That’s exactly what happened with respect to her dissent in the a pay discrimination case the Court ruled against a plaintiff named Lilly Ledbetter on statutory grounds.

So, oftentimes, if she was in dissent with respect to the proper interpretation of a statute, her dissents would relay, for instance, how Congress could amend the statute so as to adopt a position that she thought was the right interpretation in the first instance. She was ever hopeful, even when she was on the losing end of a case, that eventually her opinion would command a majority. Her dissents lay out a road map, according to another former RBG clerk. Justice Ginsburg visited VMI in 2017 and found, she said, that the Institute had been enhanced by the addition of female cadets. So, to satisfy the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution, VMI must admit female cadets. It couldn’t possibly accumulate, in any amount of time, the same prestige. It did not have the same facilities and opportunities. In an opinion for seven justices, over only one dissent, Justice Ginsburg wrote that the substitute institution was nowhere near equal. Once sued, Virginia tried to create a parallel institution for women. The Clinton Administration sued to force the Commonwealth of Virginia to open up their doors to female cadets. Up until that point, the Virginia Military Institute, an elite school with a storied history, incredible facilities and powerful alumni, had only accepted male applicants. VMI involved the question of whether a state-run military institution could exclude women. Maybe most memorably in the VMI (Vermont Military Institute) opinion. On the Court, Justice Ginsburg worked towards this ideal in many cases. After her appointment to the Court, she continued to work toward this ideal, this idea that we should have an ever more inclusive Constitution and we should make sure that our laws are not structured in a way that they hold people back from achievement of their full human potential. Please make that case for us.īy the time President Clinton nominated then-Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Supreme Court, she had already spent decades working tirelessly for a more just society, a society in which the Constitution works for all the people, a society in which the Constitution leaves no one behind. Foreign Policy & International Relationsįormer Berkeley Law dean Herma Hill Kay testified at her confirmation hearings that Ruth Bader Ginsburg would become “a justice worthy of the title.” I presume you believe this prediction was borne out.

My own words rbg