March 15, 2022 would have been the 89th birthday of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who, for her whole life, was an unwavering champion for women’s rights and social justice. The second woman ever appointed to the Supreme Court, she served for 27 years, from 1993 until her death.
The above clip is from the audio book for Justice, Justice Thou Shalt Pursue: A Life’s Work Fighting for a More Perfect Union, read from the book’s introduction. It quotes Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s confirmation hearing testimony, which she easily won on August 4, 1993. A timeline of her other monumental achievements, personally and professionally, follows.
Timeline: The Life of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
1933 March 15: born Joan Ruth Bader, Brooklyn, New York
1934 June 6: Older sister Marilyn dies of meningitis at age six
1950 June 25: Mother Celia Bader dies of cancer
June 27: Graduates from James Madison High School, Brooklyn, New York (does not attend graduation due to mother’s death)
Enrolls in Cornell University and meets sophomore Martin D. (“Marty”) Ginsburg on a blind date
1954 June 14: Graduates from Cornell University
June 23: Marries Marty at his parents’ home on Long Island
1954 Moves to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, for Marty’s Army service as an artillery school instructor and works in several clerical positions
1955 Daughter Jane is born
1956 Enrolls at Harvard Law School, one year behind Marty, as one of nine women students in a class of over 550
1957-1958 Marty battles cancer during his final year of law school
1958 Following Marty’s graduation from Harvard Law School, the family moves to New York and Justice Ginsburg transfers to Columbia Law School
1959 Graduates from Columbia Law School tied for first in her class
1959-1961 Serves as law clerk to the Honorable Edmund L. Palmieri, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
1961-1963 Serves as research associate and then associate director of Columbia Law School Project on International Procedure
1963 Joins the faculty at Rutgers School of Law, State University of New Jersey (one of two women on the faculty)
1965 Son James is born
1968 June 20: Father Nathan Bader dies
1971 With Marty, represents Charles Moritz and co-authors fist brief in a gender discrimination case Co-authors first Supreme Court brief in Reed v. Reed
1972 Joins the faculty of Columbia Law School with tenure
Named first director of the Americans Civil Liberties Union’s newly created Women’s Rights Project
1973 First Supreme Court oral argument, in Frontiero v. Richardson
1974 With Kenneth M. Davidson and Herma Hill Kay, publishes Cases and Materials on Sex-Based Discrimination
1975 Argues Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld
1978 Argues her last case before the Supreme Court, Duren v. Missouri
1980 Appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
1993 Appointed by President William J. Clinton to the Supreme Court of the United States
1996 Writes for the Supreme Court majority in United States v. Virginia
1999 First bout with cancer (colorectal)
2007 Dissents in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.
2009 Second bout with cancer (pancreatic)
2010 June 27: Marty dies of cancer
2013 Dissents in Shelby County v. Holder
2014 Dissents in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.
2018 Has surgery to address cancerous nodules on left lung discovered while being treated for fractured ribs sustained in a fall
2019 Recurrence of pancreatic cancer
2020 September 18: passes away from complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer