I am heartsick over the loss of my idol, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It sounds silly but there it is. The woman who has been my idol through the years, inspired me beyond measure, whose decisions and dissents lifted me up during my Constitutional Law class and whose life work championing women’s equality brought me so much gratitude. The lives American women lead today is credited to her relentless work. That bears repeating. The lives American women lead today is credited to her relentless work. Her time on the bench was invaluable but her time as a litigator has brought immeasurable change to this country. It sounds silly but I dreamed of being you – and I will credit Justice Sotomayor’s words and say – “You cannot value dreams according to the odds of their coming true. Their real value is in stirring within us – the will to aspire.” This world is better because you existed, RBG.
“Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”
“Dissents speak to a future age. It’s not simply to say, ‘My colleagues are wrong and I would do it this way.’ But the greatest dissents do become court opinions and gradually over time their views become the dominant view. So that’s the dissenter’s hope: that they are writing not for today, but for tomorrow.”
“When I’m sometimes asked when will there be enough women on the Supreme Court and I say, ‘When there are nine,’ people are shocked. But there’d been nine men, and nobody’s ever raised a question about that.”
“The greatest menace to freedom is an inert people; that public discussion is a political duty; and that this should be a fundamental principle of the American government.”
Gabrielle DeStefano 