In Defense of Justice: The Greatest Dissents of Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Edited and Annotated for the Non-Lawyer

by Sarah Wainwright, Abigail Neff (Editor)

This book features Ginsburg’s best-known dissents in a format accessible to the non-lawyer, giving RBG’s worldwide fans an approach to their hero’s life’s work. Each dissent is prefaced with an explanation of the case to help prepare the lay reader for approaching difficult legal prose. Ginsburg is renowned for her feisty and fearless dissents, which are her arguments in opposition to the Court's majority opinion. Through this book, the reader will read Justice Ginsburg at the zenith of her passion as she fights to persuade the public and future generations of the Court's error. Through this book, we hope fans of Justice Ginsburg—especially the young—will gain better insight into the impact a single voice can have in the halls of our country’s most powerful institutions. From the introduction: Why does the practice of dissenting exist? Do dissents matter? Do they ever have lasting impact? Why do judges write dissents? Why, even, do judges write at all? Does the written opinion, and especially the written dissent, impart special impact to the words of the court or judge issuing it? And what do the answers to these questions tell us about Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s role and legacy both as a justice and as the Court’s most famous dissenter? This book features Ginsburg’s best-known dissents—formatted for the non-lawyer—and aims to show them within their proper context, both historically and in terms of how they reflect Ginsburg’s life experience and jurisprudential philosophy. It is hard to pinpoint the commencement of Ginsburg’s elevation from judge to hero for millions of idealistic Americans. Perhaps it was in 2015 with the publication of Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a New York Times bestseller that chronicled Ginsburg’s life in the informal argot of its self-described “#millennial” authors. Though surely the process began earlier than that, on June 25, 2013, with the first post (celebrating Ginsburg’s dissent lamenting the Supreme Court majority’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act) on a popular blog devoted to celebrating all things Ginsburg. Regardless, it is safe to say that by 2018, Ginsburg’s status as a cultural icon was cemented. That year saw the release of two films about her—On the Basis of Sex, a biopic chronicling her years as a women’s rights lawyer; and RBG, a documentary about her life. What do millions of Americans see in her? She is, quite simply, the embodiment of nearly everything inspirational and aspirational about the better angels of the American experiment. Ginsburg is a gladiator. As a woman, she is one of the first of her kind. To the fight, she brings nothing but a pen. When the lions roar, she roars back, and with equal aplomb. She is ferocious. She is unafraid. Presented here are some of her most noble efforts. Although they are her last words in a losing battle, they have left an indelible mark up on the landscape of American jurisprudence. “A dissent in a court of last resort is an appeal to the brooding spirit of law, to the intelligence of a future day when a later decision may possibly correct the error into which the dissenting judge believes the court to have been betrayed.”—Charles Evans Hughes

279 pages, Paperback

Published September 24, 2019

Reviews

[Kristi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is 3.5 stars for me.

When RBG died, I wanted to read more about her life. I did some research on the best book to read and I saw several reviews about how those books were written as if RBG was on a higher godlike plane than all other mortals. Therefore, biased. So, I found this book and immediately I was intrigued. I never really studied the Supreme Court decisions made; I just listened when they came out as for or against. I was intrigued by her famous dissents and whys. This book promised to break it down for people not in the legal world. For the most part, it did that, but not always.

The book was broken up by the case summary, the majority opinion, her dissent, and then a breakdown of why the outcome was chosen. I was not sure if the last part was in RBG’s words or not. I wished it was more clear. The summaries were explained pretty well and I certainly learned a lot from this book. I also learned how quickly a concur could happen just based on a definition clarification, such as what constitutes a supervisor. It’s actually pretty scary that these lawsuits can be upheld due to one word even though it’s clearly harassment.

What I didn’t like was the annotations (which the author does warn about). There were too many and too long. Some of that could have been thrown in with the paragraphs. Having to go back and forth on the page always made me lose my place. It was annoying. Plus, lawsuits were mentioned to show similarity, but didn’t explain the lawsuit. Just saying that this is in reference to lawsuit and a page number doesn’t help me now. The point of the book is to help the non legal person, but it’s not if I have to go find that case. I wished the lawsuits had years attached to it and the official title of the lawsuit. I was confused on time period. I didn’t think the second to last lawsuit in the book explained what happened. It repeated a lot of information and just attached on other lawsuits with no explanation.

The book also needed editing in references with errors and using abbreviations vs the long name. Be consistent.

But I loved the artwork on the cover of the book. I loved getting to know her thoughts more (and other justices too). I definitely recommend this as a book to learn about some of our laws and even amendments.

[Jackalyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a collection of Ginsburg’s dissents, this is a great book, and I appreciate the additional context relates to each case. I purchased this book because I expected the dissents to be filled with legalese, however, this was mostly incorrect. Ginsburg wrote her dissents in a straightforward and easy to read manner. Surprisingly, I found the contextual information provided by Wainwright a little laborious to get through at times.

[TENN2ARIZ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's (Notorious RBG!) greatest dissent are assembled in this volume. A case overview is provided followed by her dissenting opinion. It is a pleasure to read her concise and focused prose as she deftly dissents from the wrong judgements of her other justices. Someday it will be a great LLM project to research how many of her dissents were destined to become black letter law, probably most. The only negative to this book is the remembrance that the anti-democratic republican gang prevented the senate choice on a justice and then cynically ramrodded a replacement for her during the waning months of a lame duck presidency.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the substance of this book and the dissents that were chosen, but I thought the overview of each case was more difficult to understand than the actual dissent itself. Lots of fancy vocab that sort of distracted from the actual purpose.