Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg & Notorious RBG

Introduction

After watching the documentary The Justice Ginsburg (Douban rating 9.4) and reading the book Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Douban rating 8.4), I was inspired and motivated by this 80‑plus‑year‑old woman. She has become a new “idol” in my life, and that’s why I’m writing this piece.

Who is RBG

RBG (easy to confuse with the RGB color model) is the acronym for Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She was a former Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, the second woman ever appointed to the Court and the first Jewish woman to serve as a Justice. Born in 1933, she passed away on September 18, 2020, at the age of 87.

In news reports about her death, she is frequently described as a pioneering figure for civil and gender rights—a fitting summary of her life. (e.g., “Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a trailblazer who fought for gender equality as a lawyer and became a beloved hero of the progressive movement as a justice, died on Friday of complications from pancreatic cancer.”)

English reports and images sourced from SCOTUSblog

What is Her Story

My words feel inadequate, so I’ll just post the documentary, which runs an hour and a half.

If I had to sum it up in one sentence, the synopsis of The Justice Ginsburg works well: “The exceptional life and career of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who has developed a breathtaking legal legacy while becoming an unexpected pop‑culture icon.”

Watch for free on iQIYI here
Bilibili version (requires VIP) here

Why I Am Impressed

Parents’ Education

🌟 Her mother’s influence on RBG was profound.

• “Neither of my parents had the means to attend college, but both taught me to love learning, to care about people, and to work hard for whatever I wanted or believed in.”
• She repeated two lessons over and over: “Be a lady” and “be independent.” “Be a lady” meant not letting useless emotions like anger overwhelm you. “Be independent” meant that even if you met a prince‑charming and lived happily ever after, you should still be able to fend for yourself. Here, SHE refers to RBG’s mother, who suffered from cancer and died the day before RBG graduated high school.

Equality Rights

❤️ “Don’t let ’em hold you down. Reach for the stars.”

• “I ask no favor for my sex; all I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” (Words of abolitionist Sarah Grimké.) I’m not seeking special privileges because of my gender; I’m simply asking my fellow humans to remove the oppression they place on us.
• “Men and women are persons of equal dignity and they should count equally before the law.”
• The point is that discriminatory lines almost inevitably hurt women.
• “I was terribly, terribly nervous. But then I looked up at the Justices, and I thought, ‘I have a captive audience.’ I knew I was speaking to men who didn’t think gender‑based discrimination existed, and my job was to tell them: it really does exist.”

Resilience

🌟 She believed that the fight for equality could not be won in a day; it required steady, incremental change, and she devoted her life to that cause.

• “I think generally in our society, real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.”
• “The legal strategy of one step at a time in the ’70s was a conservative strategy, but the goal was equality and civil rights, and that’s who she always was and who she is now.”
• “She wanted to build the idea of women’s equality step by step, using each case to move things forward. It was like knitting a sweater.”
• Q: “When they would say things like this, how did you respond?” (A judge once asked, “Aren’t you satisfied just putting Susan Anthony’s portrait on a coin?”)
  A: “Well, never in anger, as my mother told me. That would have been self‑defeating. Always as an opportunity to teach. I did see myself as kind of a kindergarten teacher in those days, because the judges didn’t think sex discrimination existed.”

True Love

🌟 She met Martin when she was 17 and he was 18 on campus; they spent their lives together, supporting each other—a true “hand‑in‑hand, grow old together” partnership.

❤️ “May every woman find her Marty Ginsburg.”

• Martin was the first boy who cared about her intellect.
• While they were both at Harvard Law, Marty was diagnosed with cancer. Ruth balanced her own studies, cared for Marty, and looked after their two‑year‑old daughter.
• When Ruth was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Marty—then a well‑known tax lawyer in New York—moved with her to Washington. The five years he spent trying to become a firm partner were years when Ruth took on more family responsibilities.
• Ruth’s elevation to the Supreme Court was aided by Marty’s networking and lobbying.
• During her Senate confirmation hearing, RBG said: “I have had the great good fortune to share life with a partner truly extraordinary for his generation, a man who believed at age 18 when we met, and who believes today, that a woman’s work, whether at home or on the job, is as important as a man’s.”
• In a letter written before his final hospitalization after his cancer returned, Marty wrote: “I will not love you a jot less.”

My dearest Ruth,
You are the only person I have loved in my life, setting aside, a bit, parents and kids and their kids, and I have admired and loved you almost since the day we first met at Cornell, some 56 years ago. What a treat it has been to watch you progress to the very top of the legal world!!
I will be in JH Medical Center until Friday, June 25, I believe, and between then and now I shall think hard on my remaining health and life, and whether on balance the time has come for me to tough it out or to take leave of life because the loss of quality now simply overwhelms. I hope you will support where I come out, and I understand you may not. I will not love you a jot less.
— Marty

(Chinese translation)
我最亲爱的鲁思，你是我这一生中唯一爱过的人，如果我们暂且不考虑我们的父母、孩子和孙辈们的话。从五十六年前我们第一次在康奈尔相识的那一天开始，我从未停止过对你的欣赏与爱慕。见证你一步步走到了法律世界的顶端，我真的很高兴!! 我应该会在医院待到6月25日星期五。在这之前，我需要好好想一想关于我已快消失殆尽的健康和我剩下的生命；也好好想一想这次我是要继续努力抗争，还是就此放弃，因为对我来说，癌症已经让我的生活痛苦得难以忍受了。我希望你可以支持我的决定，但是我理解你也许会不同意。不管怎样，我都不会少爱你一丝一毫。——马丁

Interesting Soul

• Even at 80, she still worked out twice a week and could do 20 push‑ups.
• She loved opera and was moved by music: “I’m overwhelmed by the beauty of the music, the drama. And the sound of the human voice—it’s like an electric current going through me.”
• Her friendship with Justice Scalia—though they held opposite political views—showed that great friendships can transcend differences: “She’s this supposedly famous liberal, he’s this supposedly famous conservative. She’s Jewish, he’s Catholic. She retires at times, and he almost never does. Yet, as with many great friendships, there’s chemistry that maybe you can’t entirely explain.”

Conclusion

Be a lady. Be independent. Fend for yourself.

One step at a time. Step by step. Be resilient.

Find your Marty Ginsberg. 找到属于你的Martin Ginsberg，相互欣赏，相互扶持。

“I dissent” 勇敢异议。
In all, reach out for the stars. 最后的最后，追寻你的星星。

以上共勉。

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Originally written by Estela Young and published in Chinese on 一只产品汪的自白. Translated and edited for DriftSeas with permission.