She was something of a rock star – Ruth Bader Ginsburg was pathbreaker, a badass. She was a unique thing – a Supreme Court judge with a significant fandom. She has had movies made about her; her court rulings and pronouncements have become the stuff of meme culture. Appointed in 1993, she was only the second woman to serve as an America Supreme Court judge and the reason for many pro-women judgements. Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on 18 September at age 87, resulting in a groundswell of public grief; with the public honouring a national icon.
This is a judge who has left her mark on the justice system of her country. She is a woman who has left an indelible stamp of her own in matters relating to liberty and equality – for people of colour, women and the marginalised.
She was known not only for her scorching dissents from her more conservative colleagues but for her soft-spoken civility – and her trademark collars or jabots.
She may have been a venerable 87 when she passed away, but she was revered by the youth, by people who believe in values of equality and liberality.
Rather like Wall Street’s famous Fearless Girl RBG was an original; a symbol of women's equality and empowerment.
This is just one of her oft-quoted sayings.
It was in large part due to RBG that women were able to enter the hallowed portals of the Virginia Military Institute and a precedent was set for paying women on par with men.
It was because of her that women could finally enter into mortgages without men. She was also responsible for securing the contraceptive rights of women.
"In every good marriage, it helps sometimes to be a little deaf," RBG is quoted as saying.
RBG credited her husband for much of her success. "If you have a caring life partner, you help the other person when that person needs it. I had a life partner who thought my work was as important as his, and I think that made all the difference for me," she said.
RBG has had a huge cultural impact, which will live on long after her.
Her death leaves a vacuum. As Supreme Court justice, she held a position of great power and responsibility – both of which she wielded exceptionally well.
The untimely passing of RBG just weeks before the American presidential elections gives the Republicans a narrow window of opportunity to appoint their own person to the Supreme Court.
If the republicans manage to install their own conservative judge in the SC, women’s reproductive rights, access to contraception, minority rights are issues may come under threat.
The death of RBG gives the republicans the opportunity to swing the balance of SC justices in their own favour right before the elections. Some were literally praying for her death.
This is what the republicans said when Barack Obama nominated a name for the Supreme Court in 2016.
Before she passed away, Ruth Bader Ginsburg expressed the fervent wish that her successor not be chosen until after the presidential election. Most republicans aren't listening. They would rather not heed the dying wishes of an exceptional American; in fact they would rather not heed their own utterances – from four years ago.
RIP Ruth Bader Ginsburg – the world mourns a true original.
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