Ruth Bader Ginsburg

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ruth Bader Ginsburg (2016)

Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg (born March 15, 1933 in Brooklyn , New York City as Joan Ruth Bader , † September 18, 2020 in Washington, DC ) was an American lawyer and since 1993 Associate Justice at the Supreme Court of the United States . Here she was assigned to the left ("liberal") wing.

Life

Origin and education

Ruth Bader was born into a Jewish family in a “multicultural” working class neighborhood of Brooklyn. The parents of her mother Celia, geb. Amster, were immigrants from Austria, and their father, Nathan Bader, immigrated to the United States from Russia at the age of 13. The father ran a small fur trade . Both parents were not particularly well educated, but placed great value on their daughter's education. Ruth Bader had an older sister who died when Ruth was two years old. Her mother died of cancer while Ruth Bader was graduating from James Madison High School . Ruth Bader then studied at Cornell University , where she earned her bachelor's degree with distinction. At the university she met Martin Ginsburg, whom she married a short time later. The couple then lived in Fort Sill ( Oklahoma ), where Martin Ginsburg did his military service. He then began studying law at Harvard University . 14 months after their daughter Jane was born, Ruth Bader Ginsburg also began studying law at Harvard. At Harvard she was one of nine female students among more than 500 male fellow students and was here and later repeatedly exposed to prejudice and reluctance, as there were still multiple reservations about women in higher academic and legal offices. The issue of gender equality later became a major theme of her legal work.

During her studies, her husband developed testicular cancer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg had to look after her husband and little daughter in addition to her studies. Nevertheless, she finished her studies with top marks. Her husband was cured of cancer and took a job with a tax consultancy in New York City. Ruth Bader Ginsburg then moved to Columbia University . From 1959 to 1961 she worked as a clerk at the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York . She then returned to Columbia University on a project on international legal proceedings. As part of this, she stayed for a while at Lund University to study the Swedish legal system. In 1963 she received a professorship at Rutgers University in New Jersey . In 1965 their son James was born and in 1970 she moved back to Columbia University Law School . In the 1970s, she dealt legally with the problem area of ​​sexual discrimination and brought several cases to the Supreme Court . In 1980 Bader Ginsburg was President Jimmy Carter to the judge at the Federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ( US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit appointed).

Judge at the Supreme Court

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was sworn in as a judge at the Supreme Court on August 10, 1993

After Judge Byron White's retirement for reasons of age, President Bill Clinton nominated her in 1993 as a judge in the United States Supreme Court. At the time, it was viewed by the public as “moderate” and “consensus-oriented”. In his justification for the nomination, Clinton particularly emphasized her commitment to women's rights, with which she stands "in the best traditions of American law and bourgeoisie". Ruth Ginsburg was the first person nominated by a Democratic President in 26 years and the first Jewish member since 1969 after Abe Fortas resigned . During the Senate hearing that followed the nomination, she stated that as a judge she would be neither a Conservative nor a Liberal. However, she refused to fully disclose her position on the constitutionality of the death penalty . They conceded only that it (a precedent precedent was). She also gave only superficial answers to her position on the admission of homosexuals to the military. She justified this, among other things, with the possibility that she might have to decide on these questions in the future in the judicial office, and one should "never ask a judge how he will decide in a future dispute".

On June 22, 1993, the Senate confirmed her nomination with a large majority of 96 to 3 votes. The three votes against came from Republican Senators Don Nickles (Oklahoma), Robert C. Smith (New Hampshire) and Jesse Helms (North Carolina). She was sworn in on August 10, 1993.

Since 1982 she has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and since 2006 of the American Philosophical Society . In 2015 she was honored with the Freedom Medal des Four Freedoms Award in Hyde Park , New York .

Diseases and death

Bader Ginsburg was seriously ill several times. In 1999, colon cancer was diagnosed at an early stage. The disease was cured by surgery. In 2009, pancreatic cancer was diagnosed at an early stage and also underwent curative surgery. In November 2014 she underwent a cardiac catheter examination after suffering from angina pectoris and received a coronary stent . On November 7, 2018, 85-year-old Ginsburg broke three ribs in a fall in her office and had to go to the hospital. This led to lively sympathy on social media and numerous recovery and health wishes. Many users saw the prospect that President Donald Trump could fill another judge post at the Supreme Court if Ginsburgs left - according to Neil Gorsuch 2017 and Brett Kavanaugh 2018. As an incidental finding, several pulmonary nodules were discovered during the lung X- ray after the rib fracture , which were classified as malignant were. She had a lobectomy on December 21, 2018 . At this event too, liberal America was very concerned. In August 2019, she was treated with three weeks of radiation therapy for another cancer, a malignant tumor of the pancreas. Despite these incidents, Bader Ginsburg answered all questions about whether she wanted to withdraw from the judge's office in the negative. On January 8, 2020, she declared in an interview as "cured from cancer" ( cancer free ). In July 2020 Bader Ginsburg announced that she had been diagnosed with liver metastases. An immunotherapy attempted first did not work, but the chemotherapy with gemcitabine , which has been ongoing since May 19, 2020, has shown positive results. Although this was not explicitly specified, the circumstances spoke in favor of metastases from the previously diagnosed pancreatic cancer . She died of it on September 18, 2020 at the age of 87 in Washington, DC

Debates about the replacement of the seat at the Supreme Court

Within hours of Bader Ginsburg's death - six weeks before the date of the presidential election - to debate relax the Nachbesetzung her seat at the Supreme Court before. Presidential election in 2016 had the Senate under his Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell , the replacement of the seat of the late Antonin Scalia by President Barack Obama blocked for 10 months, arguing that the presidential election was imminent. After Bader Ginsburg's death, McConnell declared that he would forward every nomination by President Donald Trump to the Senate for approval. The Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden , citing the Senate's stance in 2016, called for the replacement to be postponed until after the election.

Advocate of women's rights

Ginsburg was committed to gender equality. She herself experienced sexism throughout her career, both on a personal and legal level. On one occasion the dean of Harvard Law School criticized her for filling a position that could have been given to a man. After graduating from Columbia Law School top of her class, Ginsburg did not receive a single job offer. She later explained that she had been conspicuous in three ways at the time: as a Jew, as a woman and as a mother. One of her professors, Gerald Gunther, had to help her find a job with a federal judge in Manhattan, Edmund Palmieri. In 1963 she became the first woman to teach at Rutgers Law School . However, she received a lower salary than her male colleagues on the grounds that she was married and that her husband could provide for her support.

In 1971, Ginsburg played an important role in starting the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Women's Rights project . She was the ACLU's leading attorney from 1973 to 1980 and was a member of its federal board from 1974 to 1980. So it came about that she represented the ACLU before the Supreme Court in a number of cases related to women's rights , including Frontiero v. Richardson in 1973.

With the resignation of Sandra Day O'Connor in 2006, Ginsburg was the sole judge on the Supreme Court until Sonia Sotomayor was appointed in 2009. When asked when there would be enough women in the Supreme Court, Ginsburg replied, "If there are nine." (Nine judges would be an all-female Supreme Court. Ginsburg pointed out that for most of American history there is an all-male Supreme Court and no one objected.) She also wrote the United States v. Virginia , which states that state schools cannot refuse admission based on gender. Judge Ginsburg insisted that there was no good reason for the school to refuse entry to women and that women deserved the same educational opportunities as men.

Judge Ginsburg made it her business to eliminate discrimination against women in the workplace. In 2007, together with three fellow judges, she wrote a harsh dissent in the Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. In these proceedings, plaintiff Lilly Ledbetter had sued her employer, Goodyear Tire & Rubber , who had paid her less than her male colleagues for years. The plaintiff only found out about this when she left the employer. The case was dismissed by the Supreme Court because the statute of limitations had expired. Ginsburg called the court's decision unjust, as the plaintiff did not know that she was being discriminated against and therefore had no reason to bring an action in time. She called on Congress to rectify the situation, which it did in 2009 with the passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act , which was subsequently enacted by President Barack Obama.

Legal positions

Bader Ginsburg, President Barack Obama , and Elena Kagan in the Blue Room of the White House in August 2010

Bader Ginsburg was considered a representative of the so-called liberal wing in the Supreme Court . In the early years at the Supreme Court , she did not appear particularly prominent to the public. After Sandra Day O'Connor left, the voice of Bader Ginsburg was the only remaining woman at the Supreme Court, according to observers, "audibly louder". She repeatedly used the opportunity to proclaim a dissent from the bench as a sign of a strong deviation from the majority opinion. Since the departure of John Paul Stevens , she had been the longest-serving member of the Liberal wing at the Supreme Court and had assumed a kind of leadership of this wing there on the principle of seniority . In doing so, she tried to make this piano speak with a single voice.

In her approach as a lawyer, she was described as fundamentally cautious and case-oriented. She is conservative in the Burkeian sense and, unlike her liberal predecessors William Joseph Brennan or Thurgood Marshall, fundamentally does not believe that fundamental changes in society should be brought about by the courts. In this sense she also criticized the judgment in the Roe v. Wade , who repealed any federal abortion laws, considered too extensive. Instead, according to Bader Ginsburg, the Supreme Court should have limited itself to repealing the relevant Texas law. The ruling ended a desirable general social discussion about the termination of pregnancy prematurely.

Below are some important disputes in which Ruth Bader Ginsburg's vote played an important role.

Termination of pregnancy

In addition to the more general criticism of Roe v. Bader Ginsburg Wade was a fundamental advocate of the right to abortion. In several legal proceedings, in which she belonged partly to the majority opinion and partly to the minor opinion, she always tended to represent the right of women to make their own decision ( Stenberg v. Carhart 2000, Gonzales v. Carhart 2007, Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt 2016).

death penalty

In the decision of Baze v. Rees advocated Ruth Bader Ginsburg, together with Judge David Souter, of the lesser opinion that the lethal injection method used in Kentucky was unconstitutional.

homosexuality

On June 26, 2003, the Supreme Court ruled by six votes to three in the Lawrence v. Texas invalidated the sodomy laws . Ginsburg represented the majority opinion. In 2015 the Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges , that a ban on same-sex marriages against the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States contrary. Ginsburg also represented the majority opinion here.

Affordable Care Act

Bader Ginsburg supported the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") in several decisions .

Personal

Ginsburg with a top jabot

Her daughter Jane is also a law professor at Columbia University. Her son James is a record producer for classical music. Ginsburg's husband died of cancer in 2010 after 56 years of marriage.

Relationship with colleagues in the Supreme Court

Notably, the fellow Supreme Court judge with whom Bader Ginsburg got on best personally was Antonin Scalia , a Ronald Reagan- appointed representative of the Conservative wing. Bader Ginsburg and Scalia had both grown up in the New York suburbs and been law professors and judges in federal appeals courts before they were appointed to the Supreme Court. In their legal views, however, they were fundamentally different and often disagreed on important issues. Nevertheless, the relationship was characterized by mutual respect and if they had different opinions, they gave each other a copy of their documents before the public hearing so that the other could prepare an appropriate answer and develop a respectful, not too polarized debate. The families of the two fostered an intensive exchange and both Scalia and Ginsburg were avid opera lovers and sometimes even went on vacation together. This was known to the public and on July 11, 2015 a one-act comic opera Scalia / Ginsburg had its world premiere at the Castleton Festival , which parodied the conditions at the Supreme Court .

Personal style

As a judge at the Supreme Court, Bader Ginsburg had her own style. She did not wear the traditional American judge's robe, but a robe d'avocat in the French style. In this style, she was later followed by fellow judge Sandra Day O'Connor . She often wore a jabot . Initially it was white in color, but over the years it became more and more colorful. She wore a very special dissent jabot on the occasions when she gave dissenting opinions .

This jabot, which entomologists evidently resembled the neck plate of praying mantises , led to a new species of these insects, Ilomantis ginsburgae , being named after her in her honor. Contrary to the traditional use of the male genitalia to classify insect species, the determination of the species native to Madagascar was based on the anatomy of the female genitalia.

Awards

  • Genesis Prize 2018 for her life's work
  • Berggruen Prize 2019 for her pioneering legal work in the field of gender equality and her support for the legal system

Movies

  • RBG , documentary by Betsy West and Julie Cohen, 2018 , premiere at Sundance Film Festival, German title RBG - A Life for Justice. , Film release December 13, 2018
    • Heike Karen Runge, review of the film, in: "Dschungel", supplement to jungle world , 50, December 13, 2018, pp. 2–5.
  • The Vocation - Your Fight for Justice (On the Basis of Sex, 2018) , feature film by Mimi Leder with Felicity Jones in the lead role. German theatrical release March 7, 2019.

literature

Monographs

  • Irin Carmon, Shana Knizhnik: Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg . Dey Street Books, New York 2015, ISBN 978-0062415837 .
  • Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Ruth Bader Ginsburg: 300 statements by the famous Supreme Court judge. Translated from the English by Stefanie Retterbush. Published by Helena Hunt. btb, Munich 2020, ISBN 978-3-442-77081-6 .

items

Web links

Commons : Ruth Bader Ginsburg  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Press Release Regarding Justice Ginsburg. Supreme Court of the United States, September 18, 2020, accessed September 19, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Nina Totenberg: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Champion Of Gender Equality, Dies At 87. National Public Radio , September 18, 2020, accessed on September 19, 2020 (English).
  3. ↑ a b c d Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Academy of Achievement, accessed November 9, 2018 .
  4. ^ Paul Richter: Clinton Picks Moderate Judge Ruth Ginsburg for High Court: Judiciary: President calls the former women's rights activist a healer and consensus builder. Her nomination is expected to win easy Senate approval. Los Angeles Times, June 15, 1993, accessed November 10, 2018 .
  5. ^ Neil A. Lewis: The Supreme Court; Ginsburg promises judicial restraint if she joins court. The New York Times, July 21, 1993, accessed November 10, 2018 .
  6. ^ Neil A. Lewis: The Supreme Court; Ginsburg deflects pressure to talk on death penalty. The New York Times, July 23, 1993, accessed November 10, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Supreme Court Nominations: present-1789. United States Senate, accessed November 10, 2018 .
  8. ^ Member History: Ruth Bader Ginsburg. American Philosophical Society, accessed August 20, 2018 .
  9. ↑ Sheryl Gay Stolberg: Ginsburg Leaves Hospital; Prognosis on Cancer Is Good. September 29, 1999, accessed November 10, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Radha Chitale, Joanna Schaffhausen: Ginsburg's Cancer May Have Been Caught Early Enough. ABC News, February 5, 2009, accessed November 10, 2018 .
  11. ^ Adam Liptak: Justice Ginsburg Is Recovering After Heart Surgery to Place a Stent. The New York Times, November 26, 2014, accessed November 10, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Ruth Bader Ginsburg: US Supreme Court judge fractures ribs in fall. BBC News, November 9, 2018, accessed November 9, 2018 .
  13. ^ Robert Barnes, Laurie McGinley: Ruth Bader Ginsburg has surgery for malignant nodules in her lung. The Washington Post, December 21, 2018, accessed December 22, 2018 .
  14. ^ A b Jessica Lussenhop: Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Liberal America panics when she falls ill. BBC News, December 21, 2018, accessed December 22, 2018 .
  15. ↑ Ruth Bader Ginsburg suffers from cancer. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , August 23, 2019, accessed on August 28, 2019 .
  16. ↑ a b Danielle Garrand: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Reveals she is "cancer free". CBS News, January 8, 2020, accessed February 22, 2020 .
  17. ^ Joan Biskupic: Exclusive: Supreme Court's Ginsburg vows to resist pressure to retire. Reuters, July 4, 2013, accessed November 9, 2018 .
  18. ↑ Jess Bravin: For Now, Justice Ginsburg's 'Pathmarking' Doesn't Include Retirement. May 2, 2014, accessed November 9, 2018 .
  19. ^ Robert Barnes, Lenny Bernstein: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says she is being treated for recurrence of cancer. The Washington Post, July 18, 2020, accessed July 19, 2020 .
  20. ↑ Linda Greenhouse: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Supreme Court's Feminist Icon, Is Dead at 87. In: NYTimes.com. September 18, 2020, accessed on September 19, 2020 .
  21. ↑ Mirjam Benecke (afp, dpa, AP): Ruth Bader Ginsburg "fought for us all". Deutsche Welle, September 19, 2020, accessed on September 19, 2020 .
  22. ↑ Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Trump wants replacement 'without delay'. BBC News, September 19, 2020, accessed September 19, 2020 .
  23. ^ Excerpt: Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the power of 'difficult women'. November 8, 2018, accessed December 8, 2018 .
  24. ^ Jill Filipovic: Justice Ginsburg's distant dream of an all-female supreme court | Jill Filipovic (en-GB) . In: The Guardian , November 30, 2012. 
  25. ^ Joan Biskupic: Supreme Court Invalidates Exclusion of Women by VMI . June 27, 1996. Retrieved December 8, 2018.
  26. ↑ Jeffrey Toobin: Will Ginsburg's Ledbetter play work twice? . June 24, 2013. Retrieved December 8, 2018.
  27. ↑ Linda Greenhouse: In dissent, Ginsburg finds her voice at Supreme Court. The New York Times, May 31, 2007, accessed November 10, 2018 .
  28. ↑ a b Jeffrey Toobin: Heavyweight: How Ruth Bader Ginsburg has moved the Supreme Court. The New Yorker, March 13, 2013, accessed November 10, 2018 .
  29. ↑ Allen Pusey: Ginsburg: Court should have avoided broad-based decision in Roe v. Calf. ABA Journal, May 13, 2013, accessed November 10, 2018 .
  30. ↑ Stenberg v. Carhart, 530 U.S. 914 (2000). JUSTIA US Supreme Court, accessed November 10, 2018 .
  31. ↑ Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 US 124 (2007). JUSTIA US Supreme Court, accessed November 10, 2018 .
  32. ↑ Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt, 579 US ___ (2016). JUSTIA US Supreme Court, accessed November 10, 2018 .
  33. ↑ Supreme Court of the United States: Obergefell v. Hodges. (PDF) supremecourt.gov, accessed on December 1, 2018 (English).
  34. ↑ Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Health Care. OntheIssues.org, accessed on November 10, 2018 (English).
  35. ↑ Digging Deeper Into Ginsburg's Obamacare Opinion. Retrieved June 17, 2019 (American English).
  36. ^ Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Eulogy at Justice Scalia Memorial Service (C-SPAN). C-SPAN, accessed on November 10, 2018 (English, address by Bader Ginsburg at the funeral event for Scalia (YouTube-Viedo)).
  37. ^ The Kalb Report - Ruth Bader Ginsberg & Antonin Scalia. The National Press Club, April 17, 2014, accessed November 10, 2018 (English, YouTube video, joint panel discussion).
  38. ↑ Irin Carmon: What made the friendship between Scalia and Ginsburg work. The Washington Post, February 13, 2016, accessed October 3, 2019 .
  39. ^ Philip Kennicott: 'Scalia / Ginsburg': An affectionate comic opera look at the high court. The Washington Post, July 12, 2015, accessed November 9, 2018 .
  40. ↑ Emily McClure: All Of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Jabots, From Her Statement-Making Dissent Collar To Her Sassy Beaded Accessories. Bustle, May 6, 2015, accessed November 9, 2018 .
  41. ↑ Ben Panko: Mantis named after Ruth Bader Ginsburg may usher in new way to classify insects. In: sciencemag.org. June 1, 2016, accessed June 3, 2016 .
  42. ^ Ruth Bader Ginsburg awarded $ 1 million Berggruen Prize. Retrieved October 23, 2019 (American English).
personal data
SURNAME Ginsburg, Ruth Bader
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ginsburg, Joan Ruth Bader (full name); Bader, Joan Ruth (maiden name)
SHORT DESCRIPTION American lawyer, Associate Justice at the Supreme Court
DATE OF BIRTH March 15, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH September 18, 2020
Place of death Washington, DC