Reflections on Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Sept. 21, 2020
Dear Colleagues,
As we mourn the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, I wanted to share some brief thoughts about her legacy that I wrote in January 2016 when we invited Justice Ginsburg to be our keynote speaker at our centenary celebration of the nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court of Justice Louis D. Brandeis. Please take a look at this short video from the class she taught at Brandeis that day — the dialogue she had with our students I think is quite inspiring.
Like Justice Brandeis, Justice Ginsburg used fact-based jurisprudence brilliantly to advance social change. As an attorney and Supreme Court justice, her accomplishments were many and included extending the Constitution’s equal protection guarantee to women; ending pregnancy discrimination in the workplace; assuring gender equality in Social Security benefits; and striking down other discriminatory practices.
Justice Ginsburg wrote passionate dissents that, in essence, said to the Court: “Take a look at what’s really going on in society and the life circumstances people face.” That’s what she did, for example, when she dissented from decisions striking down the heart of the Voting Rights Act and allowing health insurance coverage to exclude women’s access to contraception.
I know that her loss today is enormous but I also believe that her legacy will continue to inspire the next generation of social change agents and visionaries.
At our event in January 2016 we decided to temporarily revise our Brandeis University motto from “Truth Even Unto Its Innermost Parts” to “Without Ruth There Is No Truth.” Our challenge today is to find that path to truth without Ruth.
May her memory be a blessing,
Lisa