Profile of the Day: Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Today we remember Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on what would have been her 90th birthday.

Image: Ruth Bader Ginsburg / Wikimedia Commons

Ginsburg was born Joan Ruth Bader on March 15, 1933 in Brooklyn, New York. She was the second child born to Nathan Bader, a Jewish emigrant from Odessa, Ukraine, and Celia Amster, whose family came from Kraków, Poland. In 1956, Ginsburg enrolled in Harvard Law School, where she was one of only 9 women in a class of about 500 men. After her husband accepted a job with a law firm in New York, Ginsburg transferred to Columbia Law School to complete her education. Upon graduating, Ginsburg was tied for first in her class.

Ginsburg spent much of her legal career as an advocate for gender equality and women’s rights. In 1972, she co-founded the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project and became the Project’s general counsel. She argued six gender discrimination cases before the Supreme Court, winning five. In 1993, she made history as the second female justice in the U.S. Supreme Court. She served for 27 years until her death on September 18, 2020 at the age of 87.

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