My Own Words

by Ruth Bader Ginsburg

At Cornell University, professor of European literature Vladimir Nabokov changed the way I read and the way I write. Words could paint pictures, I learned from him. Choosing the right word, and the right word order, he illustrated, could make an enormous difference in conveying an image or an idea.

our Constitution shields the right to think, speak, and write without fear of reprisal from governmental authorities.IV

Professor Benjamin Kaplan was my first and favorite teacher. He used the Socratic method in his civil procedure class always to stimulate, never to wound.

“In every good marriage,” she counseled, “it helps sometimes to be a little deaf.”

When a thoughtless or unkind word is spoken, best tune out. Reacting in anger or annoyance will not advance one’s ability to persuade.

“Ruth, if you don’t want to start law school, you have a good reason to resist the undertaking. No one will think the less of you if you make that choice. But if you really want to study law, you will stop worrying and find a way to manage child and school.”

Many times after, when the road was rocky, I thought back to Father’s wisdom, spent no time fretting, and found a way to do what I thought important to get done.

Each part of my life provided respite from the other and gave me a sense of proportion that classmates trained only on law studies lacked.

We could not do the job the Constitution assigns to us if we didn’t—to use one of Justice Scalia’s favorite expressions—“get over it!”

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

Friday afternoons found Ruth at her local library, which was housed above a Chinese restaurant and a beauty parlor. While her mother had her hair done downstairs, Ruth would savor her time in the library, the delicious smell of spices wafting up from the restaurant while she read Greek myths and books such as The Secret Garden and Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women.

“My mother was very strong about my doing well in school and living up to my potential. Two things were important to her and she repeated them endlessly. One was to ‘be a lady,’ and that meant conduct yourself civilly, don’t let emotions like anger or envy get in your way. And the other was to be independent, which was an unusual message for mothers of that time to be giving their daughters.” 8

Ruth loved the posters of Rosie the Riveter, portraying a strong and able woman supporting the war effort with her factory work.17

The UN Charter, in its preamble, declared as one of its aims “to regain faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small.”

And now we have a fifth great document, the Charter of the United Nations. Its purpose and principles are to maintain international peace and security, to practice tolerance, and to suppress any acts of aggression or other breaches of peace.

We must try to train ourselves and those about us to live together with one another as good neighbors for this idea is embodied in the great new Charter of the United Nations. It is the only way to secure the world against future wars and maintain an everlasting peace.

She enjoyed studying Hebrew and the history of the Jews, and was especially moved by the life of Deborah, the general, judge, and prophet, as recounted in Judges 4–5 and in the Song of Deborah:

“Prejudice saves us a painful trouble, the trouble of thinking.”

Then and only then shall we have a world built on the foundation of the Fatherhood of God and whose structure is the Brotherhood of Man. RUTH BADER Grade VIII

“He used words to paint pictures. Even today, when I read, I notice with pleasure when an author has chosen a particular word, a particular place, for the picture it will convey to the reader.”

Before encountering Professor Cushman, Ruth confessed, “I didn’t want to think about these things; I really just wanted to get good grades and become successful—but he was both a teacher and a consciousness raiser.”

As an officer in India once said, “It is far pleasanter to sit comfortably in the shade rubbing red pepper into a poor devil’s eyes than to go out in the sun hunting the evidence.”

We may be anxious to reduce crime, but we should remember that in our system of justice, the presumption of innocence is prime, and the law cannot apply one rule to Joe who is a good man, and another to John, who is a hardened criminal.

Ruth is somebody who is simply not afraid of dead air time. If you ask her a question that requires a thought-through answer she will stop, think it through and then answer it. She has done that for the fifty-four years I have known her. She still does it at dinner.” 1

Professor Jane announced she had grown up in a home in which responsibility was equally divided: her father did the cooking, she explained, and her mother did the thinking.

I had been converted through typing.

Among my favorite Scalia stories, when President Clinton was mulling over his first nomination to the Supreme Court, Justice Scalia was asked a question to this effect: “If you were stranded on a desert island with your new Court colleague, who would you prefer, Larry Tribe or Mario Cuomo?” Scalia answered quickly and distinctly: “Ruth Bader Ginsburg.” Within days, the president chose me.

Even while immersed in her own education and career, she always found time to look back and give credit and thanks to those who came before.

Twenty-one months after her admission, Lockwood became the first woman to participate in oral argument at the Court.

“We shall never have equal rights until we take them, nor equal respect until we command it.”

In my growing-up years, men of the bench and bar generally held what the French call an idée fixe, the unyielding conviction that women and lawyering, no less judging, do not mix. But as ancient texts reveal, it ain’t necessarily so.

In Greek mythology, Pallas Athena was celebrated as the goddess of reason and justice.

Deborah (from the Book of Judges).3 She was at the same time prophet, judge, and military leader.

It was only in 1869 that Iowa’s Arabella Mansfield became the first female to gain admission to the practice of law in this country. That same year, the St. Louis Law School became the first in the nation to open its doors to women.

Bradwell wrote: According to our . . . English brothers it would be cruel to allow a woman to “embark upon the rough and troubled sea of actual legal practice,” but not [beyond the pale] to allow her to govern all England with Canada and other dependencies thrown in. Our brothers will get used to it and then it will not seem any worse to them to have women practicing in the courts than it does now to have a queen rule over them.

(A sense of humor is helpful for those who would advance social change.)

(Times have indeed changed: to mark my 1993 appointment to the Supreme Court, my colleagues ordered the installation of a women’s bathroom in the Justices’ robing room, its size precisely the same as the men’s.)

During her twenty-five years on the Court’s bench and continuing thereafter, she has shown, time and again, that she is a true cowgirl, resourceful, resilient, equipped to cope with whatever fortune brings her way.

“Sandra has a special talent, perhaps a gene, for lighting up the room . . . she enters; for [restoring] good humor in the presence of strong disagreement; for [producing constructive] results; and for [reminding] those at odds today . . . that ‘tomorrow is another day.’ ”

Sandra Day: “She wasn’t the rough and rugged type,” he said, “but she worked well with us in the canyons—she held her own.”2 Justice O’Connor has done just that at every stage of her professional and family life.

Waste no time on anger, regret, or resentment, just get the job done.

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.3

“[T]here was a lot I couldn’t do,” she said, “[b]ut I did a little, I did what I could.”

the first issue of Ms. magazine inside. Gloria’s bright mind, brave heart, and unflagging energy inspired that venture and so much else that, borrowing words from her friend Marlo Thomas, freed girls and boys to be you and me.

It is her gift for empathy: when Gloria is the center of attention, she holds no megaphone; “she’s almost always listening.”

Sandra is famous for the 8:00 a.m. aerobic class she initiated at the Court to keep fit. Gloria says she stays in shape “just running around airports and cities.”

Helen (“Nellie”) Herron Taft, a woman who wanted the man she married to become president, and actively helped make that dream come true.

Nellie visited Washington, D.C. Taft wrote to her: “I wonder, Nellie dear, if you and I will ever be there in an official capacity? Oh yes, I forgot; of course we shall when you become secretary of the treasury.”

Taft expressed this sentiment in a letter to Nellie: “You are so much of my life. . . . I am so glad that you don’t flatter me and sit at my feet with honey. You are my dearest and best critic and are worth so much to me in stirring me up to best endeavor.”

As first lady, Nellie fared well in the press. The Washington Post commented: “In the matter of mental attainments, she is probably the best fitted woman who ever graced the position she now holds.”