Ruth Bader Ginsburg trivia: 70 facts about the Associate justice of the Supreme Court

Ruth Bader Ginsburg became a household name due to the both films released for her life.

Due to her rise in popularity is the perfect time to find out some facts and trivia about this extraordinary person’s life!

1. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born Joan Ruth Bader
2. She was born in March 15, 1933
3. She is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
4. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was appointed by President Bill Clinton
5. She took the oath of office on August 10, 1993
6. She is the second female justice of four to be confirmed to the court
7. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was, for a time, the only female justice on the Supreme Court
8. During that time, Ginsburg became more forceful with her dissents, which were noted by legal observers and in popular culture
9. She is generally viewed as belonging to the liberal wing of the court
10. Ginsburg has authored notable majority opinions
11. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born in Brooklyn, New York
12. Her older sister died when she was a baby
13. Her mother, one of her biggest sources of encouragement, died shortly before Ginsburg graduated from high school
14. She then earned her bachelor’s degree at Cornell University
15. She became a wife and mother before starting law school at Harvard
16. There she was one of the few women in her class
17. Ruth Bader Ginsburg transferred to Columbia Law School
18. There she graduated tied for first in her class
19. Following law school, Ginsburg turned to academia
20. She was a professor at Rutgers Law School and Columbia Law School
21. She was teaching civil procedure as one of the few women in her field
22. Ruth Gaber Ginsburg spent a considerable part of her legal career as an advocate for the advancement of gender equality and women’s rights
23. She has multiple victories arguing before the Supreme Court
24. She advocated as a volunteer lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union
25. She was, also, a member of its board of directors and one of its general counsels in the 1970s
26. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
27. There she served until her appointment to the Supreme Court
28. Ruth Bader Ginsburg has received attention in American popular culture for her fiery liberal dissents and refusal to step down
29. She has been dubbed the “Notorious R.B.G.”
30. At the start of her legal career, Ginsburg encountered difficulty in finding employment
31. In 1960, Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter rejected Ginsburg for a clerkship position due to her gender
32. She was rejected despite a strong recommendation from Albert Martin Sacks, who was a professor and later dean of Harvard Law School
33. Columbia Law Professor, Gerald Gunther also pushed for Judge Edmund L. Palmieri of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to hire Ginsburg as a law clerk
34. Later that year, Ginsburg began her clerkship for Judge Palmieri, and she held the position for two years
35. Ginsburg was nominated by President Jimmy Carter on April 14, 1980, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
36. She was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 18, 1980, and received her commission later that day
37. Her service terminated on August 9, 1993
38. Her time on the court earned her a reputation as a “cautious jurist” and a moderate
39. President Bill Clinton nominated her as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court on June 14, 1993
40. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was recommended to Clinton by then-U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno
41. At the time of her nomination, Ginsburg was viewed as a moderate
42. She was the first Jewish justice since the 1969 resignation of Justice Abe Fortas
43. The first-ever female Jewish justice
44. The second female justice
45. She eventually became the longest-serving Jewish justice ever
46. The American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary rated Ginsburg as “well qualified”, its highest possible rating for a prospective justice
47. Following her appointment to the Supreme Court in 1993, Ginsburg deviated from court tradition by wearing a French robe d’avocat, as opposed to the traditional American judicial robe
48. In later years, Ginsburg would shift from the traditionally uniform white French rabat and begin wearing more varied and fanciful jabots, necklaces, and other forms of neckwear
49. Some time later, fellow female Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor would follow Ginsburg’s lead and begin wearing the French robe d’avocat as well
50. Ruth Bader Ginsburg has a collection of lace jabots from around the world
51. She stated in 2014 that she has a particular jabot that she wears when issuing her dissents as well as another she wears when issuing majority opinions
52. It was a gift from her law clerks
53. Her favorite jabot is from Cape Town, South Africa
54. In 1999, Ginsburg was diagnosed with colon cancer
55. She underwent surgery that was followed by chemotherapy and radiation therapy
56. During the process, she did not miss a day on the bench
57. On February 5, 2009, she again underwent surgery, this time for pancreatic cancer
58. Ruth Bader Ginsburg had a tumor that was discovered at an early stage
59. She was released from a New York City hospital on February 13 and returned to the bench when the Supreme Court went back into session on February 23, 2009
60. On September 24, 2009, Ginsburg was hospitalized in Washington DC for lightheadedness following an outpatient treatment for iron deficiency and was released the following day
61. On November 26, 2014, she had a stent placed in her right coronary artery after experiencing discomfort while exercising in the Supreme Court gym with her personal trainer
62. On November 8, 2018, she was hospitalized after fracturing three ribs in a fall in her office at the Supreme Court
63. A CT scan of her ribs following her November 8 fall showed cancerous nodules in her lungs
64. On December 21, Ginsburg underwent a left-lung lobectomy at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to remove the nodules
65. For the first time since joining the Court more than 25 years earlier, Ginsburg missed oral argument in January 2019 while she recuperated
66. Ruth Bader Ginsburg became the oldest justice on the court at age 77
67. She also expressed a wish to emulate Justice Louis Brandeis’ service of nearly 23 years, which she achieved in April 2016
68. She stated she has a new “model” to emulate in former colleague Justice John Paul Stevens, who retired at age 90 after nearly 35 years on the bench
69. She affirmed her wish to remain a justice as long as she was mentally sharp enough to perform her duties
70. Her life was turned into a documentart RBG and a feature lenght movie called On the Basis of Sex