Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

by Irin Carmon

RBG often repeated her mother’s advice that getting angry was a waste of your own time.

RBG’s old friend Gloria Steinem, who marvels at seeing the justice’s image all over campuses, is happy to see RBG belie Steinem’s own long-standing observation: “Women lose power with age, and men gain it.”

“A conversation with her is a special pleasure because there are no words that are not preceded by thoughts.”

“She spoke not elegantly, but with unmistakable clarity,” RBG said. “She said, ‘I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.’”

It was clear to RBG that fighting discrimination one strongly worded letter at a time was like catching the ocean in a thimble.

But Republicans, some of whom had been pro-choice, soon learned that being the anti-abortion party promised gains.

RBG’s most famous words in the Hobby Lobby dissent could have appeared in any of her searing dissents: “The court, I fear, has ventured into a minefield.”

DATE DECIDED 1/21/10 CASE Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission WHAT WAS AT STAKE How much can the government regulate corporate spending in elections? RESULT Not much, according to a 5–4 opinion by Kennedy. RBG SAYS “If there was one decision I would overrule, it would be Citizens United,” RBG told The New Republic. “I think the notion that we have all the democracy that money can buy strays so far from what our democracy is supposed to be.”

RBG SAYS “This rigid reading of the Commerce Clause makes scant sense and is stunningly retrogressive,”