September 20, 2020

Ruth Bader Ginsburg on her first day as a justice, after being introduced to the Washington press corps as the newest member of the Supreme Court, on Oct. 1, 1993.Jose R. Lopez/The New York Times

By Alisha Haridasani Gupta

Gender Reporter

“I felt a surge of power that carried me through.”

— Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on her first Supreme Court argument. About two minutes into the argument, “the fear dissolved,” she said.

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg wasn’t really fond of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that in 1973 established a constitutional right to abortion. She didn’t like how it was structured.

The ruling, she noted in a lecture at New York University in 1992, tried to do too much, too fast, leaving it open to fierce attacks.

“Doctrinal limbs too swiftly shaped,” she said, “may prove unstable.”

It was because of her early criticism of one of the most consequential rulings for American women that some feminist activists were initially suspicious of her when President Bill Clinton nominated her for the Supreme Court in 1993, worried that she wouldn’t protect the decision.

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Of course, they eventually realized that Justice Ginsburg’s skepticism of Roe v. Wade wasn’t driven by a disapproval of abortion access at all, but by her wholehearted commitment to it.

The way Justice Ginsburg saw it, Roe v. Wade was focused on the wrong argument — that restricting access to abortion violated a woman’s privacy. What she hoped for instead was a protection of the right to abortion on the basis that restricting it impeded gender equality, said Mary Hartnett, a law professor at Georgetown University who will be a co-writer on the only authorized biography of Justice Ginsburg.

Justice Ginsburg “believed it would have been better to approach it under the equal protection clause” because that would have made Roe v. Wade less vulnerable to attacks in the years after it was decided, Professor Hartnett said. She and her co-author on the biography, Professor Wendy Williams, spent the last 17 years interviewing Justice Ginsburg for the book and, though it initially didn’t have a release date, they are hoping to publish it some time next year, Professor Hartnett said in an interview.

In a way, Justice Ginsburg’s opinion on Roe perfectly encapsulates how she functioned. She was passionate about equality for women, L.G.B.T.Q. people and minority groups, and fiercely devoted to human dignity and respect, Professor Hartnett said. But she was also deeply thoughtful and measured on how to bring those conditions about, and her decisions — shaped by nuanced legal reasoning — sometimes ran counter to what many of her fans might have expected.

“She was very strategic but she was also very client-focused,” Professor Hartnett said. “She cared about people and about the real-life problems that these legal issues created. She did that as an advocate, as a judge and a justice.”

During the same term that Roe v. Wade was decided, Justice Ginsburg was preparing to appear before the court, on the other side of the bench, as a lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union representing Capt. Susan Struck.

In that case, Captain Struck, an Air Force nurse who was stationed in Vietnam, had become pregnant. She was given two choices: have an abortion or leave the military. When the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, the Air Force, realizing it had a very real chance of losing, changed its policy and let Captain Struck have her child and keep her job and the court never heard the case.

Ginsburg, though, believed the Struck case would have provided a stronger foundation for abortion rights, and tried to see if Capt. Struck could find other instances of discrimination to keep the case alive, Professor Hartnett said.

“Remember, she’s client-focused. The client got what she wanted — she got the regulation change,” Professor Hartnett explained. And that was that.

Another one of Justice Ginsburg’s unexpected opinions came earlier this year.

In January, Virginia became the 38th state to approve the Equal Rights Amendment, becoming the final state needed to add it to the Constitution. Though the deadline for ratification was in 1982, there was hope among feminist activists and supporters that the deadline might be extended and that, with Virginia’s decision, an amendment prohibiting gender discrimination could soon be enshrined in the country’s foundational legal document.

Justice Ginsburg didn’t agree.

“I would like to see a new beginning, I’d like it to start over,” she said of the ratification process during a February event at Georgetown Law. “There’s too much controversy about latecomers. Plus, a number of states have withdrawn their ratification. So if you count a latecomer on the plus side, how can you disregard states that have said ‘we’ve changed our minds’?”

In other words, Yes, let’s aim for equality, but let’s do it the right way — slow and steady — so that when we get there, it’s indisputable.

These examples provide just a tiny window into her thought process, but it was this sharpness and steadfast approach over her decades-long career that turned Justice Ginsburg into a feminist icon — not just for women but for men, too — whose presence on the Supreme Court led an entire generation of young girls and boys to take the image of a woman in a decision-making role in the country’s highest court as a given.

Justice Ginsburg, after twice surviving cancer, died on Friday because of complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer. As the country now mourns, Professor Hartnett suggests emulating her distinctive style and focusing on the bigger picture.

“She would say, ‘You just have to move forward and get to work, step by step, case by case.’”

Write to us at inherwords@nytimes.com.

‘Notorious R.B.G.’

Here are other articles from The Times you may have missed.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in her chambers in 2013.Todd Heisler/The New York Times

“You Can’t Spell Truth Without Ruth.” Justice Ginsburg’s pointed and powerful dissenting opinions earned her late-life rock stardom. [Read her obituary]
“How fortunate I was …” In 2016, Justice Ginsburg shared with New York Times readers her advice for living. [Read the piece]
“Her rise.” Pictures capture moments from Justice Ginsburg’s political career, from law school professor to associate justice on the high court. [View the story]
“She was relentless.” People of all ages flocked on Saturday to the Supreme Court, leaving flowers, posters and messages scrawled in chalk. [Read the story]
“I am now the most senior justice when we divide 5-4 with the usual suspects.” A look at Justice Ginsburg’s judicial legacy of striking dissents. [Read the story]

View our complete coverage of Ruth Bader Ginsburg here.

Tell Us: How Did Ruth Bader Ginsburg Influence You?

Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the premiere of the documentary “RBG” at the Naval Heritage Center in 2018.Rebecca Smeyne for The New York Times

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a generation’s unlikely cultural icon. Young women had her image tattooed on their arms; daughters were dressed in R.B.G. costumes for Halloween. “You Can’t Spell Truth Without Ruth” appeared on bumper stickers and T-shirts.

After Justice Sandra Day O’Connor retired, Justice Ginsburg’s years as the solitary female justice were “the worst times,” she recalled in a 2014 interview. “The image to the public entering the courtroom was eight men, of a certain size, and then this little woman sitting to the side. That was not a good image for the public to see.”

Readers: How did Justice Ginsburg’s career influence you? How will you remember her? Please tell us here. Your submissions may be used in a future story.

In Her Words is written by Alisha Haridasani Gupta and edited by Francesca Donner. Our art director is Catherine Gilmore-Barnes, and our photo editor is Sandra Stevenson.

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