Birthday:
March 15, 1933
ABOUT HER
Ruth Bader Ginsburg graduated from Cornell University with a Phi Beta
Kappa and attended both Harvard and Columbia Law schools. She served
on Law Reviews in both schools and was a Kent Scholar at Columbia. In
spite of graduating in the top of her class, she had a hard time in
1959 getting a job as a lawyer because she was a woman. She finally
got a job in a clerkship, then went on to teach at Rutgers and Columbia
Law schools, becoming the first tenured female professor at Columbia.
She has always
fought against gender discrimination, creating and leading the ACLU's
(American Civil Liberties Union) Women's Rights Project. After arguing
six cases on women's rights before the U.S. Supreme Court, she became
the second woman appointed to that Court.
QUOTES
"I wanted to be a part of a general human rights agenda. Civil
liberties are an essential part of the overall human rights concern
-- the equality of all people and the ability to be free."
Ruth Ginsburg was
named the "happy camper" of the Supreme Court by the New
York Times for her enjoyment of the law and all who serve in it.
AWARDS/HONORS
- Phi Beta Kappa
from Cornell
- Harvard Law School
Review, Columbia Law Review, Kent Scholar
- Nominated by
President Carter to United States Court of Appeals for the District
of Columbia Circuit - 1980
- Nominated by
President Clinton as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the
United States - 1993
