Thread by @washingtonpost

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court and a legal pioneer for gender equality whose fierce opinions as a justice made her a hero to the left, died Sept. 18 at her home in Washington. She was 87. wapo.st/35QXdTw

As a member of the court’s liberal block, Ginsburg was a reliable vote to enhance the rights of women, protect affirmative action and minority voting rights and defend a woman’s right to choose an abortion. wapo.st/2ZRbzzd

Born in Depression-era Brooklyn, Ginsburg excelled academically and went to the top of her law school class.

In the 1970s, she successfully argued a series of cases before the high court that chipped away at the legal wall of gender discrimination. wapo.st/2ZRbzzd

Ginsburg's outspoken feminism played a role in her success.

President Bill Clinton acknowledged that in 1993 when he nominated her to replace retiring Justice Byron White. At the time, she was a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. wapo.st/2ZRbzzd

On the court, Ginsburg became an icon to a new wave of young feminists, and her regal image as the “Notorious RBG” graced T-shirts and coffee mugs.

Her law clerks had to explain to her that the moniker referred to a deceased rapper, the Notorious B.I.G. wapo.st/2ZRbzzd

In 2011, when three female justices sat on the court for the first time, Ginsburg told The Post, “When the schoolchildren file in and out of the court and they look up and they see three women, then that will seem natural and proper — just how it is.” wapo.st/2ZRbzzd