Thread by @ACLU

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's legal work leaves our country forever changed.

Let's revisit some of the details. Thread ⬇️

🏛️ Frontiero v Richardson: An Air Force lieutenant applied for benefits for her husband, who she claimed as dependent.

At the time, only servicewomen had to prove that their husbands depended on them for more than half their support. Under this rule, her husband didn't qualify.

RBG argued in Frontiero’s favor, and won.

This case set the legal foundation against sex discrimination that would be built upon in later court cases.

🏛️ Weinberger v Wiesenfeld: A man whose wife died in childbirth, leaving him alone to care for their newborn son, went to the local Social Security office to inquire about survivors’ benefits for parents.

He learned that he didn’t qualify because he was a man.

In front of the Supreme Court, RBG argued that the section of the Social Security Act that denied fathers benefits because of their sex was unconstitutional.

She won a unanimous decision.

🏛️ Edwards v Healy: In this case, Ginsburg fought against a Louisiana statute that exempted women from serving on juries, unless they filed a written declaration of their desire to do so.

Ginsburg argued that this statute violated the Equal Protection Clause as well as the Due Process Clause.

The trial court agreed, and the Supreme Court later struck down the law in another case as unfair to people on trial.

🏛️ Califano v Goldfarb: Goldfarb, a widower, applied for survivors' benefits. His application was denied because he wasn't receiving half his support from his wife at the time of her death.

This requirement wasn't imposed on widows whose husbands recently passed.

Ginsburg represented Goldfarb, and in a 5-4 decision, the statute was ruled as unconstitutional sex discrimination.

This victory wouldn’t have been possible without the groundwork she had established in earlier cases.

🏛️ Duren v Missouri: In this case, Ginsburg represented Billy Duren, who was convicted of first degree murder and robbery by an all-male jury.

She argued that Missouri's practice of making jury duty optional for women should be struck down.

Ginsburg not only argued for the defendant's Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment right to a fair trial, but that the rule saw women's service on juries as less valuable than men's.

In a 8-1 decision, she won the case.

Thank you, RBG.