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Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Advancing gender equality as a lawyer and US Supreme Court justice.
US Supreme Court · Equal protection
- Born
- 15 March 1933
- Birthplace
- Brooklyn, New York, USA
- Died
- 18 September 2020
More people
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
An American jurist who challenged discriminatory laws before joining the court where she had argued important cases.
Early life
Brooklyn childhood
Grew up in a Jewish family in Flatbush.
Legal education
Studied at Cornell, Harvard Law School and Columbia Law School.
Career
- 1960s
Law professor
Taught at Rutgers before moving to Columbia.
- 1972
Equality litigation
Co-founded the ACLU Women’s Rights Project.
- 1980
Federal judge
Joined the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
- 1993
Supreme Court
Became an associate justice.
Contributions
Gender-discrimination cases
Argued that sex-based legal distinctions could harm women and men.
United States v. Virginia
Wrote the opinion rejecting Virginia Military Institute’s male-only admissions policy.
Olmstead v. L.C.
Wrote an opinion addressing unjustified institutional isolation of disabled people.
Beyond work
Family
Married tax lawyer Martin Ginsburg; they had two children.
Opera
Was an enthusiastic opera-goer.
Sources & photo credit
Biographical reference ↗ACLU: Ginsburg’s legal work ↗Photo: Supreme Court of the United States, Photographer: Steve Petteway [1]. Public domain · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
