Courts

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Likes 'Most' Of Her Supreme Court Colleagues

Justice Ginsburg also touched on collegiality at the high court, the #MeToo movement, and the role of sexism in the 2016 election.

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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg loves her job, respects her colleagues on the Supreme Court, and genuinely likes them — well, most of them.

Justice Ginsburg touched on collegiality at the high court, the #MeToo movement, the role of sexism in the 2016 election, and a slew of other interesting topics yesterday afternoon during her keynote address at “She Opened the Door,” Columbia University’s Women’s Conference.

Justice Ginsburg will conclude a tour of law schools, universities, and synagogues this week. Since the end of January, she’s made seven public appearances, and will conclude her roadshow today, with two more speaking engagements. At each one, she shares just a bit more about herself with her audience, connecting personally with the thousands of people who have come to bear witness to the judicial icon’s quiet calm, keen intellect, and wry sense of humor.

Columbia President Lee Bollinger gave a rousing introduction of Justice Ginsburg, referring to her as a judge whose voice is “authentic, strong, and filled with heart.” In the brief moment between the end of Bollinger’s words and Justice Ginsburg’s arrival, the excitement in the air was palpable. After having waited in a line that spanned the building and finally taking their seats, a living legal legend was about to enter the room, and it was enough to make some audience members’ eyes well with tears.

As Justice Ginsburg took the stage, the chorus of “Notorious,” by rapper Notorious B.I.G., was blasted through the speakers to the audience’s delight. Justice Ginsburg’s nickname, after all, is Notorious R.B.G. The associate justice, who wore an I Dissent bag on her arm, received yet another standing ovation from her crowd of fans, with their phones raised in the air for pictures and quick videos of their Supreme idol. From a distance, it seemed as if she could have been raising the roof, but she was really just trying to get everyone gathered in the auditorium to take their seats.

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Justice Ginsburg shared the stage with CNN’s Poppy Harlow, who just four days earlier had given birth to her second child. “It’s an interview that I couldn’t miss,” Harlow said, before beginning her dialogue with the eldest Supreme Court justice, who will celebrate her 85th birthday in March.

Once again, Justice Ginsburg told her own #MeToo story and advocated for an equal rights amendment for women in the Constitution. “It’s amazing to me that for the first time, women are really listened to, because sexual harassment had often been dismissed as ‘well, she made it up’ or ‘she’s too thin-skinned.’ So I think it’s a very healthy development.” When asked if she thought Washington and Congress were listening and acting fast enough when it came to sexual harassment, Justice Ginsburg quipped, “Is this Congress acting fast enough? This Congress is not acting.”

Justice Ginsburg then recalled a time when bipartisan politics reigned in Washington, reminding the audience that only three senators had voted against her nomination. How can we return to a time like that? Justice Ginsburg says she’s “putting [her] faith in the millennials.” The discussion then turned to the 2016 presidential election, where Justice Ginsburg reiterated that she believed sexism had a hand in Hillary Clinton’s defeat. “She was criticized in a way I think no man would have been criticized. I think anyone who watched that campaign unfold would answer the same way I did. Yes, sexism played a prominent part.”

Justice Ginsburg reaffirmed her belief that America is ready for a woman to be president, saying, “I think we were and will be the next time,” before trailing off and then trying to change the subject. “Anyway, we should be careful about not getting me too much into the political arena,” she said, a comment that was met with a roomful of laughter and applause. In 2016, Justice Ginsburg made public comments about then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, for which she later apologized.

And yet, Poppy Harlow steered the conversation towards politics twice more during the hour and a half that Justice Ginsburg regaled the audience with stories about her mother, her late husband, and her family. Before giving her thoughts on the attacks made on the judiciary and the freedom of the press by the other two branches of the government, Justice Ginsburg shared an endearing story about her daughter, Jane Ginsburg, a professor at Columbia Law, just like her mother before her. At Justice Ginsburg’s graduation from Columbia Law, she says that as she approached the dean to receive her diploma, Jane stood up and said, “That’s my mommy!” Per Justice Ginsburg, they are the first mother-daughter tenured teachers at any law school.

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Justice Ginsburg said it was distressing that people saw the judiciary as just another political branch of government. “Although the press tends to play up the 5-4 divisions, we are unanimous much more often than we divide 5-4. There is a collegial spirit that prevails — the Supreme Court is more collegial than any other place I’ve ever worked.” As far as unconstructive criticism of the judiciary was concerned, Justice Ginsburg mused, “Take a poll of the people, what they think of the court versus what they think of Congress or the executive branch, and the judiciary comes out way ahead.”

When she’s in Washington, D.C., Justice Ginsburg lives in the Watergate, so of course Harlow used that as a segue to ask Justice Ginsburg about our nation’s freedom of the press. “Do you think that those holding the highest offices now politically think the press should be squelched?,” Harlow asked. Justice Ginsburg got the entire audience to laugh when she quickly answered, “I will not respond to that question… but a free press is of tremendous importance to a society.”

Harlow then brought up Justice Ginsburg’s dear friendship with the late Justice Antonin Scalia, and she shared an entertaining story about their about squabbles over opinions. “Justice Scalia and I, even when we were on opposite sides, I would sometimes criticize to him an opinion for being over the top, for being too extreme, suggesting he would be more persuasive if he toned it down,” she said. “He never listened to that advice, but did occasionally call or me come to my chambers with a draft opinion that I had just circulated to point out the grammatical errors I made.”

Justice Ginsburg then showed just how much lawyers and law students should be able to relate to her after she shared a time when she struggled with great personal doubt and feelings of inadequacy: “My first day in law school.” When asked what she’s loved most in life, Justice Ginsburg — who said that as a woman, she’s “had it all in [her] long life, but not necessarily at one time” — explained that it’s her “tremendous luck” that she’s loved most. Her luck started with her late husband, her family, and her children, and made its way to her career. “I love the work I do. I think I have the best job in the world for a lawyer,” she said. “I respect all of my colleagues and genuinely like … most of them,” Justice Ginsburg offered, which garnered giggles.

Harlow concluded the interview by asking Justice Ginsburg to finish this sentence: “There will be enough female justices on the Supreme Court when there are…?” Justice Ginsburg chuckled mid-way through Harlow’s words, responding with a grin, “You know what the answer is — when there are nine, of course!”

Audience members gathered in the hallway after Justice Ginsburg left the stage, where one woman murmured, “I hope she’ll never leave us,” as she looked out to the rainy sky. When it comes to Justice Ginsburg, many people share the same hope.

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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