What do you get for the most politically savy, independent thinking, strong young adults you know who is graduating? Why isn’t it obvious? A custom, handpainted chair of Ruth Bader Ginsburg – none other than the Notorious #RGB – complete with her dissent collar and green earrings.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton in 1993. She is the second female justice (after Sandra Day O’Connor) of four to be confirmed to the court (along with Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, who are still serving alongside #RBG ).
#RGB , who is generally accepted as being more on the liberal side of the courts, has become recognized through the years for her forceful dissents. She has authored notable majority opinions, including United States v. Virginia, Olmstead v. L.C., and Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services, Inc.
#RBG was born in Brooklyn, New York. Her older sister died when she was a baby, and her mother, one of her biggest sources of encouragement, died shortly before #RBG graduated from high school. She then earned her bachelor’s degree at Cornell University, and became a wife and mother before starting law school at Harvard, where she was one of the few women in her class. #RBG transferred to Columbia Law School, where she graduated tied for first in her class. Following law school, #RBG turned to academia. She was a professor at Rutgers Law School and Columbia Law School, teaching civil procedure as one of the few women in her field.
#RBG spent a considerable part of her legal career as an advocate for the advancement of gender equality and women’s rights, winning multiple victories arguing before the Supreme Court. She advocated as a volunteer lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union and was a member of its board of directors and one of its general counsels in the 1970s. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where she served until her appointment to the Supreme Court.
#RBG has received attention in American popular culture; most recently with the 2018 documentary RGB and more recently the movie On the Basis of Sex starring Felicity Jones
