We mourn the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a trailblazer, cultural icon, and powerful force for good matched by few in American history. Her life testified to the promise of American democracy and the struggle to make real its most compelling ideals.
She fought not just for herself, but for the generations of women to come.
Throughout her career she showed the positive power of the law. Like Thurgood Marshall before her, she was as noteworthy for her work as a pioneering lawyer for women’s equality as for her service on the bench.
She was a model for lawyers and law students, America’s foremost feminist lawyer, before she ever wore a judicial robe. We need more judges with a path to the bench like that of Justice Ginsburg.
In recent years, especially, she was a passionate voice for democracy. Her dissent in Shelby County v. Holder, the case that gutted the Voting Rights Act, stands as among the most prophetic in the Court’s history.
“Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet,” she wrote.
Ginsburg was right. The decision unleashed voter suppression unseen since the Jim Crow era.
Justice Ginsburg was a giant in the fight for a better country and a more perfect union. We carry on our work in her memory. May her memory be a blessing.
Find our official statement here. brennancenter.org/our-work/analy…
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