Stanford Law’s John Donohue Remembers Justice Ginsburg

Public Policy Data with Prof John Donohue
Stanford Law Professor John Donohue

Reflecting on the career of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, one has to marvel at the enormous journey she took from a bright young co-ed at Cornell University at a time when the opportunities for women in the practice of law and in professional life more generally were severely constrained, to a trailblazing advocate and architect of a legal strategy to remove those bonds, to a lucid and insightful liberal icon on the Supreme Court who courageously fought against illness and some of her misguided colleagues with incredible passion and intensity in her enduring campaign for justice and a more perfect union. One must laud the insight of President Bill Clinton in recognizing the unique brilliance and wisdom that RBG would bring to the Supreme Court, where she battled a growing contingent of ideologues of the right as they unwisely weakened important civil rights laws, strengthened the power of baleful influences in electoral politics, and constrained governmental efforts to curtail gun violence.

RBG’s life and death have underscored the importance of the Supreme Court and civic engagement to the quest for social justice and the lives of all Americans. She also showed a wonderfully generous spirit and could enjoy the friendship and unquestionable conviviality of fellow Justice Antonin Scalia, while still fully aware of his severe limitations as a largely misguided jurist.

RBG’s life also reminds us of the complexity of human existence: even the most remarkably commendable and admirable lives of unparalleled achievement and excellence will often take actions that can invite criticism. When President Obama and others signaled that it might advance Justice Ginsburg’s long-term goals to step down to allow Obama to replace her with a younger judge, she responded that this was “a question for my own good judgment,” going on to ask rhetorically, “So tell me who the president could have nominated … that you would rather see on the court than me?”

If she had lived until a Democratic president could appoint her replacement, her judgment and her will would have been deemed remarkable. Having fallen short of this achievement, RBG has at once highlighted the abject hypocrisy of Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in seeking to replace her so close to the election, but has also left it to her supporters and admirers to take the actions necessary to ensure that her decision to rebuff Obama will not be remembered as injurious to the goals she championed.

Read Stanford Law Faculty on Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Legacy