Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Life, Legacy, and Famous Quotes

Few Supreme Court justices have shaped American law as profoundly as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, yet her path to the bench began with a simple refusal to accept the world as it was. Her personal encounters with gender discrimination — being denied a clerkship because of her sex, watching her husband’s career take precedence over her own — forged a legal philosophy that would dismantle barriers for millions.

Born: March 15, 1933 ·
Died: September 18, 2020 ·
Supreme Court Tenure: 1993–2020 ·
Spouse: Martin D. Ginsburg (1954–2010)

Seven rows of key facts reveal the arc of a remarkable life, one pattern: Ginsburg’s trajectory from student to advocate to justice was propelled by a relentless commitment to equality under law.

The key facts below summarize her life milestones.

What was so special about Ruth Bader Ginsburg?

Groundbreaking legal career

• Ginsburg was the second woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court (Britannica).
• She co-founded the Women’s Rights Law Reporter in 1972 (Supreme Court of the United States).
• She founded the ACLU Women’s Rights Project in 1971 (Supreme Court of the United States).
• She argued landmark gender discrimination cases before the Supreme Court.

Before joining the bench, Ginsburg built a career that fundamentally rewrote how the law treats women. As a professor at Rutgers University School of Law from 1963 to 1972, and later at Columbia Law School from 1972 to 1980 (Supreme Court of the United States), she trained a generation of lawyers to see sex discrimination as a constitutional violation. Her work as General Counsel of the ACLU from 1973 to 1980 (Supreme Court of the United States) put her at the center of the legal battle for women’s rights.

Impact on gender equality

• Ginsburg was the first Jewish woman to serve on the Supreme Court (National Women’s History Museum).
• Her legal strategy was incremental — she chose cases carefully to build precedent brick by brick.
• She famously included male plaintiffs in early gender discrimination cases to show that sex-based laws hurt everyone.

Ginsburg’s genius lay in her method. Rather than asking the Court to overturn all sex-based laws at once, she argued cases where the discrimination was so absurd it illuminated the broader problem. The pattern: a generation of law students learned from Ginsburg that constitutional equality is built case by case, not declared overnight.

What famous words did Ruth Bader Ginsburg always say?

Iconic dissents

• Famous quote: “I dissent.”
• Famous quote: “When there are nine.”
• Famous quote: “Fight for the things you care about.”

Ginsburg’s dissents became legendary not for their heat but for their precision. In cases like Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (2007), her dissent was so pointed that Congress responded by passing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 (Britannica). Her most famous remark about representation — “When there are nine” — came in response to a question about when there would be enough women on the Supreme Court. Her answer: “When there are nine.”

“Fight for the things you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”

— Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Symbolism of her collars

• Ginsburg wore a dissent collar — a specific neckpiece — on days she delivered dissents.
• Her collars became a recognizable symbol of judicial dissent.
• The practice highlighted the role of visual symbolism in the Court.

Ginsburg’s collars were not a fashion statement — they were a form of non-verbal communication. Her dissent collar, purchased in Cape Town, South Africa, was reserved for days she read a dissent from the bench. Her “majority opinion” collar, a more formal gold piece, signaled agreement with the Court’s ruling. The trade-off: by making her personal style part of her public identity, she humanized the judiciary and invited people who had never read a Supreme Court opinion to engage with the institution.

What happened when Ruth Bader Ginsburg died?

Circumstances of her death

• Ginsburg died on September 18, 2020, in Washington, D.C. (Britannica).
• She died from complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer.
• Her death occurred during the Trump administration.

Ginsburg’s death at age 87 set off a political firestorm. Because she had died during a presidential election year, the question of her replacement dominated the 2020 campaign. Justice Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed to fill her seat just weeks before the election — a confirmation process that shifted the Court’s ideological balance for a generation.

Health complications

• Ginsburg survived multiple cancer diagnoses, including colorectal cancer in 1999 and pancreatic cancer in 2009.
• She was treated for pancreatic cancer again in 2019.
• Her final recurrence of metastatic pancreatic cancer was announced in July 2020.

Ginsburg’s health struggles were public and persistent. She underwent surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation while continuing to serve on the Court, often working from hospital beds. The implication: her determination to hold onto her seat until a political alignment she trusted was both a personal commitment and a strategic calculation that ultimately failed.

What happened to Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s daughter?

Family background

• Ginsburg’s daughter, Jane C. Ginsburg, is a law professor at Columbia Law School.
• Her son, James Steven Ginsburg, is a music producer.
• Ginsburg married Martin D. Ginsburg in 1954.
• He died in 2010 after 56 years of marriage.

The Ginsburg family story is one of mutual support. Martin D. Ginsburg, a prominent tax attorney, moved his career to accommodate Ruth’s — first when she entered law school, and later when she took positions in Washington, D.C. He was known as her “secret weapon,” a partner who believed in her work as deeply as she did. Jane C. Ginsburg now holds the same Mortimer H. Hess Chair at Columbia that her father once supported from the sidelines.

Spouse and children

• Martin D. Ginsburg was a tax attorney and a pioneer in his own field.
• He died from complications of cancer in 2010.
• The couple had been married for 56 years.

The Ginsburg marriage was a partnership of equals before that was common. When Ruth was diagnosed with cancer in 1999, Martin was her primary caregiver. When he was diagnosed with cancer years later, she took leave from the Court to be with him. The trade-off: for all her public rigidity, Ginsburg’s private life reflected the very equality she argued for in court — a life where both partners shared burdens and ambitions.

How did Ruth Bader Ginsburg become a Supreme Court Justice?

Early legal career

• Ginsburg clerked for Judge Edmund L. Palmieri from 1959 to 1961 (Supreme Court of the United States).
• She worked as a research associate at Columbia Law School from 1961 to 1963 (Supreme Court of the United States).
• She was a professor at Rutgers and Columbia Law Schools.
• President Jimmy Carter nominated her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 1980 (Supreme Court of the United States).

Ginsburg’s path to the Supreme Court was not a straight line. After graduating from Columbia Law School — where she was the first woman on the law review — she struggled to find a clerkship because of her sex. She eventually clerked for Judge Palmieri, then spent years building the intellectual foundation for the gender equality revolution she would later lead.

Appointment process

• President Bill Clinton nominated Ginsburg on June 14, 1993 (Britannica).
• She was confirmed by the Senate on August 3, 1993, by a 96–3 vote (Britannica).
• She took her seat on August 10, 1993 (Supreme Court of the United States).

The confirmation vote of 96–3 remains one of the most lopsided in Supreme Court history — a testament to Ginsburg’s reputation as a consensus-builder and a legal mind above partisan politics. She was the first Jewish woman to serve on the Court (National Women’s History Museum), and her confirmation marked a turning point in the Court’s approach to gender and equality.

Timeline

• 1933: Born in Brooklyn, New York
• 1954: Married Martin D. Ginsburg
• 1972: Co-founded the Women’s Rights Law Reporter
• 1980: Appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
• 1993: Appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States
• 2020: Died at age 87

The timeline of Ginsburg’s life reveals a slow, deliberate march toward change. She spent more than a decade as an advocate before becoming a judge, and more than a decade as a judge before ascending to the Supreme Court. The pattern: each role prepared her for the next, and she used each platform to advance the cause of equality.

What’s unclear

• While most facts are well-documented, some claims — such as the exact number of cases she argued before the Supreme Court (often cited as six, winning five) — rely on secondary sources rather than official Court records.
• The origin of the “Notorious RBG” nickname is widely credited to a law student’s Tumblr, but the precise moment and intended meaning are not formally recorded.
• Details of Ginsburg’s final health decisions, including whether she could have retired earlier to ensure a Democratic replacement, remain speculative.

Ginsburg’s life is among the most thoroughly documented in modern American history. The archival record — from the Supreme Court’s official biography to academic works — is consistent and detailed.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading

• Official Supreme Court biography
• Britannica entry on Ruth Bader Ginsburg
• National Women’s History Museum profile

For anyone seeking to understand how one person can change the law and the culture at the same time, Ginsburg’s life is the case study. Her legacy is not just the cases she argued or the opinions she wrote — it is the simple, stubborn belief that the Constitution means what it says: equal justice under law. For American women, the choice her successors face is whether to continue the work she began, or to let the progress she won slip away.