from K. Starr re: RBG.Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Equality's Gracious Champion
(Sorry if dupe.)
'Those who served with her knew her as a formidable mind and a wonderful friend.
By Kenneth W. Starr
'Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg served 40 years on the federal bench. Her legacy is enduring and deep, but it can be summed up in two closely related concepts: equality for all persons, vindicated under the rule of law. Not since Thurgood Marshall has an American jurist left so profound a mark in serving these unifying ideals.
As her colleague for six years on the District of Columbia Circuit, I saw up close her legendary work ethic, her “all in” approach to preparation and opinion writing, her consummate efficiency and skill. My easiest assignment was serving under her leadership on our court’s committee to revise and update procedural rules. She did almost all the work; we spent meetings brainstorming and reviewing her handiwork.
Inspired by the Declaration of Independence, Ruth was determined to serve the goal of equality under the law. In a thoroughgoing critique of Roe v. Wade in her 1993 James Madison Lecture at New York University—the year before her appointment to the high court—she defended her pro-choice position in terms of women’s equality, but not on the ground of “substantive” due process embraced by the deeply divided court in its wildly controversial 1973 ruling. She asked why women should be prevented from pursuing their dreams, such as attending a previously all-male educational institution, and argued that artificial barriers had to fall in a constitutional order designed to assure the dignity of every person.
For all the power of her advocacy and jurisprudence, Ruth was disarmingly shy and soft-spoken. As her dinner companion at Washington’s cavernous venues, one had to strain to hear what she was saying. But this reticence lifted in her professional home. Ruth and her husband, Martin, loved to entertain in their warmly welcoming Watergate apartment. It was a convivial judicial clubhouse, featuring an extraordinary chef—Marty.
They lived life in full. At the court’s annual conference, which brings judges together with lawyers and legal scholars, some of us would cloister for an afternoon discussion of tomes such as Richard Posner’s “Law and Literature.” The Ginsburgs would be out on the golf course, and Marty would preside at the evening golf awards ceremony. (Marty died in 2010.)'>>>
https://www.wsj.com/articles/ruth-bader-ginsburg-equalitys-gracious-champion-11600540064?
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