My Own Words

by Ruth Bader Ginsburg

As expressed by my brave colleague, the first woman on the Supreme Court of the United States, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor: For both men and women the first step in getting power is to become visible to others, and then to put on an impressive show. . . . As women achieve power, the barriers will fall. As society sees what women can do, as women see what women can do, there will be more women out there doing things, and we’ll all be better off for it.XII

Our former Chief Justice, William H. Rehnquist, spoke of the role of the judge using a metaphor from his favorite sport: The Constitution has placed the judiciary in a position similar to that of a referee in a basketball game who is obliged to call a foul against a member of the home team at a critical moment in the game: he will be soundly booed, but he is nonetheless obliged to call it as he saw it, not as the home court crowd wants him to call it. The day a judge shirks from that responsibility, Chief Justice Rehnquist counseled, is the day he or she should resign from office. I heartily concur in that counsel.

I find it sad that no longer seems to be the case within the Supreme Court.