Marty was an extraordinary person. Of all the boys I had dated, he was the only one who really cared that I had a brain. And he was always – well, making me feel that I was better than I thought I was. – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Feminism… I think the simplest explanation, and one that captures the idea, is a song that Marlo Thomas sang, ‘Free to be You and Me.’ – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
The label ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative,’ any – every time I hear that, I think of the great Gilbert and Sullivan song from ‘Iolanthe.’ It goes, ‘Every gal and every boy that’s born alive is either a little liberal or else a little conservative.’ What do those labels mean? It depends on whose ox is being gored. – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
The concern was that if a woman was doing gender equality, her chances of making it to tenure in the law school were diminished. It was considered frivolous. – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Justice Scalia and I served together on the D.C. Circuit. So his votes are not surprising to me. What I like about him is that he’s very funny and very smart. – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
My mother graduated from high school at 15 and went to work to support the family because the eldest son went to college. – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Not a law firm in the entire city of New York bid for my employment as a lawyer when I earned my degree. – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
My mother was a powerful influence. She made me toe the line. If I didn’t have a perfect report card, she showed her disappointment. – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
I was part of Jazzercise class. It was an aerobics routine accompanied by loud music, sounding quite awful to me. Jazzercise was popular in the ’80s and ’90s. – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
The emphasis must be not on the right to abortion but on the right to privacy and reproductive control. – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
She never envisioned a legal career for me, but she did think it was very important that I be able to support myself, and I think she would be pleased to see what has become of me. – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Reproductive choice has to be straightened out. There will never be a woman of means without choice anymore. That just seems to me so obvious. The states that changed their abortion laws before Roe are not going to change back. So we have a policy that only affects poor women, and it can never be otherwise. – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
When I graduated from law school in 1959, there wasn’t a single woman on any federal bench. It wouldn’t be a realistic ambition for a woman to want to become a federal judge. It wasn’t realistic until Jimmy Carter became our president. – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
If you just needed the skills to pass the bar, two years would be enough. But if you think of law as a learned profession, then a third year is an opportunity for, on the one hand, public service and practice experience, but on the other, also to take courses that round out the law that you didn’t have time to do. – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
If you want to influence people, you want them to accept your suggestions, you don’t say, ‘You don’t know how to use the English language,’ or ‘How could you make that argument?’ It will be welcomed much more if you have a gentle touch than if you are aggressive. – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
I’m sure I’ve changed my mind about something. Inevitably, when we grow up – as we get more experience and wiser. Well, I’ve changed my mind about some food that I didn’t like when I was young. – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
I don’t think that a Justice should have uppermost in her mind, ‘A Democratic president appointed me, so I must leave to be sure that another Democratic president can appoint my successor.’ – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
If there was one decision I would overrule, it would be ‘Citizens United.’ I think the notion that we have all the democracy that money can buy strays so far from what our democracy is supposed to be. – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
I try to teach through my opinions, through my speeches, how wrong it is to judge people on the basis of what they look like, color of their skin, whether they’re men or women. – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
On the whole, we think of our consumers – other judges, lawyers, the public. The law that the Supreme Court establishes is the law that they must live by, so all things considered, it’s better to have it clearer than confusing. – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Our goal in the ’70s was to end the closed door era. There were so many things that were off limits to women: policing, firefighting, mining, piloting planes. – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
The worst times were the years I was alone. 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. – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Most states in the union where the death penalty is theoretically on the books don’t have executions. – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
I always thought that there was nothing an antifeminist would want more than to have women only in women’s organizations, in their own little corner empathizing with each other and not touching a man’s world. – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Anybody who has been discriminated against, who comes from a group that’s been discriminated against, knows what it’s like. – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
My biographers… would like to have my time at the court almost complete before they finish the book. We decided… to flip the order. – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
