“Once asked how we could be friends, given our disagreemt on lots of things, Justice Scalia answered: "I attack ideas. i don´t attack people. Some very good people have some very bad ideas. And if you can´t seperate the two, you gotta get another day job. You don´t want to be a judge. At least not a judge on a multi-member panel.” LawJudgeRbg Book:Ruth Bader Ginsburg: In Her Own Words Source: Ruth Bader Ginsburg: In Her Own Words
“We do not read (the law) to elevate accommodation of religious observances over an institution's need to maintain order and safety, ... We have no cause to believe that (the law) would not be applied in an appropriately balanced way, without sensitivity to security concerns.” WayNeedsBelieveLawOrderCausesReligiousSecurityConcernSafetyInstitutionsBalancedSensitivityObservanceAccommodations Author:Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“If I resign any time this year, he [President Obama] could not successfully appoint anyone I would like to see in the court. ... [A]nybody who thinks that if I step down, Obama could appoint someone like me, they're misguided.” IfsThinkingYearsLawPoliticsPresidentStepsCourtLike MePresident ObamaMisguided Author:Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“Neither federal nor state government acts compatibly with equal protection when a law or official policy denies to women, simply because they are women, full citizenship stature - equal opportunity to aspire, achieve, participate in and contribute to society based on their individual talents and capacities.” StatesGovernmentLawOpportunityIndividualAchieveTalentPolicyEqualCapacityDenyProtectionOfficialsAspireCitizenshipStatureState GovernmentEqual OpportunityEqual ProtectionIndividual Talent Book:My Own Words Source: My Own Words
“One might plausibly contend that Congress violates the spirit, if not the letter, of the constitutional doctrine of separation of powers when it exonerates itself from the impositions of the laws it obligates people outside the legislature to obey.” PeopleIfsMightLawPoliticalSpiritPoliticsLettersCongressSeparationDoctrineLegislatureImpositionSeparation Of Powers Author:Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“Members of the legislature, people who have run for office, know the connection between money and influence on what laws get passed” PeopleKnowsRunningLawInfluenceMembersOfficeConnectionsLegislatureCitizens United Author:Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“When I graduated from law school in 1959, there wasn't a single woman on any federal bench. It wouldn't be a realistic ambition for a woman to want to become a federal judge.” WantSchoolLawJudgingAmbitionRealisticBenchesLaw SchoolSingle WomenFederal Judges Author:Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“Undocumented aliens unfortunately are not protected by the law and they are tremendously subjected to exploitation. The result is that they would be willing to work for a wage that no person who is welcome in our shores would take.” PersonsWould BeLawResultsWillingWelcomeAliensShoreProtectedExploitation Author:Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“Historically, the new government had no money to pay for an army, so they relied on the state militias. And the states required men to have certain weapons and they specified in the law what weapons these people had to keep in their home so that when they were called to do service as militiamen, they would have them. That was the entire purpose of the Second Amendment.” PeopleMenStatesHomeGovernmentLawPurposeCertainPayWeaponsArmyAmendmentsNo MoneySecond AmendmentMilitiaNew Government Author:Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“In most civil law systems there are no dissents. There is a single opinion for the court: it is unanimous; it is highly stylized; you can't tell which judge wrote it.” LawOpinionJudgingCourtDissent Author:Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“If you ask judges, do you always agree on everything? Of course not, we divide just as you do. Why aren't you transparent about it? Because the people would begin to think that the law is not stable, the law is unclear. And that would not give them much faith in the law.” PeopleIfsThinkingGivingLawCoursesAsksJudgingAgreeDividesStableTransparentUnclear Author:Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“I think members of the legislature, people who have to run for office, know the connection between money and influence on what laws get passed.” PeopleThinkingKnowsRunningLawInfluenceMembersOfficeConnectionsLegislature Author:Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“I conceived of myself in large part as a teacher. There wasn't a great understanding of gender discrimination. People knew that race discrimination was an odious thing, but there were many who thought that all the gender-based differentials in the law operated benignly in women's favor. So my objective was to take the Court step by step to the realization, in Justice Brennan's words, that the pedestal on which some thought women were standing all too often turned out to be a cage.” PeopleLawUnderstandingJusticeRaceStepsTeacherStandingCourtGenderFavorsDiscriminationObjectivesRealizationCagesPedestalGender Discrimination Author:Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“..the United States is subject to the scrutiny of a candid world ... what the United States does, for good or for ill, continues to be watched by the international community, in particular by organizations concerned with the advancement of the rule of law and respect for human dignity.” WorldHumansDoeStatesLawCommunityUnitedUnited StatesSubjectsParticularRespectConcernedDignityOrganizationInternationalIllAdvancementRule Of LawScrutinyHuman DignityInternational CommunityCandid Author:Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“I do hope that some of my dissents will one day be the law.” LawOne DayBadassDissent Author:Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“The greatest threat to public confidence in elections in this case is the prospect of enforcing a purposefully discriminatory law, one that likely imposes an unconstitutional poll tax and risks denying the right to vote to hundreds of thousands of eligible voters.” LawCasesRiskTaxesVoteElectionThreatVotersPollsRight To VoteUnconstitutional Author:Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“My mother told me two things constantly. One was to be a lady, and the other was to be independent. The study of law was unusual for women of my generation. For most girls growing up in the '40s, the most important degree was not your B.A., but your M.R.S.” TwoImportantLawMotherGirlGrowing UpStudyGrowingGenerationsDegreesIndependentTwo ThingsUnusualMy GenerationGirls Growing Up Author:Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“Reproductive choice has to be straightened out. There will never be a woman of means without choice anymore. That just seems to me so obvious. The states that changed their abortion laws before Roe are not going to change back. So we have a policy that only affects poor women, and it can never be otherwise.” MeanStatesSeemsLawChoicesPoorPolicyChangedObviousAbortionAbortion Laws Author:Ruth Bader Ginsburg
