Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Ruth Joan Bader Ginsburg (born March 15, 1933, Brooklyn, New York) is a hell-on-wheels, spitfire Supreme Court Justice.[1] Part of the court's liberal wing, she is the only American Supreme Court Justice who has ever carried a powerful feminist voice. Even facing five conservatives who are determined to push abortion back into the alleys and make women accept that they are just silly women, and too damn bad, the Honorable Ginsburg stands against them (literally) reading chastising dissents saying "we won't go lightly into the night" while arguing points in law, which does not reflect well on non-silly women anywhere.
Prior to her appointment on the Supreme Court, Ms. Ginsburg was an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union.
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[edit] Famous opinions and dissents
Justice Ginsburg was one of four dissents to Bush v. Gore. She outlined what has been seen by many as a clear violation of the roles of the SCOTUS, and did not hold back in her written dissent to chastise the Court at large. She stated in her opinion:
“”All respect for the office of the presidency aside, I assumed that the obvious and unadulterated decline of freedom and constitutional sovereignty, not to mention the efforts to curb the power of judicial review, spoke for itself.
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She wrote the opinion in Stenberg v. Carhart (2000), where she commented that Roe v. Wade may have actually hindered women's rights, by making into "soft law" that which should have been legislated. While it was, she states, the right thing to do at the time, judicially, it caused a backlash because it was only a ruling by the Court and not the law from elected representatives.
In 2007, she wrote two scathing dissents, one in Gonzales v. Carhart (in which the majority upheld the ban on late term abortions) chastising the Court for treating women as second class citizens, belittling their intelligence and ability to make decisions, and treating them like children by saying that the State must protect women from bad choices.
[edit] Quotes
On a woman's right not to tell her husband about a pregnancy and abortion:
“”I said on the equality side of it, that it is essential to a woman's equality with man that she be the decision-maker, that her choice be controlling.
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“”The state controlling a woman would mean denying her full autonomy and full equality.
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“”I would not like to be the only woman on the court.
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[edit] See also
- Sandra Day O'Connor — Fortunately, O'Connor was not the only female Justice for long.