5 inspiring quotes from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s lecture in Little Rock, Arkansas
Last week, the notorious and Honorable RBG spoke to a crowd of more than 13,000 people at an event hosted by the Clinton Presidential Center and Clinton School of Public Service.
Twenty-six years after President Bill Clinton nominated Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Supreme Court, the two took the stage again in front of a sold-out audience. More than 13,000 people poured into North Little Rock’s Verizon Arena for an evening with the Honorable U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
In conversation with NPR’s legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg, Justice Ginsburg reflected on her quarter-century on the nation’s highest bench and historic legal career prior to being appointed by President Clinton to serve as the second female Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
The conversation was presented by the Clinton Foundation and Clinton School of Public Service hosted as the largest Frank and Kula Kumpuris Distinguished Lecture to date. President Clinton returned to his home state to welcome Justice Ginsburg and commend her journey from hardworking beginnings to pop culture ascendance — and his decision to nominate her to the Supreme Court in 1993.
Keep reading for five moments that inspired us from their conversation in Little Rock.
1. Justice Ginsburg speaks on the importance of “We the people,” and history’s charge to create a more perfect union through inclusivity.
When asked about the notion of originalism versus a living constitution, Justice Ginsburg discussed history’s evolving concept of “We the people” and who it speaks for in 2019.
JUSTICE GINSBURG: [The] Constitution begins with the words, “We the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union.” Think about how things were in 1787. Who were ‘We the people’? Certainly not people who were held in human bondage because the original Constitution preserves slavery. Certainly not women whatever their color and not even men who own no property. It was a rather elite group, ‘We the people,’ but I think the genius of our Constitution is what Justice Thurgood Marshall said. He said he doesn’t celebrate the original Constitution but he does celebrate what the Constitution has become, now well over two centuries. That is the concept of “We the people” has become ever more inclusive. People who were left out at the beginning – slaves, women, men without property, native Americans – were not part of ‘We the people.’ Now all the once left out people are part of our political constituency. We are certainly a more perfect union as a result of that.
2. Weeks after cancer treatment, Justice Ginsburg powers through hardship by diving into her work.
JUSTICE GINSBURG: I think my work is what saved me because instead of dwelling on my physical discomforts, if I have an opinion to write or I have a brief to read, I know I’ve just got to get it done and so I have to get over it. This is another instance where I got very good advice from Justice O’Connor. Justice O’Connor had a mastectomy and she was on the bench nine days after her surgery. She told me in my first cancer bout with colorectal cancer, “Ruth, you schedule your chemotherapy for a Friday. Then you can get over it on Saturday and Sunday and be back in court on Monday.”
3. President Clinton thinks back to his first conversation with Justice Ginsburg.
President Clinton reflected on the reasons he knew he wanted to appoint her — her lifetime of pioneering work on behalf of women, her ability to build common ground, and the five cases she won in front of the Supreme Court.
PRESIDENT CLINTON: From the start of our first conversation in 1993, I got why so many people were hoping I’d appoint her. She was both brilliant and had a good head on her shoulders. She was rigorous but warm-hearted. She had a great sense of humor and a sensible, achievable judicial philosophy. She also kept the moral compass and the mental toughness that guided her from humble beginnings. I was so engrossed with her story when we were sitting there and I just kept peppering her with questions that I suddenly felt that I was really not interviewing somebody for the Supreme Court at all. I was just the guy talking to somebody that I really liked and that I hoped could be a part of our future.
4. Justice Ginsburg discusses how gender discrimination affected her career path — and how she, and others, have ultimately persisted.
In her final year of law school, Justice Ginsburg graduated tied for first in her class at Columbia Law School but couldn’t get a job due to discrimination. She reflected on the path it set her on and the similar experience of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
JUSTICE GINSBURG: That’s an example of how something that may seem dreadful, very bad luck, turns out to be the most fortunate thing that ever happened to you. Justice O’Connor put it this way. She said, “Suppose we had graduated from law school at a time when there was no discrimination when women were welcome at the bar. What would we be today? We would be retired partners from some large law firm.” That route wasn’t open to us so we had to find another path. That path led us to become Supreme Court Justices.
5. President Clinton recognizes her ascendance as the ultimate “pop culture icon.”
President Clinton praised her for consistently offering an “alternative vision about how America ought to work for everybody,” and finished his introduction by sharing his hope that the notorious and Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg is able to stay on the court forever.
PRESIDENT CLINTON: In every case, she offers an alternative vision about how America ought to work for everybody, how it ought to be, how votes ought to be counted, not discarded, how districts should be fair. I could go on and on. There are seven or eight of those but I just read every now and then when I’m bored and want to be reminded why I still believe in America and the Constitution. I have to say this: One thing I did not see coming when I nominated her is her ascendance to pop culture icon. Her workout routine is marveled at. Hillary got me a book, an RBG workout. She said, “I bet you can’t do it.” I said, “Oh, yeah. I can. I’m just a kid. I’m just 73. I can do this.” I had to work out on my weight machine and do other stuff for two months before I could complete her workout. Regularly, she’s portrayed on Saturday Night Live delivering her blistering ‘Ginsburns’. Now you can see her image and her quotes on t-shirts, tote bags, and coffee mugs the world over. You could become resentful of such a person but you’re not. We like her because she sings so totally on the level. In a world hungry for people who aren’t trying to con you, who are on the level.
