Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Bader Ginsburg has become my favorite justice on the current United States Supreme Court. She may be small of stature, but she has a huge heart, a giant spirit, and an indomitable will -- and she is never afraid to speak out for those who need help, or whose rights are being violated. I think she'll be remembered as one of our greatest justices.

Here are a few quotes from her in a recent MSNBC interview:

ON ABORTION:

“We will never see a day when women of means are not able to get a safe abortion in this country.”

“All the restrictions, they operate against the woman who doesn’t have freedom to move, to go where she is able to get safely what she wants.”

“I don’t want to make any predictions. But precedent is important in this court.” (Overturning Roe) “could happen, but I think it’s not a likely scenario.”

ON RACIAL OPPRESSION:

“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.”

“People who think you could wave a magic wand and the legacy of the past will be over are blind.”

“We’ve come a long way from the days where there was state enforced segregation. But we still have a way to go.”

ON CONGRESS:

“The current Congress is not equipped really to do anything. The kind of result that we got in the Ledbetter case is not easily achieved today. Someday, we will go back to having the kind of legislature that we should, where members, whatever party they belong to, want to make the thing work and cooperate with each other to see that that will happen.” 

ON HERSELF:

“My aspirations have not changed since the ’70s. . . .my hope for our society that we’re going to use the talent of all of the people and not just half of them. I would contrast an earlier period in my life, when I just accepted discrimination as that’s the way things are, nothing I can do about it.”

“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, [the] color of their skin, whether they’re men or women.”

ON HOW SHE'D LIKE TO BE REMEMBERED:

“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.”

(The caricature of Justice Ginsburg above is by DonkeyHotey.)