Summary Of My Own Words Ginsburg
My Own Words, written by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, is an autobiography presented through a series of collected written works and lectures. Co-Authors Hartnett and Williams provide context to Justice Ginsburg’s works, ranging from an editorial written by a young middle schooler Ginsburg to several of her Supreme Court arguments and rulings. Ginsburg, the daughter of a middle-class Brooklyn Jewish family, rose far beyond her humble upbringing to become only the second female Supreme Court Justice. Justice Ginsburg uses her background as a template throughout the book to discuss not only her views of Constitutional jurisprudence, but also her views on feminism, society, and beyond. There are several prevalent themes throughout
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the book: her love of law, predicated by her love of learning; her strong bonds with her family and others; and her bold stances on issues regarding women and gender.
Her love of learning started early with her fondness for her religious heritage– “From childhood onward, Ruth especially valued the reverence for justice and learning that was part of her Jewish heritage. She enjoyed studying Hebrew and the history of the Jews…” (14) Her Jewishness plays a defining role throughout the book in prescribing her world view – early on, it is mentioned that she helped sent money to plant trees in the then newly created state of Israel – and her religion plays a vital role in her family life. Justice Ginsburg, a lifelong feminist, took to the example of her mother, Celia, who encouraged her from a young age to be independent. Of her heritage, she says: “Jews in the United States, I mean to convey, today face few closed doors and do not fear letting the world know who we are. A question stated in various ways is indicative of large advances made. What is the difference between a New York City garment district bookkeeper and a Supreme Court Justice? One generation my life bears witness, the difference between opportunities open to my mother, a bookkeeper, and those open to me.” (84) Her beloved late husband, Martin, is allowed a few sections of the book to expound on his wife’s role in their family and in her long and storied career. She also devotes several sections to discussing her friends and personal heroes that have helped define her life, including close friend and frequent opponent Antonin Scalia as well as feminist icon Gloria Steinem among others. These sections shed a kind light onto Justice Ginsburg; while we often seen judges as the stuffy, robed vanguards of our Constitution, the personal sections of the book humanize her and breakup the occasional monotony of some of the legal theory readings (of which she is quite fond.) Justice Ginsburg’s political views first took flight under the tutelage of Cornell professor Robert Cushman, who hired her as an undergrad to be his research assistant: “Cushman, who assigned her to research McCarthy’s assault on civil liberties, “wanted me to understand two things,” Ruth recalls.
“One is that we were betraying our most fundamental values, and, two, that legal skills could help make things better, could help to challenge what was going on.”” (21) The then student Ginsburg would take that advice to heart, especially later in her academic career as she began arguing cases in front of the Court and promoting feminist causes writ large. It would be at Cornell that she made her first foray into Constitutional law in a letter to the Cornell Daily Sun wherein she questioned the use of wiretapping against suspected communists by the federal government: “In the first place, what is the purpose of the criminal sanction? Is it just to put a man behind bars, or is it to attach the moral condemnation of the community to certain forms of behavior? Unless moral judgment is involved, the cost of enforcing the criminal code might well be employed in other areas.” (22) Her later jurisprudence would reflect this attitude. Of Justice Ginsburg, it is said: “Always, she pays careful attention to the history and purpose, fairness and effectiveness, of the rules that shape and direct our justice system. Throughout her speeches and writings, she includes “sideglances” at the justice systems of sister democracies for the light they shine on our own and offers homage to the waypavers and the pathmarkers who have improved our world through law.” (193) These “sideglances” are seen in sections such as one discussing Brown vs. Board of Education and another from a speech discussing the value of diversity. The book also includes several of her own Court opinions and dissents in which this principle is illustrated – namely, her dissents in Shelby vs. Holder and Gonzales vs.
Carhart. There is also an interesting discussion of Roe vs. Wade that surprised me in several ways while making me rethink my own opinion of the Court’s most controversial decision. But where Justice Ginsburg’s best writings appear are on the discussion of gender and women’s rights at large.
Justice Ginsburg’s feminism has played a major role in her life. To help define her views, she quotes her Supreme Court colleague, Sandra Day O’Connor: “For both men and women the first step in getting power is to become visible to others, and then to put on an impressive show... As women achieve power, the barriers will fall. As society sees what women can do, as women see what women can do, there will be more women out there doing things, and we’ll all be better off for it.” (90) Much of Justice Ginsburg’s early career was spent having to brave casual sexism by the men who dominated the law field. She recalls, “The few women who braved law school in the 1950s and 1960s, it was generally supposed, presented no real challenge to (or competition for) the men. One distinguished law professor commented at a 1971 Association of American Law Schools meeting, when colleagues expressed misgivings about the rising enrollment of women that coincided with the call-up of men for Vietnam War service: Not to worry, he said. “What were women law students after all, only soft men.”” (71) In her later remarks, Ginsburg talks proudly of the closing gap between men and women in enrollment: “In the law schools, women filled between 3 and 4.5 percent of the seats each academic year from 1947 until 1967. Today, women are almost 50 percent of all law students, and over 50 percent of the associates at large law firms.” (72) As a tenured professor at Rutgers and Columbia, Ginsburg took the onus as the pre-eminent women’s rights lawyers of her time: “Under the ACLU’s aegis, she would mastermind briefs submitted in twenty-four Supreme Court cases… On six occasions, she appeared before the Court to present oral argument. She lost just one case. Through her briefs, starting with Reed, she, more than any other lawyer, shaped the legal arguments reflected in the Court’s opinions, earning her the honorific “the Thurgood Marshall of the women’s movement.” By the time she left teaching and litigation for a judgeship on the federal appeals court for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1980, state and federal law had undergone a revolution.” (115) The book includes a section from Justice Ginsburg discussing the ill-fated Equal Rights Amendment and her scathing critique of the ERA’s critics. As only the second woman to ever be elected to the Supreme Court, Ginsburg has been, in all stages of her life, a trailblazer, fighting for the rights of all.
Overall, the book does an excellent job of elucidating Justice Ginsburg’s life, both personally and professionally. Justice Ginsburg’s writing are clear and concise, a testament to her ability as a scholar to be able to condense complicated legalese into layman’s terms that allow one to follow along easily. The context provided by co-authors Williams and Hartnett perform their function, but occasionally to the detriment of Ginsburg’s story; it is her autobiography, after all. The title My Own Words is a misnomer. I would have enjoyed more of Justice Ginsburg’s insights on her early life and experiences, specifically as a young lawyer fighting against discrimination during the sixties and seventies. Having discussed some of the issues that woman have faced in the legal field in class, I thought that having the perspective of someone such as Justice Ginsburg would have greatly contributed to my understanding of a time and period of which she played a major role.
The book is an easy read. It follows a chronological order but it occasionally jumps back and forth between present and past speeches or writings. However, these jumps make sense and seek to draw together experiences from Ginsburg’s life. The sections involving life as a Supreme Court justice were my favorite to read – I found a lot of the tidbits and details interesting and illuminating – and they helped bring a bit of flavor to a book where much of it is predicated on discussions of legal philosophy that only the most astute scholars could love. I found several of the tributes she gives in the book – to colleagues Scalia and Chief Justice William Rehnquist as well as figures from American legal history such as Belva Lockwood and Louis Brandeis – to be moving in a way in which I had not expected. It is obvious that Justice Ginsburg is an unbelievably intelligent woman who loves the Constitution and our history. I would recommend this book not only as a tribute to one of the great women of American history, but also to any lover of our legal tradition who seek to learn and discover more about one of our great Justices.
the book: her love of law, predicated by her love of learning; her strong bonds with her family and others; and her bold stances on issues regarding women and gender.
Her love of learning started early with her fondness for her religious heritage– “From childhood onward, Ruth especially valued the reverence for justice and learning that was part of her Jewish heritage. She enjoyed studying Hebrew and the history of the Jews…” (14) Her Jewishness plays a defining role throughout the book in prescribing her world view – early on, it is mentioned that she helped sent money to plant trees in the then newly created state of Israel – and her religion plays a vital role in her family life. Justice Ginsburg, a lifelong feminist, took to the example of her mother, Celia, who encouraged her from a young age to be independent. Of her heritage, she says: “Jews in the United States, I mean to convey, today face few closed doors and do not fear letting the world know who we are. A question stated in various ways is indicative of large advances made. What is the difference between a New York City garment district bookkeeper and a Supreme Court Justice? One generation my life bears witness, the difference between opportunities open to my mother, a bookkeeper, and those open to me.” (84) Her beloved late husband, Martin, is allowed a few sections of the book to expound on his wife’s role in their family and in her long and storied career. She also devotes several sections to discussing her friends and personal heroes that have helped define her life, including close friend and frequent opponent Antonin Scalia as well as feminist icon Gloria Steinem among others. These sections shed a kind light onto Justice Ginsburg; while we often seen judges as the stuffy, robed vanguards of our Constitution, the personal sections of the book humanize her and breakup the occasional monotony of some of the legal theory readings (of which she is quite fond.) Justice Ginsburg’s political views first took flight under the tutelage of Cornell professor Robert Cushman, who hired her as an undergrad to be his research assistant: “Cushman, who assigned her to research McCarthy’s assault on civil liberties, “wanted me to understand two things,” Ruth recalls.
“One is that we were betraying our most fundamental values, and, two, that legal skills could help make things better, could help to challenge what was going on.”” (21) The then student Ginsburg would take that advice to heart, especially later in her academic career as she began arguing cases in front of the Court and promoting feminist causes writ large. It would be at Cornell that she made her first foray into Constitutional law in a letter to the Cornell Daily Sun wherein she questioned the use of wiretapping against suspected communists by the federal government: “In the first place, what is the purpose of the criminal sanction? Is it just to put a man behind bars, or is it to attach the moral condemnation of the community to certain forms of behavior? Unless moral judgment is involved, the cost of enforcing the criminal code might well be employed in other areas.” (22) Her later jurisprudence would reflect this attitude. Of Justice Ginsburg, it is said: “Always, she pays careful attention to the history and purpose, fairness and effectiveness, of the rules that shape and direct our justice system. Throughout her speeches and writings, she includes “sideglances” at the justice systems of sister democracies for the light they shine on our own and offers homage to the waypavers and the pathmarkers who have improved our world through law.” (193) These “sideglances” are seen in sections such as one discussing Brown vs. Board of Education and another from a speech discussing the value of diversity. The book also includes several of her own Court opinions and dissents in which this principle is illustrated – namely, her dissents in Shelby vs. Holder and Gonzales vs.
Carhart. There is also an interesting discussion of Roe vs. Wade that surprised me in several ways while making me rethink my own opinion of the Court’s most controversial decision. But where Justice Ginsburg’s best writings appear are on the discussion of gender and women’s rights at large.
Justice Ginsburg’s feminism has played a major role in her life. To help define her views, she quotes her Supreme Court colleague, Sandra Day O’Connor: “For both men and women the first step in getting power is to become visible to others, and then to put on an impressive show... As women achieve power, the barriers will fall. As society sees what women can do, as women see what women can do, there will be more women out there doing things, and we’ll all be better off for it.” (90) Much of Justice Ginsburg’s early career was spent having to brave casual sexism by the men who dominated the law field. She recalls, “The few women who braved law school in the 1950s and 1960s, it was generally supposed, presented no real challenge to (or competition for) the men. One distinguished law professor commented at a 1971 Association of American Law Schools meeting, when colleagues expressed misgivings about the rising enrollment of women that coincided with the call-up of men for Vietnam War service: Not to worry, he said. “What were women law students after all, only soft men.”” (71) In her later remarks, Ginsburg talks proudly of the closing gap between men and women in enrollment: “In the law schools, women filled between 3 and 4.5 percent of the seats each academic year from 1947 until 1967. Today, women are almost 50 percent of all law students, and over 50 percent of the associates at large law firms.” (72) As a tenured professor at Rutgers and Columbia, Ginsburg took the onus as the pre-eminent women’s rights lawyers of her time: “Under the ACLU’s aegis, she would mastermind briefs submitted in twenty-four Supreme Court cases… On six occasions, she appeared before the Court to present oral argument. She lost just one case. Through her briefs, starting with Reed, she, more than any other lawyer, shaped the legal arguments reflected in the Court’s opinions, earning her the honorific “the Thurgood Marshall of the women’s movement.” By the time she left teaching and litigation for a judgeship on the federal appeals court for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1980, state and federal law had undergone a revolution.” (115) The book includes a section from Justice Ginsburg discussing the ill-fated Equal Rights Amendment and her scathing critique of the ERA’s critics. As only the second woman to ever be elected to the Supreme Court, Ginsburg has been, in all stages of her life, a trailblazer, fighting for the rights of all.
Overall, the book does an excellent job of elucidating Justice Ginsburg’s life, both personally and professionally. Justice Ginsburg’s writing are clear and concise, a testament to her ability as a scholar to be able to condense complicated legalese into layman’s terms that allow one to follow along easily. The context provided by co-authors Williams and Hartnett perform their function, but occasionally to the detriment of Ginsburg’s story; it is her autobiography, after all. The title My Own Words is a misnomer. I would have enjoyed more of Justice Ginsburg’s insights on her early life and experiences, specifically as a young lawyer fighting against discrimination during the sixties and seventies. Having discussed some of the issues that woman have faced in the legal field in class, I thought that having the perspective of someone such as Justice Ginsburg would have greatly contributed to my understanding of a time and period of which she played a major role.
The book is an easy read. It follows a chronological order but it occasionally jumps back and forth between present and past speeches or writings. However, these jumps make sense and seek to draw together experiences from Ginsburg’s life. The sections involving life as a Supreme Court justice were my favorite to read – I found a lot of the tidbits and details interesting and illuminating – and they helped bring a bit of flavor to a book where much of it is predicated on discussions of legal philosophy that only the most astute scholars could love. I found several of the tributes she gives in the book – to colleagues Scalia and Chief Justice William Rehnquist as well as figures from American legal history such as Belva Lockwood and Louis Brandeis – to be moving in a way in which I had not expected. It is obvious that Justice Ginsburg is an unbelievably intelligent woman who loves the Constitution and our history. I would recommend this book not only as a tribute to one of the great women of American history, but also to any lover of our legal tradition who seek to learn and discover more about one of our great Justices.