My tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, one of the most progressive justices to have ever sat on the US Supreme Court, passed away yesterday.

Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg will be remembered for her commitment to women's rights in particular within the US Supreme Court, her strong dissents especially regarding human rights issues, and her authorship of three important human rights cases: United States v Virginia, which held that women had the same rights to enrol in military academies in the USA as men; Olmstead v. LC, which helped many US citizens with mental illness transfer to community programs and avoid unnecessary institutionalisation, and Friends of the Earth Inc. v Laidlaw Environmental Services Inc., which allowed plaintiffs to sue companies which had polluted in the past even if they had closed the operations responsible. Ever since she wrote the plaintiff's brief for Reed v Reed in 1971, which held that testators could not be preferred on the basis of sex and which changed many sex/gender-based laws in the United States which discriminated against women, she helped the US judicial system take important steps forward for women's rights, and against sex/gender discrimination in general, as highlighted by Weinberger v Wiesenfield, stating rightly that "Gender discrimination hurts everybody".

In 1993, she became only the second woman appointed to the US Supreme Court (Sandra Day O'Connor was the first) and the first Jewish US Supreme Court justice since Abraham Fortas, and her appointment ensured a better balance on the US Supreme Court in many respects, as she was the best-known moderate on that court. Her progressive stances made her a liberal icon in the eyes of those who took even some interest in jurispudence, at times acquiring her the moniker "the Notorious RBG" in the eyes of conservative jurists and law students.

So farewell, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Even though your judicial purview was in the US (and I am in the UK), you set international examples in domestic human rights law and not just US examples. Hopefully your dying wish-that your replacement not be appointed until after the current US Presidential election-will be respected, despite the best efforts of the US Senate (currently Republican-controlled).

In memory of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, US Supreme Court Justice, born 15 March 1933, who departed this life on 18 September 2020, aged 87 years.




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