Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Passes Away

Last Friday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away at age 87. Justice Ginsburg was greatly respected and admired throughout her 27 years on the Court, but she is perhaps best known as a tireless advocate for gender equality, work that began decades before she joined the bench.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Impact Pre-SCOTUS

Ginsburg’s arguments as a lawyer before the Supreme Court established precedent on sex discrimination that she strengthened as a justice. In 1996, she wrote the majority opinion in U.S. v. Virginia, which held that Virginia Military Institute's male-only admissions policy violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Justice Ginsburg's Supreme Court Dissents

On the Supreme Court, Justice Ginsburg was perhaps best known for her bold dissents, which she saw as “writing not for today, but for tomorrow.” She proved this point in the 2007 case Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. Justice Ginsburg’s strongly worded dissent in that case helped persuade Congress to pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which loosened the statute of limitations for pay discrimination claims.