: In ‘58, It Was Different, HARVARD LAW REVIEW, May 6, 1977, at 11.
“Just think what else” Ruth Bader Ginsburg, The Changing Complexion of Harvard Law School, 27 HARVARD WOMEN’S LAW JOURNAL 303, 305 (2004).
Felix Frankfurter Neil A. Lewis, Rejected as a Clerk, Chosen as a Justice, NEW YORK TIMES, June 15, 1993.
Paul Bender Todd C. Peppers and Artemus Ward, In Chambers: Stories of Supreme Court Law Clerks and Their Justices (2012).
39Judge Learned Hand Strebeigh, Equal, at 37.
They hired Pauli Murray ONLY IN AMERICA.
Gerald Gunther AALS, Engendering Equality.
it didn’t work out Id.
40“‘Young lady, I’m not looking at you’” Saulnier, Justice Prevails.
“Ruth, how would you like” Georgetown Remarks; Professor Hans Smit Remembered as an “Odysseus” at Memorial Service, COLUMBIA LAW SCHOOL (Feb. 20, 2012).
Anders Bruzelius Daniel Friedland, Scandinavian Trip This Summer, THE TRANSCRIPT, Apr. 11, 1966, at 6.
“Both men and women have one main role” Linda Haas, Equal Parenthood and Social Policy: A Study of Parental Leave in Sweden 55 (1992).
41Actress Sherri Finkbine Symposium Honoring the 40th Anniversary of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Joining the Columbia Law Faculty: A Conversation with Justice Ginsburg, COLUMBIA LAW SCHOOL (Feb. 10, 2012) [hereinafter Columbia Symposium].
Ingmar Bergman movies sans subtitles Fact-checking by Irin Carmon with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in Boston, MA (May 29, 2015).
the best English-language book Adam Liptak, Kagan Says Path to Supreme Court Was Made Smoother Because of Ginsburg’s, NEW YORK TIMES, Feb. 10, 2014.
Chapter 4: Stereotypes of a Lady Misunderstood
43“I say the constitutional principle” ACAD. OF ACHIEVEMENT.
RBG had skipped lunch E.g., Jay Boyar, Supreme Sightseeing, ORLANDO SENTINEL, Nov. 13, 2005.
Wearing her mother’s pin Elinor Porter Swiger, Women Lawyers at Work 56 (1978).
“Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the court” Oral Argument at 17:19, Frontiero v. Richardson, 411 U.S. 677 (1973) [hereinafter Frontiero Oral Argument].
Sharron Frontiero Frontiero v. Richardson, 411 U.S. 677 (1973).
44Reed v. Reed 404 U.S. 71 (1971).
“the same stereotype” Frontiero Oral Argument, at 17:32.
“Mrs. Ruth Ginsburg” Seth Stern and Stephen Wermiel, Justice Brennan: Liberal Champion 394 (2010).
45“They help keep woman in her place” Frontiero Oral Argument, at 25:22.
Behind her sat Brenda Feigen Interview by Irin Carmon with Brenda Feigen.
“Sex, like race, is” Frontiero Oral Argument, at 20:52.
46“‘I ask no favor for my sex’” Frontiero Oral Argument, at 27:33.
“Very precise female” Fred Strebeigh, Equal: Women Reshape American Law 55 (2009) [hereinafter Strebeigh, Equal].
Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex Von Drehle, Conventional Roles.
Rutgers School of Law was looking Georgetown Remarks.
“Robes for Two Ladies” Sue Weinstock, Robes for Two Ladies, NEWARK STAR-LEDGER, June 4, 1970.
47“you have a husband who earns” Pam Lambert, Ginsburg and Rabb: Setting Precedents, COLUMBIA, Summer 1980, at 10.
“Is there another?” Fact-checking by Irin Carmon with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in Boston, MA (May 29, 2015).
48She ran to her mother-in-law’s closet Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Remarks at Hawaii Women Lawyers’ Tea (Oct. 30, 1986) (on file with the Library of Congress Manuscript Division) [hereinafter Hawaii Remarks].
“Each day, just before class” Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Remarks for Rutgers School of Law–Newark (Apr. 11, 1995) (on file with the Library of Congress Manuscript Division) [hereinafter Rutgers Remarks].
“Yes, dear” Strebeigh, Equal, at 113.
New Jersey branch Rutgers Remarks.
49asked her to teach Id.
“Land, like woman, was meant to be possessed” Von Drehle, Conventional Roles.
federal class-action pay-discrimination claim Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Remarks on Women’s Progress in the Legal Profession in the United States, 33 TULSA LAW REVIEW 13, 15 (1997).
50“The female carrier hats” Letter from Laney Kaplan to American Civil Liberties Union (Aug. 20, 1971) (on file with the Library of Congress Manuscript Division).
“The insistence on sexual identification” Letter from Ruth Bader Ginsburg to William H. Blount, Postmaster General (Sept. 17, 1971) (on file with the Library of Congress Manuscript Division).
51Charles E. Moritz E.g., Conversation with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Goodwin Liu, C-SPAN AND AMERICAN CONSTITUTION SOCIETY FOR LAW AND POLICY (June 13, 2015).
“some down and dirty women’s rights” Strebeigh, Equal, at 25.
52“pluck her from obscurity” Id.
“when biological differences” Brief for Petitioner-Appellant, Moritz v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 469 F.2d 466 (10th Cir. 1972) (No. 71-1127) (on file with the Library of Congress Manuscript Division).
“woman co-counsel in that case???” Letter from Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Mel Wulf (Apr. 6, 1971) (on file with the Library of Congress Manuscript Division).
52“Maybe she plucked herself” Strebeigh, Equal, at 27.
53Gwendolyn Hoyt Hoyt v. Florida, 368 U.S. 57 (1961).
“still regarded as the center” Id. at 62.
“give rise to moral and social problems” Goesaert v. Cleary, 335 U.S. 464, 466 (1948).
RBG had met a lawyer A Conversation with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Her Life as a Woman, a Jew and a Judge, ONLY IN AMERICA (Sept. 2, 2004).
54“Jane Crow and the Law” Linda K. Kerber, No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies 202 (1998).
challenged the all-white and all-male jury White v. Crook, 251 F. Supp. 401 (Ala. 1966).
Murray’s work was all over Brief for Appellant, Reed v. Reed, 404 U.S. 71 (1971) (No. 70-4), 1971 WL 133596.
55“standing on their shoulders” Georgetown Remarks.
“It’s just not done” Interview by Shana Knizhnik with Burt Neuborne.
the world was finally ready to listen Georgetown Remarks.
56RBG’s Brief in Reed v. Reed Brief for Appellant, Reed v. Reed, 404 U.S. 71 (1971) (No. 70-4), 1971 WL 133596, at 5–21.
58“High Court Outlaws Sex Discrimination” High Court Outlaws Sex Discrimination, NEW YORK POST, Nov. 22, 1971.
the Playboy Bunny Von Drehle, Redefining Fair.
59a computer-generated list E.g., Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Advocating the Elimination of Gender-Based Discrimination: The 1970s New Look at the Equality Principle at University of Cape Town, South Africa (Feb. 10, 2006).
“The distance to equal opportunity” Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Prospectus for the Women’s Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union (1972) (on file with the Library of Congress Manuscript Division).
Frontiero v. Richardson 411 U.S. 677, 684 (1973).
“Traditionally, such discrimination” Id. at 684.
60“My wife became resigned long ago” Marlene Cimons, Family Ruling on Rehnquist, LOS ANGELES TIMES, Dec. 14, 1973, at F7.
60“Real change, enduring change” Senate Judiciary Hearings, at 122.
“We usually followed her advice” Rosen, The New Look of Liberalism.
61“Ginsburg lacks the dash” Mitchel Ostrer, Columbia’s Gem of the Motion: A Profile of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, JURIS DOCTOR, Oct. 1977, at 35 [hereinafter Ostrer, Columbia’s Gem of the Motion].
course evaluation COLUMBIA LAW SCHOOL COURSE EVALUATIONS, CONFLICT OF LAWS (on file with the Library of Congress Manuscript Division).
“scored a major coup” Lesley Oelsner, Columbia Law Snares a Prize in the Quest for Women Professors, NEW YORK TIMES, Jan. 26, 1972, at 36 [hereinafter Oelsner, Columbia Law Snares a Prize].
“Did the Times rule out Ms.?” Letter from Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Lesley Oelsner (Jan. 26, 1972) (on file with the Library of Congress Manuscript Division).
“The only confining thing” Oelsner, Columbia Law Snares a Prize.
the women at Columbia Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Remarks at Columbia Law School, May 1980 (on file with the Library of Congress Manuscript Division).
62“getting visible the support” Letter from Women’s Affirmative Action Coalition to Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Feb. 16, 1972) (on file with the Library of Congress Manuscript Division).
“grave and costly mistake” Letter from Ruth Bader Ginsburg to William J. McGill, President of Columbia University (Aug. 22, 1972) (on file with the Library of Congress Manuscript Division).
“tended too much to begin screaming” Letter from Walter Gellhorn to American Civil Liberties Union and New York Civil Liberties Union (Aug. 28, 1972) (on file with the Library of Congress Manuscript Division).
62“There was a certain hostility” Interview by Shana Knizhnik with Diane Zimmerman.
63“the days of ‘negative action’” Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Introduction, 1 COLUMBIA JOURNAL GENDER AND LAW 1 (1991).
“Women Working” Brenda Feigen, Not One of the Boys: Living Life as a Feminist (2000).
64Captain Susan Struck Struck v. Sec’y of Def., 460 F.2d 1372 (9th Cir. 1971), vacated as moot, 409 U.S. 1071 (1972); Ian Shapiro, Still Speaking in a Judicial Voice: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Two Decades Later, 122 YALE LAW JOURNAL ONLINE 257 (2013).
67RBG wasn’t ready to let go Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Speaking in a Judicial Voice, 67 NEW YORK UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW 1185 (1992).
“broad enough to encompass” Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 153 (1973).
“It’s not about the woman alone” Emily Bazelon, The Place of Women on the Court, NEW YORK TIMES, Jul. 7, 2009 [hereinafter Bazelon, The Place of Women on the Court].
upheld a ban on federal funding Harris v. McRae, 448 U.S. 297 (1980).
68“grounded on stereotypes” Brief for the American Civil Liberties Union and Equal Rights Advocates, Inc. as Amicus Curiae, General Electric Co. v. Gilbert, 519 F.2d 661 (4th Cir. 1975) (No. 74-1557) (on file with the Library of Congress Manuscript Division).
“The notion is that when the woman” Ostrer, Columbia’s Gem of the Motion.
69“As for that, it takes two” Letter from Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Mary Just Skinner, Re: Crawford v. Cushman (Feb. 13, 1973) (on file with the Library of Congress Manuscript Division).
Geduldig v. Aiello 417 U.S. 484 (1974).
female employees sued General Electric Gen. Elec. Co. v. Gilbert, 429 U.S. 125 (1976).
“an in-and-out noon-hour treatment” Strebeigh, Equal, at 121.
69“voluntarily undertaken” Gen. Elec. Co. v. Gilbert, 429 U.S. 125, 136 (1976).
GE hadn’t left out any Id. at 151 (Brennan, J., dissenting).
“She was very much a leader” Interview by Shana Knizhnik with Judith Lichtman.
Pregnancy Discrimination Act 42 U.S.C. § 2000(e) et seq.
70Stephen “played homemaker” Stephen Wiesenfeld, Letter to the Editor, NEW BRUNSWICK HOME NEWS, Nov. 27, 1972.
“the familiar stereotype that” Brief for Appellee, Wiesenfeld v. Wiesenfeld, 420 U.S. 636 (1975) (No. 73-1892), 1974 WL 186057.
“Just as the female insured individual’s” Id.
71“My first reaction was” Mildred Hamilton, Ruth Wins One for ERA, NEW JERSEY EXAMINER, Mar. 24, 1975, at 21.
“Given the purpose of enabling” Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld, 420 U.S. 636, 651 (1975).
“Wiesenfeld is part of an evolution” Ruth Bader Ginsburg, The Supreme Court Back on Track: Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld (on file with the Library of Congress Manuscript Division).
choices men like Stephen Wiesenfeld made Cary C. Franklin, The Anti-Stereotyping Principle in Constitutional Sex Discrimination Law, 85 NEW YORK UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW 83 (2010).
72“It is not women’s liberation” Margolick, Trial by Adversity.
“Men need to learn” Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Keynote Speech at Harvard Law School Celebration 25 (Apr. 15, 1978) (on file with the Library of Congress Manuscript Division) [hereinafter Harvard Law School Celebration 25 Keynote].
“The time may come” Letter from Erwin N. Griswold to Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Oct. 17, 1978) (on file with the Library of Congress Manuscript Division).
73“without denying to white men” Letter from Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Erwin N. Griswold (Oct. 19, 1978) (on file with the Library of Congress Manuscript Division).
73“what better place” Harvard Law School Celebration 25 Keynote.
“before very long, the old boys” Id.
Chapter 5: Don’t Let ‘Em Hold You Down, Reach for the Stars
77“it just wasn’t in the realm” ACAD. OF ACHIEVEMENT.
Like a bride Makers Profile: Ruth Bader Ginsburg: U.S. Supreme Court Justice, MAKERS (Feb. 26, 2013).
he’d chosen her for being ACAD. OF ACHIEVEMENT.
“moral imagination has cooled” The Supreme Court, Transcript of President’s Announcements and Judge Ginsburg’s Remarks, NEW YORK TIMES, June 15, 1993.
“Ruth Bader Ginsburg cannot be called a liberal” Id.
78“I wasn’t important at all” Claudia MacLachlan, Mr. Ginsburg’s Campaign for Nominee, NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL, June 27, 1993, at 33.
“There were probably scores” Id.
79Marty was a tax lawyer Jan Crawford Greenburg, Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court (2007).
Marty did make them lunch Id.
“push her out on the cultural left” George Stephanopoulos, All Too Human: A Political Education 292 (2008).
“we’ll have a little ceremony” ACAD. OF ACHIEVEMENT.
“The White House handlers had no time” Id.
“the civil rights movement of the 1960s” Id.
“it contributes to the end of the days” Id.
80“Celia Amster Bader, the bravest and strongest Id.
“I wonder how many gender-discrimination” Nina Totenberg, Notes on a Life, in THE LEGACY OF RU
TH BADER GINSBURG 3 (Scott Dodson, ed. 2015).
81The new group’s president Phone interview by Shana Knizhnik with Lynn Hecht Schafran.
81Notes from 2d Circuit Interview Handwritten notes, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Notes from 2nd Circuit Interview (on file with the Library of Congress Manuscript Division).
“I am heartened by the people” Letter from Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Diane Serafin Blank (Mar. 19, 1979) (on file with the Library of Congress Manuscript Division).
82“all increases in numbers” Letter from Barbara Allen Babcock to the Attorney General (Mar. 12, 1979) (on file with the Library of Congress Manuscript Division).
“militant feminist interpretations” 126 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD E39 (daily ed. Jan. 22, 1980) (statement of Rep. John M. Ashbrook).
“gross distortion of my views” Letter from Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Professor Herbert Wechsler (Jan. 28, 1980) (on file with the Library of Congress Manuscript Division).
“Republican Judiciary Committee members” Nina Totenberg, Ginsburg: Will “She” Sail as Smoothly as “He” Would?, LEGAL TIMES OF WASHINGTON, May 26, 1980.
senator Strom Thurmond voted Senate Judiciary Hearings, at 664.
confirmed unanimous 126 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD 15238 (daily ed. June 18, 1980).
sat on the floor giggling Interview by Shana Knizhnik with Diane Zimmerman.
83“genuinely open-minded” Gerald Gunther, Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Personal, Very Fond Tribute, 20 UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI’I LAW REVIEW 583, 586 (1998).
“heedful of limitations” Id.
“the most independent, thoughtful” Id.
“What do you mean, ‘wives’?” Abramson, Class of Distinction.
a hand was usually outstretched Conversation with Justice Ginsburg and Joan C. Williams at UC Hastings, C-SPAN (Sept. 15, 2011) [hereinafter UC Hastings Conversation].
84“She was widely regarded” Susan H. Williams and David C. Williams, Sense and Sensibility: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Mentoring Style as a Blend of Rigor and Compassion, 20 UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI’I LAW REVIEW 589, 590 (1998).
84“I don’t see myself in the role” On Becoming a Judge: Socialization to the Judicial Role, 69 JUDICATURE 139, 145 (1985).
in a speech she gave Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Speaking in a Judicial Voice, 67 NEW YORK UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW 1185 (1992).
85“halted a political process” Id. at 1208.
