Ginsburg is a powerful force on the U.S. Supreme Court. She is the subject of the popular book Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Here are 10 fascinating facts about Ginsburg from the book:
- Ginsburg remembers seeing a sign in a bed-and breakfast in Pennsylvania that read, “No dogs or Jews allowed.”
- Ginsburg said that she learned from her mother not to let “anger or envy get in your way.”
- Her mother was a bookkeeper and scrimped together the sum of $8,000 for Ginsburg’s college education.
- When Ginsburg went to Cornell, she located all the women’s bathrooms. At the best one in the school of architecture, she would go into the stall and work on her homework.
- As a lawyer, when she first appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court to argue a case on sex discrimination, she wore her mother’s pin and earrings.
- While arguing her first case, she quoted Sarah Grimké, an abolitionist and advocate for women’s rights. The quote was “I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.”
- Before Ginsburg joined the Supreme Court, there was only a Men’s Restroom in the Robing Room. For twelve years, when she needed go to the bathroom, Ginsburg’s college Justice Sandra Day O’Conner had to scurry back to her chambers. Only when there were two women on the Supreme Court was a restroom built.
- She will still wear a scrunchie in her hair.
- She has many styles of jabots, the frill on the front of her robe. One came from the gift shop of the Metropolitan Opera, and another from the store Banana Republic.
- When Ginsburg voices a dissent from her male colleagues, she wears a jabot that looks like a beaded collar. That means she’s ready for battle.