Why Ruth Bader Ginsburg Refused to Step Down

© NYTimes


Emily Bazelon starts by telling a story about her meeting with Justice RBG for the first time in 2008. She tells us about RBG showing her a cartoon of Belva Lockwood in the hallway outside her chamber in Supreme Court. Lockwood was a lawyer who in her 50s was the first woman to argue a case before the court, in 1880. "Lockwood drafted and lobbied for a bill, which Congress passed, allowing qualified women attorneys to practice in federal court".

Emily then tells about the bias RBG had to face at Harvard because she was a female. However, RBG's commitment to her studies and her work later in life, and her conviction for gender equality, became the focus points of her career.

The main frustration and anger which a lot of people have felt after RBG's death was that her death put Supreme Court in a place where another seat can be filled by a conservative justice, selected by Donald Trump. The people feel like this situation could have been avoided if Ginsburg would have resigned years earlier, when President Barack Obama could have named a nominee for her seat. The author says that it was Ginsburg’s love her job and her focus on the representation of women that motivated her to stay.

"Ginsburg didn’t think women should get to do what men did because she believed they would do the job better; she wanted equality for its own liberating sake." Emily then tells us about RBG's work in the field of women, men and transgender rights.

Emily tells a lot of other interesting stories about RBG throughout the article. For detail, I recommend you to read the article Why Ruth Bader Ginsburg Refused to Step Down.