Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (RBG) left behind a legacy like no other. As the first person (man or woman) to take positions on both the Harvard Law Review and the Columbia Law review, the first woman law professor to be tenured at Columbia, the co-founder of the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project, and the second woman and first Jewish person to serve on the Supreme Court, she used her position to empower others. A role model for humanity, she was a real life superhero.

She notoriously fought against gender discrimination. If you are a women who attends a state-funded school, a woman who took out a mortgage or opened a bank account without a male co-signer, a woman who served on a jury, a pregnant woman who was able to keep her job, a woman with a right to choose, or a person in a same-sex marriage (she was the first justice to officiate one!), you owe Justice Ginsburg.

RBG stood for women’s rights but she also championed the LGBTQ+ community, undocumented immigrants, people with disabilities, and voters. When she dissented, she did not hold back. For that, she deserves our every thanks.

I honor her today in her own words.

America’s Real Life Superhero

Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.

Ruth Bader Ginsberg

‘When will there be enough (women on the Supreme Court)?’ … My answer is: ‘When there are nine.’ People are shocked. But there’d been nine men, and nobody’s ever raised a question about that.

Ruth Bader Ginsberg

On Making a Difference

Fight for the things that you care about. But do it in a way that will lead others to join you.

Ruth Bader Ginsberg

Dissents speak to a future age. It’s not simply to say, ‘My colleagues are wrong and I would do it this way.’ But the greatest dissents do become court opinions and gradually over time their views become the dominant view. So that’s the dissenter’s hope: that they are writing not for today, but for tomorrow.

Ruth Bader Ginsberg

On Equality

Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.

Ruth Bader Ginsberg

“I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.”

Ruth Bader Ginsberg

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 Ginsberg

On Her Legacy

I would like to be remembered as someone who used whatever talent she had to do her work to the very best of her ability. And to help repair tears in her society, to make things a little better through the use of whatever ability she has … I’ve gotten much more satisfaction for the things that I’ve done for which I was not paid.

Ruth Bader Ginsberg

Work for what you believe in, but pick your battles, and don’t burn your bridges. Don’t be afraid to take charge, think about what you want, then do the work, but then enjoy what makes you happy, bring along your crew, have a sense of humor.

Ruth Bader Ginsberg

Thank you for standing up for our democracy, RBG. Your legacy lives on.