What an enjoyable time it was. I didn’t know a lot about her life and as such I learned a lot about this most remarkable woman.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York she recalls her parents being fairly strict concerning her schoolwork. She excelled in school and sadly her mother who fought cancer for a number of years succumbed to the disease the day before her high school graduation. She entered Cornell to study Government. She recalls Cornell having a good reputation for girls to attend in that they were outnumbered by men 4:1. She remarks that if you couldn’t find a husband there it was hopeless! She did find the love of her life there, Martin Ginsburg.
Off she went to Harvard Law School along with a mere eight other women in a class of 500! Times have certainly changed and today Harvard Law has an equal number of men and women studying law. She made the Law Review in her first year which was unprecedented, certainly for a woman. When her husband who had finished at Harvard landed a job in Manhattan she followed him there to finish her law studies at Columbia, making the Law Review once again.
There is some great footage of her confirmation hearings and her willingness to state bluntly her views regarding a woman’s right to choose. Despite her clear liberal bent she was confirmed by a vote of 96-3. It’s clear that she charmed everyone in the room. Had Governor Mario Cuomo been interested in a seat on the court we may never have witnessed her presence there. He was Clinton’s first choice.
She argued a number of cases before the court over the years, winning all but one. While she often took cases where discrimination of women was the issue, she famously took a case to the Supreme Court on behalf of a young widower who was denied Social Security benefits for him and his newborn child. He was denied benefits because he was a man. She brilliantly made a huge point of law, that discrimination is present in many different forms.
Her shared love of opera with Justice Antonin Scalia, and their close friendship despite hugely different interpretations of the law, is also featured.
Interviews are held with some of her lifelong friends, children and grandchildren, lawyers who argued cases with her as well as the likes of Gloria Steinem and Nina Totenberg of NPR who has reported on Supreme Court issues for many years.
Watching Justice Ginsburg work out with her personal trainer at age 84 is inspiring, and hearing those close to her remark about her work schedule which often goes until 2 or 3am is somewhat humbling.
Conservative or Liberal, I urge you to catch this beautifully done documentary on a little person who has had a huge impact on our nation. She says her story could only have happened in America. That’s something we can all be most proud.
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