RUTH - Justice Ginsburg in her own Words

[slow poignant instrumental music]

- I don't like to speak of my own personal experience,

but I will cite one example because it is a general one.

I did very well in law school.

It was not possible to do much better.

There was not a single law firm in the whole city

of New York that would invite me

to come even for an interview.

I don't have two heads, so that wasn't the problem.

I suspected that the door was closed because of my sex,

so the barriers were there,

and it isn't simply a question of changing ages of marriage.

Institutions, gatekeepers shut the door to women,

and those doors have been open very recently.

How are you holding up?

- There's remarkable little knowledge

among college students about the Supreme Court.

I've been teaching college students almost every year

that I've been a law professor, and it's remarkable

how few justices they could name

or how little they know about the Constitution.

I've seen opinion polls that more people

can name the Seven Dwarfs than can name justices

on the United States Supreme Court.

I think it's because people don't appreciate

how much what the Supreme Court does affects their lives.

- All righty. Good evening, everybody.

- Well, welcome to the White House.

- There she is, also known as the Notorious RBG.

Please give a warm welcome

to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

- So Notorious BIG and I had something in common.

We were both born and bred in Brooklyn, New York.

- How does it feel to become at this stage

in your life this character?

It's awesome.

- "I'm not a rockstar"? Au contraire.

She is a rockstar.

Thank you.

My assignment this morning is

to describe the essential difference

between the 14th Amendment

and the proposed Equal Rights Amendment

as a foundation for a constitutional sex equality principle.

In a nutshell, the difference is this.

The equal status and dignity of men and women under the law

is the animating purpose of Equal Rights Amendment.

By contrast, sex equality was not contemplated

by the framers of the 14th Amendment.

The law is a consuming love for me.

It seemed to me an area in which women were not yet wanted.

When you look at the Supreme Court

and there isn't one woman, you don't aspire to something

that is such a remote possibility.

- Were you surprised when you were appointed?

- I don't think it's fair to say that I was surprised.

I was elated that the Carter administration

made a concerted effort to appoint women to the judiciary

so then, at that point, I could aspire.

- Do you have any aspirations for the Supreme Court?

- I'm entirely content with the job

that I now have as I did not target the Court of Appeals

for the DC circuit as my life's ambition.

So I don't target any other job.

- She argued six landmark cases in behalf

of women before the United States Supreme Court

and happily won five out of six.

I am proud to nominate this pathbreaking attorney, advocate,

and judge to be the 107th justice

to the United States Supreme Court.

- Mr. President, I am grateful beyond measure

for the confidence you have placed in me.

I have a thank you.

It is to my mother, Celia Amster Bader,

the bravest and strongest person I have known,

who was taken from me much too soon.

I pray that I may be all that she would have been

had she lived in an age when women could aspire and achieve

and daughters are cherished as much as sons.

Thank you.

- This is only the day after my nomination was announced.

I'm still sometimes thinking I'm walking in a dream.

- Some reports from conservative interest group

that they are concerned that Judge Ginsburg may legislate

from the bench and not merely interpret the law.

- I have never been as optimistic

in naming Judge Ginsburg to move to the court.

She probably

will have had a more difficult time the first time

in the circuit court than she will

through the Supreme Court.

- I intend to cooperate with the committee

in every way I can to expedite the process,

and for the rest, I am what I am,

and I hope that they will be pleased.

- Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee

welcomed Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg,

the president's nominee to be associate justice

of the United States Supreme Court.

Would you be kind enough though, judge,

to introduce your family to us?

- My life's partner for 39 years, Martin Ginsburg.

Welcome, welcome.

- And my son from the great state of Chicago,

James Ginsburg. - All right.

- And my incredible daughter, Jane Ginsberg

and Clara and Paul Spera.

- Well, you have quite a family, and we welcome you all.

Senator Metzenbaum.

- Happy to see you here, Judge Ginsburg.

In your view is the right

to choose a fundamental constitutional right?

- Majority of the court has said that this is a right

of a woman guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.

It's a decision that she must make for herself.

The case poses the question, who decides?

Is it the state or the individual?

I think that the most recent decision

says the woman decides.

- I think you ought to tell us where you really come down

on this thing because I'm not asking you

to decide a future case.

I'm just asking you to is it in the Constitution?

Is it constitutional?

- It's certainly a question that is going

to be before this court, so this is the kind of question

that it would be injudicious for me to address.

- Our next panel is comprised of representatives

of a number of groups wishing to testify

in opposition to the nomination of Judge Ginsburg.

- Consistent with her warped perspective,

Mrs. Ginsburg, as a litigator,

argued that pregnancy should be treated

as a disability rather than as a gift from God.

- Because Judge Ginsburg holds this view,

I oppose her nomination and urge you

to vote against the confirmation.

- Personally, I disagree with her on this issue,

but she's an excellent person and a fine judicial scholar.

- The next panel is comprised

of a former ACLU colleague.

- When she was teaching at Columbia

and running the ACLU Women's Rights Project,

her vision of social justice was instructive to all of us.

Her nomination to the Supreme Court,

I think, fulfills her destiny.

- I was just wondering what it was in your own experience

that really led you to take this path

and devote so much of your career

to breaking down the legal barriers,

the advancement of the women in our society.

- Senator Kennedy, I'm very sensitized to discrimination.

I grew up at the time of World War II in a Jewish family.

I have memories as a child, even before the war,

of being in a car with my parents and driving places,

and there was a sign in front of a resort,

and it said, "No dogs or Jews allowed."

That in this country during my childhood.

People who have known discrimination

are bound to be sympathetic to understand.

I want to thank Judge Ginsburg for revealing

not only the brilliant of her mind

but I think of her soul and heart as well.

- Now I know just how really fitting and proper

and how significant this vote is going to be for me.

- Whatever you've been doing has worked pretty well,

so keep doing it.

- I, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, do solemnly swear.

- I, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, do solemnly swear.

- That I will support and defend the Constitution

of the United States.

- That I will support and defend the Constitution

of the United States.

- So help me God. - So help me God.

- Her story already is a part of our history.

Now her words and her judgments will help

to shape our nation today and well into the 21st century.

- It's by far the best place I have ever worked.

The relationship among the justices is very close

because no matter how great our differences

on what the law is or ought to be,

we know it will suffer if we can't get on well

Having Justice O'Connor here for 12 years

before I came made it infinitely easier for me.

She is an exceptionally fine and well-respected judge,

and she has been such a warm and wonderful friend to me.

Although we come from very different areas of the country,

I would say there's much more bonding between the two of us

than there is between any two men on that court.

I wish student groups would come and visit the court.

A very hearty welcome to the Supreme Court to all of you.

Please sit down, and perhaps one of the teachers