The Supreme Court stated that complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer were the cause of death. In December 2018, two small tumors were discovered in one of her lungs during a follow-up scan for broken ribs from a fall. Ginsburg had previously overcome colon cancer in 1999 and early-stage pancreatic cancer 10 years later. In 2014, she received a coronary stent to treat a blocked artery. Despite her small stature and light weight, Ginsburg was known for her toughness and dedication to regular workouts with a trainer, who wrote a book about her challenging exercise routine. As Ruth Bader Ginsburg celebrated her 80th birthday and 20th anniversary on the Supreme Court during President Barack Obama's second term, she ignored suggestions for retirement in order to allow a Democratic president to choose her replacement. She intended to continue in her role for as long as she was able to perform it effectively. Ginsburg found it challenging to be the only woman on the Supreme Court after Justice Sandra Day O'Connor retired in 2006, as it did not reflect the progress she had fought for in her career. However, she was later joined by Sonia Sotomayor in 2009 and Elena Kagan in 2010, both appointed by Obama. After Justice John Paul Stevens retired in 2010, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg became the senior member and unofficial leader of a liberal bloc on the Supreme Court, which included two other female justices and Justice Stephen Breyer. Without a fifth vote from Justice Anthony Kennedy, the group often found themselves in dissent on the increasingly polarized court. Ginsburg's dissenting opinions, which often spoke for the group, gained attention as the court shifted further to the right. A law student named Shana Knizhnik even gave her the nickname "Notorious RBG," a nod to the famous rapper Notorious BIG, who was also from Brooklyn like Ginsburg. Shortly after Ruth Bader Ginsburg's image became widely recognized, it quickly gained popularity on the internet. Young women got tattoos of her likeness, children dressed up as her for Halloween, and her iconic phrase "You Can't Spell Truth Without Ruth" appeared on various merchandise. Biographies and documentaries about her life also became bestsellers and box office hits, further solidifying her status as a cultural icon. The admiration for Ruth Bader Ginsburg grew rapidly following Donald Trump's election, especially after she called him "a faker" during the 2016 campaign. Scholars tried to understand this phenomenon, with Dahlia Lithwick suggesting that women, in need of female role models, saw Ginsburg as a beacon of hope for the future. In 1993, when President Clinton nominated the quiet and collegial 60-year-old judge to the Supreme Court, few could have predicted her later popularity. Her confirmation by the Senate, with a vote of 96-3, ended a long period without Democratic appointments to the Court. Ruth Ginsburg was often compared to Thurgood Marshall in her role as a litigator and director of the Women's Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union during the 1970s. Both strategically chose cases to challenge discrimination, with Ginsburg persuading the all-male Supreme Court to recognize the constitutional barrier against sex discrimination, much like Marshall did with racial segregation. When Ginsburg took her seat as a junior justice on the Supreme Court in 1993, it was a familiar setting for her, having previously argued cases that became legal landmarks. She brought six cases to the court between 1973 and 1978, winning five of them. Her aim was to convince the Supreme Court that the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection should apply to both racial and sex discrimination. This was a challenging task, as the Supreme Court had never before considered sex discrimination as a constitutional issue, especially under Chief Justice Earl Warren. The outlook did not appear any more favorable under Chief Justice Warren Burger, appointed by President Richard Nixon in 1969. Ruth Bader Ginsburg presides over a mock trial of Shylock after a performance of "The Merchant of Venice," at the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice, Italy, July 27, 2016. Ginsburg believed it was necessary to educate a potentially unaware audience about laws that were supposed to protect women but were actually based on stereotypes. In a 1988 speech, she expressed her frustration that justices did not see the unequal treatment of men and women in jury selection and other legal situations as harmful to women. She also pointed out that a justice's personal perspective could lead to a dismissive attitude towards gender discrimination challenges. In order to make a change in direction, the court needed to recognize that laws intended to help or safeguard women could have unintended consequences. This was demonstrated through successful legal challenges to an Idaho law that favored men over women in selecting estate administrators, a military regulation that restricted benefits for husbands of female soldiers, and a Social Security provision that assumed wives were not primary breadwinners. In many of these cases, the plaintiff was a man seeking equal treatment under the law. Following her triumph in the Supreme Court case, Ginsburg maintained contact with the father and child involved. In 1998, she even traveled to Florida to assist with officiating at Jason's wedding. Years later, in 2014, Ginsburg oversaw her former client's second marriage at the Supreme Court, marking 42 years since Paula Wiesenfeld's passing. Although she did not personally argue the 1976 case of Craig v. Boren, Ginsburg's work on it led to the Supreme Court formally adopting the rule that official distinctions based on gender would face closer scrutiny from the courts. This landmark decision struck down an Oklahoma law that allowed girls to purchase beer at 18 while boys had to wait until they were 21. While the specific issue in Craig v. Boren may not have seemed significant, the constitutional implications of the ruling were indeed profound. Even though the court did not fully embrace Ginsburg's "strict scrutiny" rule in her early cases, reserving it primarily for race discrimination, the justices eventually agreed that the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection also applied to gender equality. This was a personal victory for Ginsburg when she delivered the majority opinion in a 1996 discrimination case involving the Virginia Military Institute. The court ruled 7-1 that the all-male admissions policy of the state-supported military college was unconstitutional, despite Virginia's argument that its rigorous curriculum was not suitable for women. Virginia had established a separate military college for women under legal pressure, which lacked the advantages enjoyed by VMI graduates. In United States v. Virginia, Ginsburg criticized the state for not providing a valid reason for treating men and women differently. She emphasized the need to offer women seeking a VMI-quality education equal protection and opportunities. Ginsburg acknowledged the differences between men and women but stressed that these should not result in discrimination or limitations on individuals' opportunities. She visited VMI in 2018 and believed that her decision had made the institute a better place. On June 26, 1996, Ginsburg spoke about a moment during the VMI case where she looked at her colleague, O'Connor, who had previously made a significant legal decision that influenced the outcome of the VMI case. This connection between their rulings was not obvious to the courtroom audience at the time. Ginsburg later discussed this moment in a speech to the Women’s Bar Association in Washington, DC the following year. The circle of justices was complete as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her colleagues Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, Sandra Day O'Connor, and John Paul Stevens departed the Supreme Court building to honor the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist in a casket procession in Washington on September 6, 2005. The New York Times reported that both Ginsburg and O'Connor were part of the first group of women to break into the male-dominated legal profession, facing barriers and discrimination along the way. O'Connor, the older of the two justices, was only offered secretarial jobs despite graduating as one of the top students at Stanford University Law School. Ginsburg, one of only nine women in her class at Harvard Law School, excelled as a law review editor and was recommended for a prestigious law clerk position by one of her professors. The professor, Albert Sacks, who later became dean of the law school, wrote to Frankfurter, a former Harvard law professor, praising a female student's exceptional self-possession and stating that her qualities of mind and person would make her a great law clerk for him. However, despite never hiring a woman before, Justice Frankfurter declined to invite the star student for an interview. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her fellow justices Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, Sandra Day O'Connor, and John Paul Stevens left the Supreme Court building for the casket procession of the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist in Washington on September 6, 2005. Despite their opposing views on important court issues such as affirmative action and federalism, Ginsburg and O'Connor, both with very different backgrounds, shared a bond that grew stronger over time. Ginsburg was the daughter of Russian Jews born in Brooklyn, while O'Connor was the daughter of Southwestern ranchers. Ruth Bader's father, Nathan Bader, immigrated to New York with his family when he was 13, and her mother, Celia Amster, was born four months after her family's own arrival. Ruth, originally named Joan Ruth and known by the nickname Kiki in her childhood, was born on March 15, 1933. She was raised in Brooklyn's Flatbush neighborhood as essentially an only child, as her older sister passed away from meningitis at the age of 6 when Ruth was just 14 months old. The family ran small retail stores, including a fur shop and a hat store, but money was always tight. Ruth's mother, Celia Bader, was a woman with intellectual ambitions who graduated from high school at a young age but was unable to attend college. Instead, she was sent to work in Manhattan's garment district so her brother could study at Cornell University. She had great aspirations for her daughter but passed away before seeing them come to fruition. She was diagnosed with cervical cancer when Ruth was a freshman in high school, and she died at 47 in 1950, the day before Ruth's graduation. Despite missing the ceremony, Ruth's teachers brought her many honors and awards. When Ruth was nominated for the Supreme Court in 1993, she moved President Clinton to tears with a tribute to her mother, expressing her hope to achieve all that her mother would have in a time when women could aspire and succeed equally to men, and daughters were valued just as much as sons. Ruth Bader went to Cornell University on a scholarship and met Martin Ginsburg, a sophomore, during her freshman year. She was immediately attracted to him because he was the only boy who appreciated her intelligence. They got engaged during her junior year and got married after she graduated in 1954. Their relationship was a combination of both romantic and intellectual elements that lasted their entire lives. Despite their differences in personality - she was reserved and careful with her words, while he was outgoing and often made jokes at his own expense - their strong bond and dedication to their family and careers as a team was evident to those who knew them. Martin Ginsburg, a successful tax lawyer, supported his wife by moving with her to Washington in 1980 when she was appointed to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by President Jimmy Carter, giving up his own successful law practice in New York in the process. Thirteen years later, he worked diligently behind the scenes to support her appointment to the Supreme Court. After moving to Washington, Martin Ginsburg taught tax law at Georgetown University’s law school, thanks to a chair endowed by his longtime client Ross Perot. In addition to his teaching, he was a skilled gourmet cook who prepared meals for his family and baked treats for his wife to bring to her colleagues at the court. Ruth Ginsburg, on the other hand, admitted to being a terrible cook and was banned from the kitchen by her children. The Ginsburgs resided in a duplex apartment at the Watergate, near the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where they regularly enjoyed the opera and ballet. After 56 years of marriage, he passed away from cancer at the age of 78 in 2010. In his final moments, he wrote a heartfelt note on a yellow pad for his wife to discover by his bedside. The note began with "My dearest Ruth," and expressed his deep love and admiration for her, stating that she was the only person he had loved in his life. He also praised her for her achievements in the legal world, saying it was a joy to witness her rise to the top. Their two kids, Jane and James, and four grandchildren survive them. After getting married, the couple moved to Lawton, Oklahoma, where Martin Ginsburg was set to serve as an Army officer at Fort Sill. Ruth Ginsburg applied for a job at the Social Security office but had the offer withdrawn when she revealed she was pregnant with their first child, Jane. She took on a clerk-typist position at the GS-2 level, which she rationalized as being just the way things were. It wasn't until later in life that Ruth Ginsburg dedicated herself to challenging the societal norms that limited women's opportunities. Early in their marriage, both Ruth and her husband Martin faced a difficult situation when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer during his third year at Harvard Law School, leading to him missing classes frequently. During his time at Harvard Law School, other students took notes for him while Ruth Ginsburg attended class, cared for their young daughter, typed up the notes, and helped him study. Despite the challenges faced by women at Harvard Law School, he was able to recover, graduate on time, and succeed. The school had no female faculty members, and during Ruth Ginsburg's first year, the dean, Erwin Griswold, questioned the nine women in the class about why they felt entitled to be there instead of a man. Ruth hesitated as she explained that she wanted to understand her husband's work since he was going to be a lawyer. When her husband got a job offer in New York, Ruth asked Harvard if she could finish her last year at Columbia and still get a Harvard degree, but they said no. She transferred to Columbia, where she tied for first place in her class. In 1972, she became the first woman to get tenure at Columbia Law School. Years later, after Harvard changed its policy and started giving Harvard degrees to students in similar situations, Ruth's husband wrote a sarcastic letter to the Harvard Law Record about how the incident had affected her early career. In 2011, Ruth Ginsburg received an honorary degree from Harvard University, where Plácido Domingo also received the same honor. Ginsburg, who is a fan of opera, described the ceremony as one of the greatest experiences of her life. Following her graduation from Columbia, Ginsburg struggled to find a job at a New York law firm and ended up clerking for a federal district judge for two years. This opportunity came about after her mentor, Professor Gerald Gunther, threatened not to send the judge any more law clerks if he did not hire Ginsburg. After her clerkship, Ginsburg returned to Columbia to work on a project about civil procedure. The project involved her learning Swedish and visiting Sweden, which had a significant impact on her. Feminism was thriving in Sweden, where women commonly balanced work and family responsibilities. Childcare was easily accessible, and an article by the editor of a feminist magazine caught Ruth Ginsburg's interest. The editor, Eva Moberg, expressed the need to move away from focusing on women's dual roles and instead recognize that both men and women share the same primary role of being people. During the years 1963 to 1970, Ruth Ginsburg made significant contributions to Swedish civil law through a treatise and numerous articles and books. Beyond her academic achievements, her time in Sweden may have been most valuable for exposing her to a different societal structure. Despite facing rejection from prestigious law schools, Ginsburg went on to teach at Rutgers Law School, becoming the second woman on the faculty during a time when very few women were teaching at American law schools. During this time, her second child, James, who was nine years younger than his sister, was born. Along with her teaching job, she started volunteering to handle discrimination cases for the New Jersey branch of the American Civil Liberties Union. These cases included complaints from public-school teachers who were fired for being pregnant. A childhood friend from summer camp, Melvin Wulf, who was the national legal director for the ACLU, heard about her work and sent more cases her way. One of these cases was the Idaho estate administrators case, which became her first Supreme Court win, Reed v. Reed. Her 88-page brief for this case, which detailed how the law reinforced the oppression of women in society, became known as the "grandmother brief" and was used by feminist lawyers for years. The ACLU established a Women's Rights Project in 1972 and appointed Ruth Ginsburg as its inaugural director. Around the same time, she transitioned from Rutgers to Columbia University for teaching. Under the project's umbrella, she implemented a legal strategy in Supreme Court cases to argue that discrimination based on gender was a violation of the Constitution. The significance of this approach was not immediately clear, even to observers closely following her work. It was evident that Ruth Ginsburg was taking a unique approach by choosing cases where men were the victims of unequal treatment by the government. She was not only trying to present cases that the justices could easily understand, but she also had a deeper goal of liberating both men and women from societal roles and using the Constitution to dismantle the structures that enforced those roles. Ruth Ginsburg believed that both sexes should be treated equally and that childcare should not be limited to women only. Wendy W Williams, a retired professor of law at Georgetown University Law Centre and Ginsburg’s authorized biographer, explained in a 2013 article how Ginsburg's legal efforts targeted the prevalent legal framework that enforced gender stereotypes. Williams noted that Ginsburg recognized the societal view of male and female as polar opposites, interconnected and interdependent by nature or divine design. Ginsburg believed that male plaintiffs were crucial in challenging the gender stereotypes that limited both men and women. Professor Neil S Siegel of Duke Law School described Ginsburg's vision as one of "equal citizenship stature." Despite her reputation as a liberal, Ginsburg's approach to the law was more moderate, as she believed in working in partnership with other branches of government rather than imposing final decisions that shut down further debate. This stance led to her critique of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision on abortion rights. In a speech at New York University Law School in 1993, a few months before her nomination to the Supreme Court, she criticized the ruling for stopping a political process that was moving towards reform and believed it prolonged division and delayed a stable resolution of the issue. Despite her clear support for abortion rights, she suggested that the court should have issued a more limited ruling that allowed states to regulate abortions without banning them entirely. She emphasized that the court had significant authority to interpret the Constitution but lacked the power to enforce its decisions. Although Ginsburg later acknowledged potential inaccuracies in her historical account, she continued to criticize the decision. Her speech at NYU raised concerns among leaders of women's groups and abortion rights organizations, some of whom quietly lobbied against her after White announced his upcoming retirement from the court. Clinton conducted a very public search for his first nomination to the court, considering judges and political figures like Mario Cuomo and Bruce Babbitt. After initially leaning towards Stephen G. Breyer, he ultimately chose Ruth Ginsburg after a meeting with her and urging from Martin Ginsburg and Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He phoned her at 11:33 that evening to inform her that she had been chosen by him. At the announcement ceremony the following day, Clinton stated, "I believe that in the future she will be able to promote consensus-building on the Supreme Court, just as she has done on the Court of Appeals." The appointment was met with great approval from the public, and she was officially confirmed on Aug. 3, 1993, despite opposition from three conservative Republicans in the Senate: Jesse Helms, Don Nickles, and Robert C Smith. Ginsburg, speaking to the Senate Judiciary Committee, explained that her approach to judging was not defined by political labels. She did, however, emphasize her unwavering support for abortion rights, while also criticizing the Roe v. Wade decision. When asked by Sen. Hank Brown about her stance on abortion, she responded, "This is a fundamental aspect of a woman's life, of her dignity." The decision about abortion should be made by the woman herself, not by the government. Ruth Bader Ginsburg strongly disagreed with the Supreme Court's decision to uphold a federal law criminalizing a certain abortion procedure, arguing that it was based on outdated and unproven beliefs about women and their choices. Another controversial decision resulted in another strong disagreement among the court members. In the case of Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co, the court voted 5-4 to deny Lilly Ledbetter's pay discrimination claim due to her failure to file within the 180-day deadline. The majority opinion, written by Alito, stated that the clock started ticking with Ledbetter's first paycheck showing the unequal pay. However, Ginsburg argued that the 180-day period should begin when the employee becomes aware of the discrimination. She urged Congress to clarify this issue, emphasizing that the responsibility lies with them. Ginsburg's bold call for action was noteworthy as she publicly announced her dissent from the bench. A technical disagreement over a statute of limitations was transformed into a public outcry, leading to Congress overturning the court's narrow interpretation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This ultimately resulted in the passing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the first bill signed into law by President Obama on Jan. 29, 2009. Professor Lani Guinier of Harvard Law School noted that Justice Ginsburg was actively engaging with the public during this time. Guinier described the act of oral dissent as a way to make judicial speech more accessible to the public. Ginsburg carefully crafted her opinions, whether they were in agreement with the majority or in dissent. Her writing was clear and free of unnecessary complexity, influenced in part by her study of literature under Vladimir Nabokov. However, it was her dissents, especially those announced in court, that garnered the most interest. To emphasize her dissenting opinions, Ginsburg would switch the decorative collars she wore with her judicial robe on days when she would be announcing a dissent. She even wore her “dissenting collar,” described as resembling medieval armor by one observer, the day after Trump’s election. One of her most well-known dissents occurred in 2013 in Shelby County v. Holder, where the 5-4 majority weakened the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by striking down the provision that required certain jurisdictions to obtain federal permission before changing voting procedures. Ginsburg questioned the court’s usual restraint and referenced the need for judicial restraint. She concluded with a quote about the arc of the moral universe bending toward justice, expressing disappointment in the decision. Among Ginsburg’s roughly 200 majority opinions, one of her favorites was in a 1996 decision MLB v. SLJ, which addressed the right of a parent to appeal a termination of parental rights even if unable to afford the court record preparation cost. The Supreme Court of Mississippi ruled that the state was not required to pay for the necessary record for an appeal to proceed, as the Constitution does not grant affirmative rights for most cases. Justice Ginsburg based her decision on a different line of cases that emphasized the importance of protecting family relationships, stating that the state cannot deny equal justice when it comes to parental rights. This decision was praised by legal experts for navigating between unfavorable Supreme Court precedents and more favorable legal authority. In a 2017 decision, the Court addressed the unequal treatment imposed by federal immigration law on unwed mothers and fathers seeking to pass on American citizenship to their children born overseas. According to the law, mothers could pass on their American citizenship if they had lived in the United States for at least one year, while fathers needed to have lived in the US for five years. The law assumed that it was easier to identify the mother than the father, who was less likely to acknowledge their out-of-wedlock children. In the case of Sessions v. Morales-Santana, Ginsburg, writing for a 6-2 majority, declared the law unconstitutional for discriminating based on sex. She criticized the outdated and broad generalizations about men and women in the law, stating that such stereotypes limit people's lives. Ginsburg often attributes the success of her legal campaigns in the 1970s to being in the right place with the right arguments at the right time. In the preface of her book "My Own Words," published in 2016, she expressed gratitude for being alive and a lawyer during a time when advocating for the equal citizenship of women and men was becoming a constitutional principle. Despite acknowledging her significant role in this progress, she also recognized the influence of societal changes and the aspirations of women in shaping the court's understanding. In a 1997 article, she highlighted the impact of public advocacy and personal experiences on the judiciary's evolving perspectives. Ginsburg's attention to detail extended to both her appearance and her professional endeavors. She had her dark hair pulled back and preferred finely tailored suits by designer Giorgio Armani, occasionally mixing in flamboyantly patterned jackets from her travels. She was frequently mentioned on best-dressed women lists. While she was an active and persistent questioner on the bench, she tended to remain quiet in social settings. Her more outgoing husband often spoke for her, giving the impression to those who didn't know her well that she was shy and reserved. However, when discussing her passion for opera, she could become almost poetic. Despite her past as a high school cheerleader and twirler, she moved with such precision that it was hard to picture her in that role. Her personality seemed to have two sides, but in reality, her shyness would disappear when she had a task to focus on. Before her first Supreme Court argument, she was so nervous that she couldn't eat lunch, fearing she might become sick. However, once she began the argument, her fear vanished as she realized she had the attention of the most influential judges in America, giving her a sense of power that propelled her forward.