The Notorious RBG: May Her Memory Be For a Blessing

When I learned that Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died on Friday, I sat on the floor and cried. Then I drank a margarita and ate a plate of brownies. And then I thought about how I could pay tribute to her here, but the prospect seemed overwhelming.

The Notorious RBG’s legacy was too great; her life too filled with courage, integrity, wisdom, and dissent for a blog post to do her justice. Entire books have been written by and about her, and there are multiple films that tell her life story. There is nothing I can add in a few hundred words that others—and she, herself—haven’t already said, and said better.

Because I greatly admired Justice Ginsburg, I feel obligated to pay her tribute, however humble. And perhaps there is no better tribute than sharing empowering words and art that celebrate her half-century of fighting for equality and her remarkable 87 years of life.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (2016,
Supreme Court of the United States)

“The only confining thing for me is time. I’m not going to curtail my activities in any way to please them.”

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in a 1972 interview with the New York Times

“This grief, this hope, this anger, this love, this bubble-wrapped kindness and this desperate belief that the country could be held on track by this single, frail, powerful woman—this was never a reasonable wish. This was always too much to ask. One woman could never be a bulwark. But when she died, darned if it didn’t feel like the dams had broken open and all the water flooded out.”

Monica Hesse, writing about Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Death, The Washington Post

“[G]eneralizations about ‘the way women are,’ [and] estimates of what is appropriate for most women, no longer justify denying opportunity to women whose talent and capacity place them outside the average description. […] ‘Inherent differences’ between men and women, we have come to appreciate, remain cause for celebration, but not for denigration of the members of either sex or for artificial constraints on an individual’s opportunity.”

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 1996, United States v. Virginia et al.

“How fortunate I was to be alive and a lawyer when, for the first time in U.S. history, it became possible to urge, successfully, before legislatures and courts, the equal-citizenship stature of women and men as a fundamental constitutional principle.”

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, from My Own Words (2016)

“In striving to drain dry the waters of prejudice and oppression, we must rely on measures of our own creation — upon the wisdom of our laws and the decency of our institutions, upon our reasoning minds and our feeling hearts. And as a constant spark to carry on, upon our vivid memories of the evils we wish to banish from our world. In our long struggle for a more just world, our memories are among our most powerful resources.

May the memory of those who perished remain vibrant to all who dwell in this fair land, people of every color and creed. May that memory strengthen our resolve to aid those at home and abroad who suffer from injustice born of ignorance and intolerance, to combat crimes that stem from racism and prejudice, and to remain ever engaged in the quest for democracy and respect for the human dignity of all the world’s people.”

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 2004 speech at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

“The great man who led the march from Selma to Montgomery and there called for the passage of the Voting Rights Act foresaw progress, even in Alabama. ‘The arc of the moral universe is long,’ he said, but ‘it bends toward justice,’ if there is a steadfast commitment to see the task through to completion. That commitment has been disserved by today’s decision.”

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 2013, speaking from the bench in her dissent of Shelby County v. Holder

“Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.”

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

“People ask me sometimes, when—when do you think it will it be enough? When will there be enough women on the [U.S. Supreme] court? And my answer is when there are nine.”

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 2015, speaking at Georgetown University

“It is said that a person who passes on Rosh Hashanah is a Tzedek/Tzaddeket, a good and righteous person. When we speak of tzedakah, the word is often translated as ‘charity,’ but it is more accurate to say righteousness. […] When we say that Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a tzaddeket […] what we’re saying is that she was a thoughtful person who worked tirelessly to create a more just world. One that would perpetuate equality and access, one that wasn’t reliant on charity, one that was better for people she did not know, without the expectation of praise or fame. That is what it means to be a tzaddeket, and I can’t think of anyone who better embodies the pursuit of justice. […]

Jewish thought teaches us that when a person dies, it is up to those who bear her memory to keep her goodness alive. We do this by remembering her, we do this by speaking her name, we do this by carrying on her legacy. We do this by continuing to pursue justice, righteousness, sustainability. So when you hear us say, ‘May her memory be for blessing’ don’t hear, ‘It’s nice to remember her.’ Hear ‘It’s up to us to carry on her legacy.’ When you hear us say, ‘She was a tzaddeket’ don’t hear, ‘She was a nice person’. Hear ‘She was a worker of justice.’ “

Molly Conway, writing in tribute to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

“Dissents speak to a future age. It’s not simply to say, ‘My colleagues are wrong and I would do it this way.’ But the greatest dissents do become court opinions and gradually over time their views become the dominant view. So that’s the dissenter’s hope: that they are writing not for today, but for tomorrow.”

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 2002 interview with NPR