STATEMENT

Statement on the Death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

September 21, 2020

  • Gender and Reproductive Equity

We are deeply saddened by the loss of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It is hard to overstate what Justice Ginsburg and her decades of groundbreaking jurisprudence meant to generations of women and marginalized people for whom she was an outspoken advocate and tireless champion.

Justice Ginsburg blazed many trails in her long career as a lawyer, legal scholar, advocate, professor and judge. Among them, she was the second woman on the Supreme Court and the first Jewish woman. Both women’s rights and the Jewish pursuit of justice informed her lifelong commitment to fighting against discrimination and for civil liberties. She deeply believed that the law could reflect our highest ideals as a nation and could uphold the inherent dignity and equality of all human beings.

Justice Ginsburg’s death is a profound loss at a particularly difficult time in our country. It raises new fears about the future of women’s rights, reproductive justice, gender equality and “liberty and justice for all.” But even as we mourn her loss, we celebrate her life and commit to carrying forward the legacy she has left us.

May her memory be a blessing as we continue the fight for equal rights and to build a more just and equitable country.