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Ruth Bader Ginsburg Facts

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Facts
Ruth Bader Ginsburg is an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court and was only the second woman to sit on the Supreme Court when she was confirmed in 1993. Over the long course of her career in the capacities of lawyer and judge, Ginsburg has taken vocal stances on behalf of abortion and women's rights. Ginsburg has consistently voted with the liberal wing of the Supreme Court during her tenure. Ginsburg was born Joan Ruth Bader on March 15, 1933 to Jewish immigrants Nathan and Celia Bader in Brooklyn, New York. She eventually went by the name Ruth because there were so many girls named Joan in her class. Ruth graduated high school at the age of fifteen and went on to attend Cornel University, where she graduated in 1954. Ginsburg began law school at Harvard, but later transferred to Columbia, where she earned her law degree in 1959. Ruth met her husband, Martin Ginsburg, while they were both attending Cornell. The couple married in 1954, had two children, a boy and girl, and remained married until Martin died of cancer in 2010.
Interesting Ruth Bader Ginsburg Facts:
Ruth's childhood nickname was "Kiki."
Although the Bader family was not very religious, Ruth learned Hebrew at an early age and once served as rabbi at a Jewish children's summer camp.
After completing law school with good grades and recommendations, Ginsburg was turned down for clerk position with Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter because she was a woman.
Ginsburg taught law at a number of different universities during the 1960s and 1970s.
While doing research for a book in Sweden in the early 1960s, Ginsburg became enamored and influenced by the Nordic nation's progressive views toward women's rights.
She co-founded the Women's Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union in 1972
As a lawyer during the 1970s, Ginsburg argued many important gender discrimination cases, including a Missouri law that held jury duty was optional for women.
Ginsburg was nominated to the Supreme Court by President William Clinton in 1993 and confirmed by the Senate 96 to 3 on August 3, 1993.
In recent years, the Supreme Court often votes on a 5 to 4, conservative to liberal division: Ginsburg often writes the dissenting liberal opinion.
During her time on the Supreme Court, Ginsburg has occasionally referred to international law in her opinions.
Ginsburg wrote the majority opinion in United States v. Virginia in 1996, which ruled that the Virginia Military Institute could not exclude women.
She is thought to be the first Supreme Court justice to officiate a same-sex wedding.
Ginsburg is twice a cancer survivor, having beat colon cancer in 1999 and pancreatic cancer in 2009.
Ginsburg has recently criticized President Donald Trump, but later apologized for the remarks.
Ruth has received many awards and accolades throughout her life, including several honorary PhDs and a spot on Time magazine's 100 most influential people of 2015.


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