State Bar of Nevada on the Loss of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: May Her Memory be a Blessing
By State Bar of Nevada President Eric Dobberstein
With the passing of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the State Bar of Nevada reflects on her role in American jurisprudence, a defender of the discriminated, and a role model for women.
Her story is well known. One of the only female students in law school, Ginsburg fought against stereotype to gain entry into the profession and set her brilliant legal mind to championing equal justice for all and ending discrimination on the basis of sex. She flourished in the face of adversity and readily tackled the work associated with becoming the first tenured law professor at Columbia and on behalf of the ACLU, successfully arguing six landmark cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Ginsburg was appointed to the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 1980 and then to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1993. There, her tenacity for speaking her mind and fighting for equality continued. Ginsburg spoke openly about the absence of women on the U.S. Supreme Court and her struggle to be heard, even after serving on the Supreme Court bench for more than a decade. In 2005, she was famously quoted as saying, “Women belong in all places where decisions are being made… It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.”
Throughout her illustrious career, Justice Ginsburg never wavered on her commitment to civil rights and defending the rule of law. We join Chief Justice Roberts in saying, “Today we mourn, but with confidence, that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her — a tireless and resolute champion of justice.” May her life be an inspiration to us all, and may her memory be a blessing.