My University of Florida college roommate, Steve Zack, was always destined for legal greatness.
He rose to the top of his profession and became the president of the 300,000 member American Bar Association.
I asked him if he met recently deceased Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and he responded that he had, at a lunch. His impression was that she was lovely and fragile.
What a beautiful way to describe a humble, legal giant, whose tenure on the Supreme Court will impact us all for many years to come.
RBG – as she was known – was appointed by President Clinton in 1993. She was the second female Justice.
As a litigator, her great capacity on the subject of women’s rights became known to the Court when she argued cases such as Reed v. Reed, in which Idaho gave men preference over women to administer estates because men had a greater familiarity with the world of business.
Frontiero v. Richardson argued that husbands of women in the military should get the same benefits as wives of men in the military. Weinberger v. Weisenfeld deprived widowers of Social Security survivor benefits that were granted to widows. She worked on Craig v. Boren, which tossed an Oklahoma law permitting girls to buy beer at age 18, but boys had to wait until they were 21.
These cases established her record in expanding the 14th Amendment to gender discrimination as well as racial discrimination. She had no tolerance for double standards towards women.
As a litigator, her strategy was to educate the Court. This is how she convinced rather than harangued. As a Justice, her opinion on the case of United States v. Virginia stands out.
The State-funded Virginia Military Institute would not allow women to enroll, due to their “adversative” method of training young men to
become citizen soldiers. The State argued that their curriculum was too rigorous for young women. They set up a women’s alternative military academy with a lesser curriculum to and no network of graduates to avoid admitting women to Virginia Military Institute.
In her most-noted opinion, Ginsburg wrote, “Inherent differences between men and women we have come to celebrate, but not for denigration of the members of either sex or for artificial constraints on an individual’s opportunity.” She concluded that any differential treatment must not “create or perpetuate the legal, social and economic inferiority of women.”
Regardless of political leaning, we should all mourn the loss of RBG. Her replacement could keep the Supreme Court in its current state of fairly-balanced dynamic tension, or it could send it down the slippery slope of imbalance for many years to come.
If President Trump’s nominee reaches the Senate floor, all Senators should remember RBG’s friendship with her polar-opposite Justice, Antonin Scalia. Their families spent many New Year’s Eves together and dined frequently.
Scalia would say, “What’s not to like, except her views on the law.”
RBG said, “I attack ideas. I don’t attack people. Some very good people have some very bad ideas.”
I am a firm believer in the American spirit of fairness. When President Obama nominated Merrick Garland in March 2016 – eight months before the election – Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell would not schedule hearings. Four years later – when President Trump has the opportunity to nominate a Justice – the appointment has been deemed a critical need and hearings must be scheduled as soon as possible.
To be fair, the President has the right and responsibility to nominate. Apparently, Mitch McConnell has the responsibility to schedule hearings only when he likes the candidate.
We know the nominee will be a woman. Her background and fairness will be fully vetted in a contentious process. That may be the opportunity
for the President to rally his base on a new issue, which reduces the importance of so many other issues that voters should consider as they submit their ballots.
It would have been nice if our leaders had spent a few days honoring and burying Justice Ginsburg, before all the speculation and war-mongering regarding her replacement process began. That is called “decency and respect,” which is something our society has come to sorely lack.
Roger Carlton is a columnist for The Graham Star. He is a council member for the Town of Lake Santeetlah.