1
00:01:03,780 --> 00:01:07,873
<i>Michael Savage: This witch. This evildoer. This monster.</i>

2
00:01:08,014 --> 00:01:10,137
<i>Mark Levin: She has no respect for the traditions</i>

3
00:01:10,173 --> 00:01:11,884
<i>of our Constitution, none.</i>

4
00:01:11,920 --> 00:01:15,939
<i>Donald Trump: An absolute disgrace to the Supreme Court.</i>

5
00:01:15,975 --> 00:01:18,863
<i>Rick Wiles: She's one of the most vile human beings.</i>

6
00:01:18,899 --> 00:01:20,307
<i>Scott Lively: She's very wicked, yeah.</i>

7
00:01:20,342 --> 00:01:22,045
<i>Michael Savage: She's anti-American.</i>

8
00:01:22,081 --> 00:01:23,681
<i>Bill O'Reilly: She's a zombie.</i>

9
00:01:23,717 --> 00:01:25,986
<i>The woman's a zombie,
Ruth Bader Ginsburg.</i>

10
00:01:32,826 --> 00:01:36,178
I ask no favor for my sex.

11
00:01:36,615 --> 00:01:38,865
All I ask of our brethren...

12
00:01:39,584 --> 00:01:42,865
is that they take their feet off our necks.

13
00:02:08,116 --> 00:02:13,530
Twenty-six, 25, 24, 23, 21, 20, 19

14
00:02:22,376 --> 00:02:25,110
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

15
00:02:34,662 --> 00:02:39,208
- How's your health?
- Uh, I'm feeling just fine.

16
00:02:40,715 --> 00:02:43,123
Here now to comment
is Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

17
00:02:45,647 --> 00:02:48,990
It's an amazing thing
to see somebody in her 80s

18
00:02:49,030 --> 00:02:52,388
- become such an icon.
- Do you mind signing this copy?

19
00:02:52,707 --> 00:02:56,186
I am 84 years old and everyone
wants to take a picture with me.

20
00:02:56,498 --> 00:02:59,482
She is really when you come
right down to it,

21
00:02:59,647 --> 00:03:01,755
the closest thing
to a superhero, I know.

22
00:03:06,677 --> 00:03:09,670
They call her Notorious RBG,
that's her rap name.

23
00:03:09,759 --> 00:03:11,392
- Notorious R...
- RBG.

24
00:03:11,474 --> 00:03:16,000
Yeah, no, no, RGB... RBG right.

25
00:03:17,763 --> 00:03:18,892
Supreme Court Justice,

26
00:03:18,927 --> 00:03:20,894
Ruth Bader Ginsburg getting
a lot of attention

27
00:03:20,930 --> 00:03:23,113
after she delivered
a scathing dissent.

28
00:03:23,149 --> 00:03:25,566
Whether you agree with her
or not, you got to acknowledge

29
00:03:25,602 --> 00:03:27,269
she's been a force
on that Court.

30
00:03:27,305 --> 00:03:29,210
Liberal hero,
Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

31
00:03:29,246 --> 00:03:30,675
As much as people admire her,

32
00:03:30,711 --> 00:03:32,111
they don't even know
the half of it.

33
00:03:32,888 --> 00:03:34,820
She was the queen.

34
00:03:34,914 --> 00:03:36,263
Ruth knew what she was doing

35
00:03:36,298 --> 00:03:37,855
in laying the foundation.

36
00:03:38,117 --> 00:03:41,867
To put women on
exactly the same plane as men.

37
00:03:42,023 --> 00:03:43,370
Ruth Bader Ginsburg

38
00:03:43,406 --> 00:03:47,008
quite literally changed the way
the world is for American women.

39
00:03:47,234 --> 00:03:52,891
Twelve, 11, ten, nine, eight,
seven, six, five...

40
00:03:53,531 --> 00:03:56,607
Today the Senate
judiciary committee welcomes

41
00:03:56,643 --> 00:03:58,410
judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg,

42
00:03:58,960 --> 00:04:01,225
the president's nominee
to be associate justice

43
00:04:01,261 --> 00:04:03,508
of the 'United States Supreme Court'.

44
00:04:14,633 --> 00:04:18,292
Judge do you swear the testimony
you are about to give

45
00:04:18,328 --> 00:04:20,668
will be the whole truth
and nothing but the truth,

46
00:04:20,704 --> 00:04:21,742
so help you God?

47
00:04:21,895 --> 00:04:24,422
- I do, Mr. Chairman.
- Thank you.

48
00:04:26,104 --> 00:04:30,086
I am a Brooklynite,
born and bred...

49
00:04:31,234 --> 00:04:34,945
a first-generation American
on my father's side...

50
00:04:35,609 --> 00:04:38,611
barely second-generation
on my mother's.

51
00:04:39,774 --> 00:04:42,915
What has become of me
could happen...

52
00:04:43,364 --> 00:04:45,297
only in America.

53
00:04:53,825 --> 00:04:57,318
Neither of my parents had
the means to attend college,

54
00:04:57,818 --> 00:05:01,066
but both taught me
to love learning...

55
00:05:01,980 --> 00:05:03,915
to care about people...

56
00:05:04,552 --> 00:05:09,497
and to work hard for whatever
I wanted or believed in.

57
00:05:11,669 --> 00:05:15,012
My father was from Odessa

58
00:05:15,048 --> 00:05:17,082
and during his growing up years,

59
00:05:17,279 --> 00:05:20,719
Jews were no longer admitted
to the Russian schools.

60
00:05:21,755 --> 00:05:24,189
Education
was terribly important.

61
00:05:25,786 --> 00:05:28,943
My mother was loving
but also very strict,

62
00:05:29,536 --> 00:05:34,154
making sure I that I did my...
homework, practice the piano,

63
00:05:34,251 --> 00:05:37,310
didn't stay out jumping rope
too long.

64
00:05:39,860 --> 00:05:41,818
I loved to do the things
that boys did,

65
00:05:41,854 --> 00:05:43,099
when I was growing up.

66
00:05:43,599 --> 00:05:46,529
One of our favorite things
was climbing garage roofs

67
00:05:46,822 --> 00:05:48,981
from one roof to another,
leaping...

68
00:05:50,125 --> 00:05:51,292
leaping over.

69
00:05:51,974 --> 00:05:54,591
Justice Ginsburg,
we cannot call Ruth.

70
00:05:54,927 --> 00:05:56,888
- Right.
- We call her Kiki.

71
00:05:57,902 --> 00:05:59,182
She was beautiful.

72
00:05:59,380 --> 00:06:02,336
Big beautiful blue eyes,
which you really can't see

73
00:06:02,372 --> 00:06:06,224
very well behind her glasses,
very soft brown hair.

74
00:06:07,099 --> 00:06:09,458
She had this kind
of quiet magnetism

75
00:06:09,795 --> 00:06:11,919
even though she was
not effusive.

76
00:06:11,974 --> 00:06:14,298
You always
thought that she wasn't listening

77
00:06:14,333 --> 00:06:16,505
and that she didn't know
what was going on

78
00:06:16,579 --> 00:06:18,443
but she knew what was going on.

79
00:06:18,551 --> 00:06:20,700
- She didn't do small talk.
- No, no small talk.

80
00:06:20,736 --> 00:06:23,891
And she didn't do girl chat
and she didn't get on the phone

81
00:06:23,927 --> 00:06:26,512
and talk with us about what
happened on the weekend.

82
00:06:26,548 --> 00:06:28,185
She's a deep thinker.

83
00:06:30,013 --> 00:06:31,207
- She's an only child.
- No...

84
00:06:31,243 --> 00:06:33,978
She had a sister, I didn't know
her sister.

85
00:06:34,380 --> 00:06:36,349
- Her sister passed away.
- Right.

86
00:06:37,107 --> 00:06:39,380
But she and her mom
were very close,

87
00:06:39,521 --> 00:06:41,233
very, very close.

88
00:06:42,411 --> 00:06:46,038
My mother died when I was 17.

89
00:06:47,036 --> 00:06:49,990
I wish I could've had her...
longer.

90
00:06:53,138 --> 00:06:56,341
Well, her mother must have been
a very steely person

91
00:06:56,377 --> 00:06:59,450
because she had cancer
a long time

92
00:07:00,082 --> 00:07:01,818
and... and lived

93
00:07:01,966 --> 00:07:05,357
trying to get her child
through high school.

94
00:07:06,599 --> 00:07:09,466
We were supposed to be
at graduation.

95
00:07:09,849 --> 00:07:13,610
And then the night before
we got a message

96
00:07:13,646 --> 00:07:16,266
that she would not be able
to be part of this.

97
00:07:16,302 --> 00:07:19,107
We knew then that her mother had
passed away.

98
00:07:20,341 --> 00:07:26,111
She had two... lessons
that she repeated over and over.

99
00:07:26,876 --> 00:07:28,513
"Be a lady..."

100
00:07:28,979 --> 00:07:31,281
and "be independent."

101
00:07:32,005 --> 00:07:36,446
"Be a lady" meant don't allow
yourself to be overcome

102
00:07:36,482 --> 00:07:39,625
by useless emotions like anger.

103
00:07:40,693 --> 00:07:43,228
And by "independent,"
she meant...

104
00:07:44,536 --> 00:07:47,789
it would be fine if you met
prince charming

105
00:07:47,825 --> 00:07:51,002
and lived happily ever after.
But...

106
00:07:52,449 --> 00:07:54,521
be able to fend for yourself.

107
00:07:56,896 --> 00:08:02,102
In my lifetime, I expect to see
three, four,

108
00:08:02,138 --> 00:08:05,927
perhaps even more women
on theHigh Court bench.

109
00:08:06,404 --> 00:08:09,240
Women not shaped
from the same mold,

110
00:08:09,646 --> 00:08:12,123
but of different complexions.

111
00:08:13,740 --> 00:08:17,200
I surely would not be
in this room today...

112
00:08:18,224 --> 00:08:20,466
without the determined efforts

113
00:08:20,943 --> 00:08:26,338
of men and women who kept dreams
of equal citizenship alive.

114
00:08:28,357 --> 00:08:32,043
I have had the great good
fortune to share life...

115
00:08:32,565 --> 00:08:34,154
with a partner.

116
00:08:35,138 --> 00:08:38,450
Truly extraordinary
for his generation...

117
00:08:40,419 --> 00:08:44,267
a man who believed at age 18,
when we met,

118
00:08:45,120 --> 00:08:47,188
that a woman's work,

119
00:08:47,333 --> 00:08:50,560
whether at home or on the job...

120
00:08:51,259 --> 00:08:54,904
is as important as a man's.

121
00:08:56,794 --> 00:09:00,605
I became a lawyer... in days...

122
00:09:01,485 --> 00:09:03,500
when women were not wanted

123
00:09:03,536 --> 00:09:06,378
by most members
of the legal profession.

124
00:09:07,990 --> 00:09:12,435
I became a lawyer because Marty
supported that choice...

125
00:09:12,743 --> 00:09:14,083
unreservedly.

126
00:09:20,393 --> 00:09:22,419
So what was it about Marty?

127
00:09:30,599 --> 00:09:34,368
Marty and I met
when I was 17, he was 18.

128
00:09:34,818 --> 00:09:36,615
I was in college.

129
00:09:39,216 --> 00:09:41,911
Cornell was a preferred school for...

130
00:09:42,352 --> 00:09:43,685
for daughters.

131
00:09:49,224 --> 00:09:54,529
In those days, there was
a strict quota for women.

132
00:09:55,099 --> 00:09:58,463
There were four men
to every woman...

133
00:09:59,849 --> 00:10:03,990
so for parents, Cornell was
the ideal place to send a girl.

134
00:10:05,263 --> 00:10:08,275
If she couldn't find
her man there, she was hopeless.

135
00:10:10,801 --> 00:10:16,029
My first semester at Cornell,
I never did a repeat date.

136
00:10:22,310 --> 00:10:24,615
But then I met Marty,
and there was something

137
00:10:24,651 --> 00:10:26,865
amazingly wonderful
about this man.

138
00:10:27,880 --> 00:10:32,164
He was the first boy I ever knew
who cared that I had a brain.

139
00:10:32,825 --> 00:10:36,185
Most guys in the '50s didn't.

140
00:10:38,121 --> 00:10:41,071
One of the sadnesses
about the brilliant girls

141
00:10:41,107 --> 00:10:45,122
who attended Cornell is
that they kind of suppressed

142
00:10:45,552 --> 00:10:47,107
how smart they were.

143
00:10:47,942 --> 00:10:52,438
But Marty was so confident
of his own ability...

144
00:10:53,263 --> 00:10:55,427
so comfortable with himself,

145
00:10:55,849 --> 00:10:59,841
that he never regarded me
as any kind of a threat.

146
00:11:00,818 --> 00:11:05,388
We all were struck
by the tremendous difference

147
00:11:05,427 --> 00:11:08,255
between Marty... and Ruth.

148
00:11:09,333 --> 00:11:14,240
Marty was the most gregarious,
outgoing, life-of-the-party.

149
00:11:15,581 --> 00:11:18,349
Ruth was a really quite...

150
00:11:19,310 --> 00:11:20,912
recessive in a way...

151
00:11:22,474 --> 00:11:28,349
shy, quiet, soft voice
but they worked, they worked.

152
00:11:39,363 --> 00:11:41,531
Oh, he's so young.

153
00:11:43,877 --> 00:11:45,672
Meeting Marty...

154
00:11:45,708 --> 00:11:49,372
was by far the most fortunate
thing that ever happened to me.

155
00:11:50,068 --> 00:11:53,240
Marty was a man blessed
with a wonderful sense of humor.

156
00:11:53,693 --> 00:11:55,677
I tend to be rather sober.

157
00:11:59,505 --> 00:12:03,911
In those days, it was not
a great time for our country.

158
00:12:04,396 --> 00:12:07,880
There was a red scare abroad
in the land.

159
00:12:08,184 --> 00:12:09,833
Are you a member
of the communist party

160
00:12:10,104 --> 00:12:12,629
or have you ever been a member
of the communist party?

161
00:12:13,318 --> 00:12:15,883
It's unfortunate and tragic
that I have to teach

162
00:12:15,919 --> 00:12:18,499
this committee
the principles of Americanism.

163
00:12:18,535 --> 00:12:20,246
That's not the question.

164
00:12:20,403 --> 00:12:22,458
I had a government professor

165
00:12:22,544 --> 00:12:26,427
and he wanted me to see
that our country was straying

166
00:12:26,463 --> 00:12:28,730
from its most basic values

167
00:12:28,965 --> 00:12:30,375
by some of our politicians

168
00:12:30,411 --> 00:12:33,465
who were seeing a communist
in every closet.

169
00:12:33,784 --> 00:12:35,539
But that there were lawyers,

170
00:12:35,575 --> 00:12:38,997
who were defending the rights
of these people to think,

171
00:12:39,036 --> 00:12:41,825
to speak, to write freely.

172
00:12:42,367 --> 00:12:44,296
Stand away from the stand!

173
00:12:44,332 --> 00:12:46,218
Fight for the bill of rights
you're trying to destroy.

174
00:12:46,253 --> 00:12:48,386
Officer, take this
man away from the stand.

175
00:12:50,012 --> 00:12:53,682
And then I got the idea
that you could do something

176
00:12:53,839 --> 00:12:57,175
that would make your society
a little better.

177
00:12:58,856 --> 00:13:01,862
My family had some reservations
about this...

178
00:13:02,862 --> 00:13:07,667
but then when I married
at the end of college,

179
00:13:07,737 --> 00:13:11,523
my family said, if she wants
to be a lawyer let her try.

180
00:13:12,245 --> 00:13:14,345
If she can't succeed...

181
00:13:14,716 --> 00:13:17,495
she will have a husband
to support her.

182
00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:23,469
That's me waiting to get
my diploma, very happy.

183
00:13:24,004 --> 00:13:27,231
- Yeah, see? That's a nice one.
- That's cute. Yeah.

184
00:13:27,832 --> 00:13:30,994
So, we have a whole slew
of pictures.

185
00:13:31,434 --> 00:13:33,794
They took them from every
possible angle.

186
00:13:34,620 --> 00:13:35,840
You know who that is?

187
00:13:36,616 --> 00:13:37,049
No.

188
00:13:37,084 --> 00:13:40,934
- It's Dean Minow.
- Oh. Dean Minow is so small.

189
00:13:41,288 --> 00:13:42,856
We're the same height!

190
00:13:42,892 --> 00:13:45,051
She's not that small,
she's probably taller than you.

191
00:13:45,087 --> 00:13:46,224
There's somebody in there.

192
00:13:46,260 --> 00:13:48,703
My brother and
cousins and I all call her bubbe.

193
00:13:48,739 --> 00:13:51,450
It's the Yiddish word
for grandmother.

194
00:13:51,544 --> 00:13:54,028
It's what we've always
called bubbe.

195
00:13:54,201 --> 00:13:56,028
- Bubbe!
- Yes?

196
00:13:56,203 --> 00:13:59,840
Do you know if you have
fake sugar like Splenda

197
00:14:00,019 --> 00:14:03,481
- or sweet and low?
- Yes, it should be someplace...

198
00:14:03,677 --> 00:14:04,848
That's helpful.

199
00:14:05,280 --> 00:14:06,366
I feel like I have

200
00:14:06,434 --> 00:14:09,468
my grandmotherly relationship
with her but also somewhat

201
00:14:09,504 --> 00:14:12,739
of a student scholarly
relationship to her as well now.

202
00:14:12,981 --> 00:14:15,221
She taught me that the way
to win an argument

203
00:14:15,256 --> 00:14:16,536
is not to yell.

204
00:14:16,614 --> 00:14:19,945
Because often that will turn
people away more so,

205
00:14:19,981 --> 00:14:21,629
than bringing them
to your table.

206
00:14:21,737 --> 00:14:24,304
I don't know what that says...

207
00:14:25,064 --> 00:14:25,731
I can't tell if...

208
00:14:25,766 --> 00:14:29,083
for extraordinary dedication
to the Harvard Law School

209
00:14:29,197 --> 00:14:30,833
and efforts on its behalf.

210
00:14:30,926 --> 00:14:33,434
You know, this was
the 200th year of Harvard.

211
00:14:33,715 --> 00:14:36,973
So, it took 200 years for us...
We were the first class

212
00:14:37,009 --> 00:14:38,642
that was 50/50 women.

213
00:14:39,278 --> 00:14:41,715
So 50 percent men...
we were the first class.

214
00:14:42,273 --> 00:14:44,419
It takes 200... no. Yeah.

215
00:14:53,137 --> 00:14:55,928
Women did not come
into the Harvard Law School

216
00:14:55,963 --> 00:14:57,997
until the very early '50s.

217
00:14:58,793 --> 00:15:02,134
Two percent was about what
it was back then.

218
00:15:02,887 --> 00:15:06,762
How did it feel to be one
of nine women in a class of...

219
00:15:08,415 --> 00:15:10,238
over 500 men?

220
00:15:14,473 --> 00:15:17,216
You felt you were constantly
on display.

221
00:15:17,777 --> 00:15:19,718
So if you were called on
in class,

222
00:15:20,301 --> 00:15:22,902
you felt that, if you didn't
perform well,

223
00:15:23,488 --> 00:15:26,725
that you were failing not just
for yourself but for all women.

224
00:15:27,340 --> 00:15:29,328
You also had
the uncomfortable feeling

225
00:15:29,363 --> 00:15:31,324
that you were being watched.

226
00:15:32,432 --> 00:15:33,819
American antitrust policy...

227
00:15:33,855 --> 00:15:35,000
Harvard was a Socratic method.

228
00:15:35,035 --> 00:15:36,769
So the professor would ask
a question

229
00:15:36,804 --> 00:15:39,340
and then you would be called on
to answer.

230
00:15:39,785 --> 00:15:42,209
The way it worked with women
was they didn't call on us.

231
00:15:42,245 --> 00:15:43,989
I think they were afraid,
we would sort of wither

232
00:15:44,024 --> 00:15:46,553
if we were subjected
to that kind of questioning.

233
00:15:47,887 --> 00:15:50,613
When I was sent to check
a periodical, in Lamont Library

234
00:15:50,649 --> 00:15:53,678
in the old periodical room.

235
00:15:54,313 --> 00:15:55,396
There was...

236
00:15:55,670 --> 00:15:58,420
a man at the door and he said,
"you can't come in."

237
00:15:58,631 --> 00:16:00,967
"Well, why can't I come in?"
"Because you're a female."

238
00:16:01,163 --> 00:16:05,545
There was nothing I could say,
this was a university employee,

239
00:16:05,599 --> 00:16:08,358
you can't come into that room.

240
00:16:09,459 --> 00:16:11,830
And then there was
the Dean's famous dinner

241
00:16:11,866 --> 00:16:13,906
for the women in the
first year class.

242
00:16:14,639 --> 00:16:18,959
He asked each of us to stand up
and tell him what we were doing

243
00:16:19,464 --> 00:16:20,810
taking a seat...

244
00:16:21,498 --> 00:16:23,577
that could be occupied by a man.

245
00:16:25,338 --> 00:16:27,639
There were many indignities

246
00:16:27,678 --> 00:16:31,397
that one took as just part
of the scenery the way it was.

247
00:16:37,489 --> 00:16:38,690
When I got to Harvard Law School

248
00:16:38,725 --> 00:16:41,010
and I'm really
intimidated first year,

249
00:16:41,046 --> 00:16:42,064
Marty was saying,

250
00:16:42,100 --> 00:16:44,681
"Oh my wife. She's going to be
on the 'Law Review'."

251
00:16:44,717 --> 00:16:48,764
There was a woman in the class
ahead of mine and she said,

252
00:16:49,491 --> 00:16:51,713
"this husband of
yours is boasting"

253
00:16:51,749 --> 00:16:53,045
that you're going to be
on the 'Law Review',

254
00:16:53,080 --> 00:16:54,780
"you look like a little twerp!"

255
00:16:55,467 --> 00:16:58,392
To make the' Law Review',
in those days you had to be

256
00:16:58,428 --> 00:17:04,209
in the top 25 academically,
of 530, 540.

257
00:17:05,077 --> 00:17:07,936
Her second year she makes
the 'Law Review'.

258
00:17:08,357 --> 00:17:12,663
So the mere fact marked her
as something special.

259
00:17:14,313 --> 00:17:15,639
It turned out,

260
00:17:15,936 --> 00:17:19,638
that I did very well
the first year and I attributed

261
00:17:20,209 --> 00:17:23,609
to having something
very important in my life

262
00:17:23,644 --> 00:17:25,944
that wasn't the law books.

263
00:17:28,686 --> 00:17:32,920
I came to Harvard as the mother
of a 14 month old child.

264
00:17:34,020 --> 00:17:36,303
I'd go to school...

265
00:17:36,856 --> 00:17:38,314
study as hard as I can,

266
00:17:38,350 --> 00:17:41,994
in a very concentrated way,
I didn't waste any time.

267
00:17:42,733 --> 00:17:45,772
Four o'clock in the afternoon
our babysitter left

268
00:17:46,100 --> 00:17:47,366
and that was...

269
00:17:47,936 --> 00:17:50,530
my child's hours till she went...

270
00:17:51,404 --> 00:17:52,413
to sleep.

271
00:17:54,504 --> 00:17:56,249
Playing with my daughter

272
00:17:56,803 --> 00:17:57,985
gave me a respite

273
00:17:58,021 --> 00:18:01,631
from the kind of work
I was doing at law school...

274
00:18:02,615 --> 00:18:05,030
and I think made me more sane.

275
00:18:09,025 --> 00:18:11,021
We knew that Marty was ill.

276
00:18:11,795 --> 00:18:14,727
We just knew he had
his own battle

277
00:18:15,444 --> 00:18:19,295
and Ruth is now caring
for both Marty and Janey.

278
00:18:21,053 --> 00:18:23,811
Marty in his third
year of law school

279
00:18:24,418 --> 00:18:26,194
had a virulent cancer

280
00:18:27,053 --> 00:18:29,994
in days when
there was no chemotherapy,

281
00:18:30,030 --> 00:18:32,155
there was only massive radiation.

282
00:18:34,850 --> 00:18:36,618
He'd go for the radiation,

283
00:18:37,232 --> 00:18:38,828
wake up about midnight

284
00:18:38,864 --> 00:18:41,975
when the only food that
he ate for the day

285
00:18:42,851 --> 00:18:44,567
he could manage.

286
00:18:46,163 --> 00:18:49,995
And then I started typing
the notes that his classmates

287
00:18:50,030 --> 00:18:51,697
had given me from his classes,

288
00:18:52,358 --> 00:18:56,384
reading whatever cases
I would read for the next day

289
00:18:56,420 --> 00:18:59,116
and maybe I got two hours sleep.

290
00:19:00,239 --> 00:19:01,784
She did her own work,

291
00:19:01,820 --> 00:19:03,405
helped her husband
with his work,

292
00:19:03,545 --> 00:19:06,413
organized his friends so they
could help him with his work

293
00:19:06,506 --> 00:19:08,670
and took care
of her two year old child.

294
00:19:09,615 --> 00:19:11,772
Fortunately Marty lived...

295
00:19:12,303 --> 00:19:15,944
but it's when she learned how to
burn the candle at both ends.

296
00:19:32,725 --> 00:19:35,188
One of the memories
of my childhood would be

297
00:19:35,224 --> 00:19:37,002
waking up in the middle
of the night

298
00:19:37,038 --> 00:19:39,627
and there mom would be spread
out over the dining room table

299
00:19:39,663 --> 00:19:45,314
with her legal pads, uh, and,
uh, the coffee in one hand,

300
00:19:45,350 --> 00:19:47,117
and the box of prunes
at the other.

301
00:19:47,499 --> 00:19:52,891
She will work until two, three,
four, five in the morning

302
00:19:52,926 --> 00:19:55,561
sometimes even, uh, later,

303
00:19:56,124 --> 00:19:58,416
then she will get up,
she has a sitting

304
00:19:58,452 --> 00:20:01,233
she would have to be
at the Court before nine,

305
00:20:01,900 --> 00:20:03,936
and then she sleeps
the entire weekend.

306
00:20:05,023 --> 00:20:06,286
So she catches up.

307
00:20:09,069 --> 00:20:11,643
The sweet
thing about working for a justice

308
00:20:11,678 --> 00:20:13,189
who works extremely hard

309
00:20:13,225 --> 00:20:16,428
is that we saw Marty come
to chambers often...

310
00:20:16,964 --> 00:20:19,032
to lure her home.

311
00:20:19,952 --> 00:20:23,322
He would say, "Ruth, it's time
to come home to dinner."

312
00:20:23,874 --> 00:20:27,178
She sometimes had to be
physically brought home.

313
00:20:30,139 --> 00:20:33,232
Marty graduated
from the Harvard Law School

314
00:20:33,631 --> 00:20:36,602
and was going to a firm
in New York.

315
00:20:37,288 --> 00:20:40,014
That was when Ruth finished
her second year,

316
00:20:40,761 --> 00:20:41,761
given Marty,

317
00:20:41,842 --> 00:20:45,319
given his recent illness,
they had to remain together,

318
00:20:45,379 --> 00:20:47,212
and the logical place
was New York

319
00:20:47,247 --> 00:20:49,381
and the best option
was Columbia.

320
00:20:52,014 --> 00:20:54,319
When I graduated
from Columbia law school

321
00:20:54,355 --> 00:20:55,874
in 1959,

322
00:20:56,553 --> 00:21:00,147
not a law firm in the entire
city of New York

323
00:21:00,299 --> 00:21:01,686
would employ me.

324
00:21:03,163 --> 00:21:06,564
Four of us
from my class, Marty's class,

325
00:21:06,600 --> 00:21:07,866
went to the same law firm

326
00:21:08,475 --> 00:21:11,342
and two of us went
to the hiring partner

327
00:21:12,108 --> 00:21:13,538
and said...

328
00:21:14,030 --> 00:21:16,174
we had somebody on the
Harvard Law Review

329
00:21:16,209 --> 00:21:18,710
that we think is the cat's meow,

330
00:21:18,999 --> 00:21:21,592
we think this firm should hire her.

331
00:21:22,709 --> 00:21:25,491
As soon as I used the "she"
pronoun...

332
00:21:26,881 --> 00:21:29,786
the senior partner looked at me
and says, "young man..."

333
00:21:30,374 --> 00:21:32,444
you don't seem to understand.

334
00:21:32,975 --> 00:21:34,795
"This firm doesn't hire women."

335
00:21:35,508 --> 00:21:37,975
She hadn't quite figured out,

336
00:21:38,190 --> 00:21:40,235
why it was that there were
these barriers.

337
00:21:40,271 --> 00:21:43,368
It wasn't until later
that this all came together

338
00:21:43,403 --> 00:21:46,138
- and became her life's work in,
- yes.

339
00:21:46,399 --> 00:21:48,896
In fighting these injustices.

340
00:21:50,451 --> 00:21:53,599
Being a woman was an impediment.

341
00:21:57,516 --> 00:21:59,151
We did not have equal rights

342
00:21:59,186 --> 00:22:02,654
and equal recognition
in the law at all.

343
00:22:03,801 --> 00:22:07,491
There were not
hundreds but thousands of state

344
00:22:07,527 --> 00:22:11,691
and federal laws all over
this country that discriminated

345
00:22:11,732 --> 00:22:12,965
on the basis of gender.

346
00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:16,268
Typical laws of the time like,

347
00:22:16,770 --> 00:22:23,108
"the husband is the master
of the community."

348
00:22:23,660 --> 00:22:27,488
He shall choose where the family
will live

349
00:22:28,069 --> 00:22:31,965
"and the woman is
obliged to follow him."

350
00:22:54,805 --> 00:22:57,474
There's no aspect
of American life

351
00:22:57,715 --> 00:23:00,045
in which you were not
treated differently.

352
00:23:00,301 --> 00:23:01,762
The idea was that...

353
00:23:02,488 --> 00:23:05,645
men were the breadwinners
that counted

354
00:23:06,087 --> 00:23:07,707
and women were...

355
00:23:08,454 --> 00:23:10,145
pin money earners.

356
00:23:10,923 --> 00:23:14,872
So women woke up and complained.

357
00:23:16,150 --> 00:23:21,177
♪ One of these mornings ♪

358
00:23:21,400 --> 00:23:29,400
♪ You're gonna rise,
rise up singing ♪

359
00:23:31,520 --> 00:23:37,554
♪ You're gonna spread your wings, ♪

360
00:23:37,644 --> 00:23:43,358
♪ Child and take, take to the sky ♪

361
00:23:43,460 --> 00:23:46,570
♪ Lord, the sky ♪

362
00:23:46,973 --> 00:23:51,270
There came to be such a mass
and a majority of women really

363
00:23:51,551 --> 00:23:55,239
who understood that
they were not crazy,

364
00:23:55,278 --> 00:23:56,703
the system was crazy.

365
00:23:56,739 --> 00:24:00,070
Now, thanks to the
spirit of equality in the air,

366
00:24:00,106 --> 00:24:03,241
I no longer accept
society's judgment

367
00:24:03,424 --> 00:24:05,379
that my group is second class.

368
00:24:07,122 --> 00:24:09,447
But marching and demonstrating

369
00:24:09,483 --> 00:24:11,168
just wasn't Ruth's thing.

370
00:24:11,770 --> 00:24:15,497
Her thing was to use the skills
she had and put them to work

371
00:24:15,922 --> 00:24:18,028
and those were her legal skills.

372
00:24:18,184 --> 00:24:22,094
In 1963, she started at Rutgers
as a law professor.

373
00:24:22,613 --> 00:24:25,079
And really inspired
by her students,

374
00:24:25,137 --> 00:24:26,707
she agreed to teach a course

375
00:24:26,801 --> 00:24:29,201
in this new subject of
gender and law.

376
00:24:29,236 --> 00:24:30,936
In the late 60's,

377
00:24:31,676 --> 00:24:35,278
some of the students wanted
a course in women and the law.

378
00:24:35,876 --> 00:24:37,840
That's also when...

379
00:24:37,997 --> 00:24:41,580
she began dealing
with sex discrimination cases.

380
00:24:42,231 --> 00:24:46,062
And that was her entré
into becoming a litigator.

381
00:24:46,848 --> 00:24:49,965
The emergence
of a women's rights movement

382
00:24:50,207 --> 00:24:54,707
had the possibility of playing
the role in the 1970s

383
00:24:54,778 --> 00:24:58,029
that the black civil rights
movement had played

384
00:24:58,064 --> 00:24:59,262
in the 1960s.

385
00:24:59,575 --> 00:25:03,869
And so I was particularly eager
to create a special project

386
00:25:03,904 --> 00:25:05,762
dealing with women's rights.

387
00:25:05,918 --> 00:25:09,707
I got a call from the WACLU
asking me if I would consider

388
00:25:09,747 --> 00:25:11,461
running the women's rights
project

389
00:25:11,497 --> 00:25:13,661
with professor Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

390
00:25:13,864 --> 00:25:15,814
Whom I had heard
of but I did not know.

391
00:25:16,450 --> 00:25:18,457
I met Ruth the first day
I was there.

392
00:25:18,551 --> 00:25:23,188
She seemed very polite and quiet
and reserved. Not a firebrand.

393
00:25:23,918 --> 00:25:27,661
She wouldn't speak up
a great deal during meetings.

394
00:25:27,879 --> 00:25:30,715
She always addressed
whatever point there was.

395
00:25:30,770 --> 00:25:34,012
There wasn't any peripheral
element of it.

396
00:25:34,590 --> 00:25:36,590
- No small talk.
- No small talk.

397
00:25:37,003 --> 00:25:38,450
None that I can recall.

398
00:25:40,072 --> 00:25:42,109
At that point in time,

399
00:25:42,145 --> 00:25:45,143
Ruth was developing
her philosophy to take cases

400
00:25:45,178 --> 00:25:46,645
that would make good law.

401
00:25:46,997 --> 00:25:50,176
If the case is going to be
on its way to the Supreme Court,

402
00:25:50,450 --> 00:25:53,185
we wanted to be involved
and we wanted to...

403
00:25:53,220 --> 00:25:55,453
Frankly, take over the case.

404
00:25:56,205 --> 00:25:57,573
She was following
in the footsteps

405
00:25:57,608 --> 00:25:59,958
of the great civil rights lawyer
Thurgood Marshall, who was

406
00:26:00,395 --> 00:26:03,528
the architect of the battle
for racial equality

407
00:26:03,840 --> 00:26:06,298
basing it on the clause
of the Constitution

408
00:26:06,333 --> 00:26:09,403
that guarantees equal
protection of the law.

409
00:26:09,918 --> 00:26:13,801
She wanted it to apply
to equal protection for women.

410
00:26:15,442 --> 00:26:18,465
My first argument before
the U.S. Supreme Court

411
00:26:18,745 --> 00:26:21,418
was in Frontiero v. Richardson.

412
00:26:29,161 --> 00:26:33,317
 I was, way back in the 1970s, a...

413
00:26:33,848 --> 00:26:35,629
second lieutenant in the air force.

414
00:26:37,504 --> 00:26:40,899
I went in the military
because I needed the money.

415
00:26:41,809 --> 00:26:44,375
Who says a woman
has to settle for a routine job

416
00:26:44,411 --> 00:26:45,918
just because she's a woman?

417
00:26:46,012 --> 00:26:49,754
Discover the United States air force
and you'll discover the world.

418
00:26:50,309 --> 00:26:53,421
I was newly out
of college, this was a new job,

419
00:26:53,457 --> 00:26:56,497
I had just married, so
it was the start of

420
00:26:57,106 --> 00:26:58,351
new everything.

421
00:27:00,739 --> 00:27:05,507
It became clear pretty quickly
that the men I was working with

422
00:27:05,543 --> 00:27:07,742
who were married got
a housing allowance

423
00:27:07,778 --> 00:27:10,328
and I wasn't getting paid
a housing allowance

424
00:27:10,363 --> 00:27:12,106
'cause I was a woman.

425
00:27:13,332 --> 00:27:15,200
I assumed it was a mistake

426
00:27:16,020 --> 00:27:20,411
so I went off to the pay office
to correct the mistake.

427
00:27:21,145 --> 00:27:23,341
"You're lucky we let you
in here at all.

428
00:27:24,028 --> 00:27:27,979
You're lucky that the air force
allows you to serve,"

429
00:27:28,528 --> 00:27:31,239
was what I heard
right off the bat.

430
00:27:31,418 --> 00:27:33,250
It took me aback and then
I figured,

431
00:27:33,286 --> 00:27:37,968
well you know, here's one bigot,
so I'll just keep asking around

432
00:27:38,004 --> 00:27:39,958
and it became very clear
very quickly

433
00:27:39,993 --> 00:27:42,193
that there was no
different story.

434
00:27:42,942 --> 00:27:46,351
So we went to see a lawyer
and I still thought it was

435
00:27:46,387 --> 00:27:49,520
a matter of getting a lawyer
to write a letter for me.

436
00:27:49,731 --> 00:27:52,031
Just write a letter,
have the right information.

437
00:27:52,067 --> 00:27:54,817
I'm clearly in the same
category as these other men.

438
00:27:55,343 --> 00:27:56,641
The lawyer said to me,

439
00:27:56,676 --> 00:27:58,848
"this isn't an administrative error."

440
00:27:59,098 --> 00:28:00,126
This is the law

441
00:28:00,473 --> 00:28:02,879
and it's going to have to
be rectified with a lawsuit

442
00:28:03,121 --> 00:28:05,424
"and if you're willing,
we'll take you on."

443
00:28:05,997 --> 00:28:08,090
Ruth and I heard about it

444
00:28:08,457 --> 00:28:12,324
and immediately let the lawyer
for Sharron frontiero

445
00:28:12,359 --> 00:28:13,817
know we were interested.

446
00:28:13,957 --> 00:28:17,067
It was very important to us
to have a part in that case.

447
00:28:17,855 --> 00:28:19,695
Nice girls didn't file lawsuits.

448
00:28:19,731 --> 00:28:23,902
Particularly after they had been
let into the service at all.

449
00:28:23,937 --> 00:28:25,500
You know, what more did I want?

450
00:28:25,536 --> 00:28:28,231
Well, I just wanted to be
treated like everybody else did.

451
00:28:28,278 --> 00:28:31,231
But there was the sense
and there still is the sense,

452
00:28:31,301 --> 00:28:33,122
that nice girls don't speak up,

453
00:28:33,507 --> 00:28:35,707
nice girls don't make demands.

454
00:28:37,416 --> 00:28:39,303
Ah well,

455
00:28:40,207 --> 00:28:41,293
too bad.

456
00:28:42,467 --> 00:28:45,036
It went to the District Court
in Alabama.

457
00:28:45,325 --> 00:28:49,728
We lost and the next Court
to go to was the Supreme Court.

458
00:28:50,426 --> 00:28:53,786
Ruth and I set to work
to write the brief.

459
00:28:54,028 --> 00:28:57,046
I would write a section
and Ruth would take it

460
00:28:57,082 --> 00:29:00,832
and it would come back in
a wonderfully brilliant fashion.

461
00:29:01,090 --> 00:29:02,984
Every word of it
was carefully...

462
00:29:03,020 --> 00:29:05,668
I mean Ruth went over
every single word.

463
00:29:08,984 --> 00:29:11,965
What we wanted was
a review of cases

464
00:29:12,348 --> 00:29:15,253
that the Court would say, sex
discrimination doesn't work.

465
00:29:16,028 --> 00:29:19,059
And it would be a broad command
basically to legislatures

466
00:29:19,179 --> 00:29:22,793
to get rid of statutes
that discriminate on the basis

467
00:29:23,023 --> 00:29:24,957
of... of gender.

468
00:29:25,442 --> 00:29:29,489
But she also added to make
the point much more poignant,

469
00:29:29,567 --> 00:29:32,028
the history of women and
the way we were treated

470
00:29:32,078 --> 00:29:34,872
throughout America
and its beginnings.

471
00:29:53,407 --> 00:29:56,343
She captured for the
male members of the Court

472
00:29:56,379 --> 00:29:58,465
what it was like to be
a second class citizen.

473
00:30:13,670 --> 00:30:16,059
Frontiero went to the Court.

474
00:30:16,575 --> 00:30:18,616
Ruth Ginsburg, for the first time,

475
00:30:18,651 --> 00:30:20,231
made an oral argument.

476
00:30:20,316 --> 00:30:22,585
She split her time with the lawyer,

477
00:30:22,661 --> 00:30:25,786
the man who had begun the case
in Alabama.

478
00:30:28,984 --> 00:30:31,262
It was an afternoon argument.

479
00:30:32,049 --> 00:30:34,012
So I was first up
in the afternoon

480
00:30:34,048 --> 00:30:36,994
and I didn't dare have lunch
that day.

481
00:30:37,704 --> 00:30:39,286
She seemed nervous.

482
00:30:39,363 --> 00:30:42,160
Her eyes were wide with sort
of anticipation.

483
00:30:47,090 --> 00:30:52,848
It's very intense and austere
and important

484
00:30:53,386 --> 00:30:54,593
and very male

485
00:30:54,629 --> 00:30:56,286
and it's the whole thing
feels like.

486
00:30:57,176 --> 00:30:59,754
I was... I was really kind
of scared.

487
00:31:01,418 --> 00:31:03,466
We sat down at the counsel table

488
00:31:03,770 --> 00:31:06,364
and had all these huge casebooks

489
00:31:06,399 --> 00:31:08,566
for me to help her with cites.

490
00:31:08,965 --> 00:31:12,036
And the Court began
with the " Oyez! Oyez!"

491
00:31:12,072 --> 00:31:14,391
and the "here we are."

492
00:31:15,106 --> 00:31:18,582
Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!

493
00:31:19,217 --> 00:31:20,629
All persons having business

494
00:31:20,665 --> 00:31:22,562
before the Supreme Court
of the United States

495
00:31:22,598 --> 00:31:25,450
are admonished to draw near
and give their attention

496
00:31:25,485 --> 00:31:27,348
for the Court is now sitting.

497
00:31:29,918 --> 00:31:33,458
- Mrs. Ginsburg.
- I was terribly, terribly

498
00:31:33,494 --> 00:31:35,293
nervous but then I looked up

499
00:31:35,777 --> 00:31:37,293
at the justices

500
00:31:38,332 --> 00:31:41,379
and I thought,
"I have a captive audience."

501
00:31:42,222 --> 00:31:44,623
I knew that I was speaking
to men,

502
00:31:44,770 --> 00:31:46,804
who didn't think
there was any such thing

503
00:31:46,840 --> 00:31:49,307
as gender-based discrimination.

504
00:31:49,950 --> 00:31:53,653
And my job was to tell them
it really exists.

505
00:32:51,075 --> 00:32:55,615
There was not a single question.
I just went on speaking

506
00:32:55,942 --> 00:32:57,927
and I, at the time...

507
00:32:59,099 --> 00:33:00,462
wondered,

508
00:33:00,498 --> 00:33:04,561
"are they just indulging
me and not listening"

509
00:33:05,536 --> 00:33:07,396
or am I telling them something

510
00:33:08,044 --> 00:33:09,620
they haven't heard before

511
00:33:09,656 --> 00:33:11,591
"and are they paying attention?"

512
00:33:13,685 --> 00:33:16,419
The justices were
just glued to her.

513
00:33:16,696 --> 00:33:18,161
I don't think they were

514
00:33:18,271 --> 00:33:21,318
expecting to have to deal
with something as powerful

515
00:33:21,357 --> 00:33:26,391
as a sheer force of her argument
that was just all-encompassing

516
00:33:26,427 --> 00:33:28,641
and they were there to talk
about a little statute

517
00:33:28,677 --> 00:33:31,541
in the government code.
I mean, it was just...

518
00:33:31,615 --> 00:33:35,200
we seized the moment
to change American society.

519
00:33:37,021 --> 00:33:39,250
In asking the Court
to declare sex

520
00:33:39,285 --> 00:33:41,386
a suspect criterion...

521
00:33:42,274 --> 00:33:47,302
we urge a position forcibly
stated in 1837 by Sara Grimke,

522
00:33:47,922 --> 00:33:49,189
noted abolitionist

523
00:33:49,853 --> 00:33:52,234
and advocate of equal rights
for men and women.

524
00:33:53,118 --> 00:33:54,151
She said,

525
00:33:54,273 --> 00:33:57,371
"I ask no favor for my sex."

526
00:33:58,313 --> 00:34:00,453
"All I ask of our brethren"

527
00:34:01,236 --> 00:34:04,797
"is that they take their feet
off our necks."

528
00:34:11,119 --> 00:34:13,021
We were told about the decision

529
00:34:13,057 --> 00:34:14,703
when a reporter called us up

530
00:34:14,739 --> 00:34:17,488
and said, "it went in your favor
today, how do you feel?"

531
00:34:17,911 --> 00:34:20,489
I said, "I feel fine,
thank you very much!"

532
00:34:20,590 --> 00:34:22,407
We were both happy
that we won the case.

533
00:34:22,443 --> 00:34:24,629
Let's be clear about it,
we won the case. But...

534
00:34:25,380 --> 00:34:28,849
we lost the standard of review
that we wanted by one vote.

535
00:34:29,614 --> 00:34:32,513
She tried to make the case,

536
00:34:33,114 --> 00:34:34,906
that sex discrimination
should be treated

537
00:34:34,941 --> 00:34:36,357
like race discrimination.

538
00:34:37,146 --> 00:34:40,745
Four justices signed
onto that idea.

539
00:34:41,077 --> 00:34:42,950
The problem was you need five.

540
00:34:44,166 --> 00:34:45,349
I said...

541
00:34:47,185 --> 00:34:48,886
it's too soon.

542
00:34:49,955 --> 00:34:52,497
My expectation, to be candid,

543
00:34:52,810 --> 00:34:55,677
was that I would repeat
that kind of argument...

544
00:34:57,662 --> 00:34:59,669
maybe half a dozen times.

545
00:34:59,958 --> 00:35:03,935
I didn't expect it to happen
in one fell swoop.

546
00:35:04,654 --> 00:35:08,583
I think generally
in our society, real change...

547
00:35:10,224 --> 00:35:13,529
enduring change,
happens one step at a time.

548
00:35:13,669 --> 00:35:17,148
The legal strategy of one step
at a time in the '70s

549
00:35:17,183 --> 00:35:19,282
was a conservative strategy

550
00:35:19,318 --> 00:35:22,997
but the goal was equality
and civil rights

551
00:35:23,474 --> 00:35:26,318
and that's who she always was
and who she is now.

552
00:35:33,427 --> 00:35:37,701
She is very
disciplined but she has passions

553
00:35:37,737 --> 00:35:39,888
that she really enjoys.

554
00:35:40,663 --> 00:35:41,943
She loves the opera.

555
00:35:44,833 --> 00:35:46,982
She goes to multiple
opera festivals

556
00:35:47,018 --> 00:35:49,154
and the whole family
will go with her.

557
00:35:50,068 --> 00:35:52,774
I think it is a place
of tranquility

558
00:35:52,810 --> 00:35:56,193
that is outside of the demands
of her job.

559
00:36:11,131 --> 00:36:14,221
When I am at an opera...

560
00:36:14,894 --> 00:36:16,774
I get totally carried away.

561
00:36:17,573 --> 00:36:21,276
I don't think about the case
that's coming up next week,

562
00:36:21,391 --> 00:36:23,589
or the brief
that I'm in the middle of.

563
00:36:26,935 --> 00:36:30,979
I'm overwhelmed by the beauty
of the music, the drama.

564
00:36:32,263 --> 00:36:34,619
And the sound of
the human voice...

565
00:36:35,370 --> 00:36:38,386
it's like an electric current
going through me.

566
00:36:56,420 --> 00:37:00,862
Justice and mercy,
they're all in opera.

567
00:37:01,344 --> 00:37:03,722
Very grand emotions.

568
00:37:13,751 --> 00:37:16,370
A young man had
a tragic experience.

569
00:37:17,089 --> 00:37:20,206
His wife Hadan
entirely healthy pregnancy,

570
00:37:20,440 --> 00:37:24,011
and he was told that he had
a healthy baby boy

571
00:37:24,047 --> 00:37:26,081
but his wife had died.

572
00:37:27,042 --> 00:37:29,764
The
problem was amniotic embolism

573
00:37:29,800 --> 00:37:32,917
and at that particular point
nobody had ever survived that.

574
00:37:33,323 --> 00:37:35,542
They did keep her alive
for about four hours

575
00:37:36,022 --> 00:37:37,956
but by 3:30 in the afternoon,

576
00:37:38,042 --> 00:37:40,534
the code blue came along
and she died.

577
00:37:44,129 --> 00:37:46,769
Jason was a very easy child.

578
00:37:47,651 --> 00:37:50,276
My attitude towards raising
a child is that,

579
00:37:50,526 --> 00:37:53,550
a child is not there for me,
I'm there for him!

580
00:37:53,773 --> 00:37:55,394
And that's what my job was.

581
00:37:55,667 --> 00:37:57,408
He determined that he was
going to be

582
00:37:57,443 --> 00:38:00,120
a care-giving parent
to that child.

583
00:38:01,073 --> 00:38:03,764
He went to the local
social security office

584
00:38:03,800 --> 00:38:06,636
and asked about the benefits
he thought...

585
00:38:08,026 --> 00:38:10,386
a sole surviving parent
could get.

586
00:38:11,167 --> 00:38:12,034
And he was told,

587
00:38:12,070 --> 00:38:14,269
"well, that benefit is called
a mother's benefit,"

588
00:38:15,514 --> 00:38:17,299
and he didn't qualify.

589
00:38:18,096 --> 00:38:20,464
So, he wrote a letter
to the editor

590
00:38:20,503 --> 00:38:22,581
"of his local newspaper.
And he said,"

591
00:38:22,628 --> 00:38:26,104
"I have heard a lot about women's
lib. Let me tell you my story."

592
00:38:26,940 --> 00:38:28,089
"To the editor."

593
00:38:28,125 --> 00:38:30,075
It has been my
misfortune to discover

594
00:38:30,323 --> 00:38:32,743
that a male cannot collect
social security benefits

595
00:38:32,778 --> 00:38:33,894
as a woman can.

596
00:38:34,019 --> 00:38:35,948
Had I been paying
into the social security system

597
00:38:36,026 --> 00:38:39,317
and had I died, she would have
been able to receive a benefit.

598
00:38:39,484 --> 00:38:41,017
But male homemakers cannot.

599
00:38:41,302 --> 00:38:43,792
I wonder if Gloria Steinem knows
about this.

600
00:38:47,511 --> 00:38:52,612
Ruth took a case in which a man
was discriminated against

601
00:38:52,648 --> 00:38:54,081
in order to show...

602
00:38:54,761 --> 00:38:58,792
the depth and the importance
of sex discrimination.

603
00:38:59,741 --> 00:39:01,976
Very intelligent thing to do.

604
00:39:02,979 --> 00:39:06,573
We appeared in the U.S.
Supreme Court in 1975.

605
00:39:08,144 --> 00:39:10,581
When we got to the courtroom,
she sat me down

606
00:39:10,616 --> 00:39:11,917
at the table with her,

607
00:39:12,448 --> 00:39:15,401
she just wanted a male presence
to be at that table

608
00:39:15,464 --> 00:39:18,190
so that the justices would have
something to identify with.

609
00:39:18,745 --> 00:39:20,628
That was a part of her strategy.

610
00:39:21,065 --> 00:39:22,565
She was trying to convince

611
00:39:22,908 --> 00:39:24,862
members of the Supreme Court who

612
00:39:25,237 --> 00:39:29,323
were mostly white, male,
privileged class at that time.

613
00:39:48,615 --> 00:39:50,616
She knew exactly
what she was doing

614
00:39:50,698 --> 00:39:52,761
and it was a very shrewd
strategy.

615
00:39:53,992 --> 00:39:59,030
That case resulted
in a unanimous judgment

616
00:39:59,065 --> 00:40:01,532
in Stephen Wiesenfeld's favor.

617
00:40:02,100 --> 00:40:04,115
His case was the perfect example

618
00:40:04,151 --> 00:40:09,276
of how gender-based
discrimination hurts everyone.

619
00:40:10,433 --> 00:40:13,537
Ruth's
conception of the strategy led

620
00:40:13,573 --> 00:40:16,667
to a whole string of litigation
for the next decade.

621
00:40:17,729 --> 00:40:23,167
She wanted to build
the idea of women's equality

622
00:40:23,214 --> 00:40:26,819
step by step to use each case

623
00:40:27,495 --> 00:40:29,979
to move things forward.

624
00:40:30,206 --> 00:40:32,706
It was like knitting a sweater.

625
00:41:17,386 --> 00:41:18,357
They didn't get it.

626
00:41:18,393 --> 00:41:21,145
They didn't understand the
issues that women were facing

627
00:41:21,181 --> 00:41:23,914
or they didn't see them
as issues.

628
00:41:24,440 --> 00:41:27,511
'Cause women had, in their minds
women had a place

629
00:41:27,878 --> 00:41:29,211
and it wasn't...

630
00:41:30,026 --> 00:41:33,104
where Ruth Ginsburg was
suggesting that it ought to be.

631
00:41:46,112 --> 00:41:48,339
When they would say
things like this,

632
00:41:48,374 --> 00:41:50,261
how did you respond?

633
00:41:50,347 --> 00:41:53,477
Well, never in anger,
as my mother told me.

634
00:41:53,565 --> 00:41:56,113
That would've been
self-defeating.

635
00:41:56,148 --> 00:42:00,317
Always as an opportunity
to teach.

636
00:42:00,776 --> 00:42:03,287
I did see myself as kind
of a kindergarten teacher,

637
00:42:03,323 --> 00:42:06,183
in those days,
because the judges...

638
00:42:07,144 --> 00:42:10,354
didn't think sex...
sex discrimination existed.

639
00:42:11,722 --> 00:42:15,003
Well, one of the things I tried
to plant in their minds was...

640
00:42:15,886 --> 00:42:19,436
think about how you would like
the world to be

641
00:42:19,472 --> 00:42:21,464
for your daughters
and granddaughters.

642
00:42:30,261 --> 00:42:33,714
One of the things that I'm
struck by, as I look back on it,

643
00:42:33,964 --> 00:42:37,688
is how unprepared the defendants
were to fight back.

644
00:42:37,886 --> 00:42:40,487
We won because the strategy was
brilliant,

645
00:42:40,565 --> 00:42:44,225
we won because we were smart
and prepared and we fought hard.

646
00:42:44,261 --> 00:42:47,598
You couldn't miss what Ruth
was doing during the '70s.

647
00:42:47,784 --> 00:42:53,667
She was creating
a legal landscape.

648
00:43:01,683 --> 00:43:04,886
She was doing something
that was...

649
00:43:05,450 --> 00:43:07,065
incredibly important

650
00:43:07,101 --> 00:43:10,519
to American women whether
they knew it or not.

651
00:43:14,729 --> 00:43:17,690
Just the thought that I might
catch a glimpse of her is...

652
00:43:17,896 --> 00:43:19,196
overwhelming.

653
00:43:19,471 --> 00:43:21,717
I have a mug of her
in my room it says,

654
00:43:21,753 --> 00:43:22,904
"her story in the making."

655
00:43:22,940 --> 00:43:24,584
I have her sticker
on my computer!

656
00:43:24,620 --> 00:43:26,479
I just ordered tons of merch.

657
00:43:26,808 --> 00:43:30,464
Notorious RBG. We're here to get
our books signed.

658
00:43:30,808 --> 00:43:33,440
I think it's
easy to take for granted

659
00:43:33,542 --> 00:43:38,912
the position that young women
can have in today's society.

660
00:43:38,948 --> 00:43:42,901
And that's a lot in thanks
to justice Ginsburg's work.

661
00:43:44,440 --> 00:43:47,658
Who is more
disdained or told to go away

662
00:43:47,693 --> 00:43:48,815
than an older woman?

663
00:43:48,870 --> 00:43:51,962
But here's an older woman
who people really want to hear

664
00:43:51,997 --> 00:43:53,800
everything that she has to say.

665
00:43:55,472 --> 00:43:57,390
I have been given
questions from the students

666
00:43:57,425 --> 00:44:00,037
about what it's like to be
justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

667
00:44:00,550 --> 00:44:02,253
- Do you have a smartphone?

668
00:44:02,490 --> 00:44:06,248
Yes, the answer is yes.

669
00:44:06,284 --> 00:44:09,139
I had, in fact,
two until they took

670
00:44:09,448 --> 00:44:11,443
the BlackBerry away
from me saying,

671
00:44:11,479 --> 00:44:13,009
"nobody uses that anymore."

672
00:44:14,383 --> 00:44:17,347
Uh, what do I use it for?
Not for selfies.

673
00:44:20,124 --> 00:44:22,287
You have said in public
many times,

674
00:44:22,323 --> 00:44:24,828
that the ideal number of women
for the Supreme Court

675
00:44:24,863 --> 00:44:26,430
of the United States is nine.

676
00:44:26,535 --> 00:44:28,042
Yes, of course...

677
00:44:29,166 --> 00:44:30,808
- Uh...
- Why not?

678
00:44:31,050 --> 00:44:35,172
Nine men was a satisfactory
number until 1981.

679
00:44:35,722 --> 00:44:39,065
But the change in the
federal judiciary as a whole

680
00:44:39,101 --> 00:44:40,972
has been enormous.

681
00:44:41,479 --> 00:44:43,180
But it wasn't until...

682
00:44:43,440 --> 00:44:45,308
Jimmy Carter became president,

683
00:44:46,112 --> 00:44:48,752
he looked around
at the federal judiciary,

684
00:44:49,308 --> 00:44:50,370
and he said,

685
00:44:50,708 --> 00:44:52,604
"don't they all look like me?"

686
00:44:53,292 --> 00:44:57,292
"But that's not how the great
United States looks."

687
00:44:59,112 --> 00:45:01,897
When president Carter
was elected, he said,

688
00:45:01,933 --> 00:45:04,428
"there are almost no women
and there are almost"

689
00:45:04,464 --> 00:45:07,026
no African Americans
on the federal bench

690
00:45:07,065 --> 00:45:09,573
"and I am determined
to change that."

691
00:45:10,972 --> 00:45:14,175
Justice Ginsburg and I
were two of the people

692
00:45:14,783 --> 00:45:17,112
who benefitted
from that promise.

693
00:45:19,104 --> 00:45:22,854
Ruth was nominated in 1980
and we became colleagues

694
00:45:22,956 --> 00:45:25,892
on the U.S. Court of appeals
for the DC circuit.

695
00:45:26,994 --> 00:45:29,463
Judge Ginsburg did you
always want to be a judge?

696
00:45:31,572 --> 00:45:36,166
The law is something
that I think I deal with well.

697
00:45:36,499 --> 00:45:37,499
Uh...

698
00:45:38,119 --> 00:45:41,438
I don't have the kind of talent
that could make one say

699
00:45:41,473 --> 00:45:43,822
a great opera singer.

700
00:45:52,849 --> 00:45:56,016
I wanted to be active
in the law.

701
00:45:56,541 --> 00:45:59,580
The law is a consuming,

702
00:46:00,152 --> 00:46:01,152
uh,

703
00:46:01,801 --> 00:46:03,505
love for me.

704
00:46:04,841 --> 00:46:06,809
When she first started
on the bench,

705
00:46:06,845 --> 00:46:10,392
after we hear cases we go
into a conference room

706
00:46:10,447 --> 00:46:13,556
and the three judges confer
and we think about

707
00:46:13,872 --> 00:46:15,739
how we should decide the cases.

708
00:46:16,572 --> 00:46:19,853
Ruth was sufficiently confident
in herself in the early days.

709
00:46:20,236 --> 00:46:22,775
"She would say," this is
a very straightforward case.

710
00:46:22,900 --> 00:46:24,915
I have a prepared judgment
for us"

711
00:46:24,950 --> 00:46:28,298
and this was before we
conferred on the case

712
00:46:28,400 --> 00:46:30,753
and initially, we were
all taken aback like,

713
00:46:31,111 --> 00:46:33,228
"no wait, wait, Ruth, you can't
do that."

714
00:46:33,691 --> 00:46:34,491
She was always right,

715
00:46:34,526 --> 00:46:36,527
the judgments that she had
prepared were right.

716
00:46:37,369 --> 00:46:40,544
But we said, "no, we have to go
through the motions"

717
00:46:40,580 --> 00:46:44,134
of talking first before you give
us the result."

718
00:46:45,359 --> 00:46:48,562
When I was appointed
to the DC circuit,

719
00:46:48,658 --> 00:46:51,239
"so often people would
come up to me and say,"

720
00:46:51,275 --> 00:46:54,755
"it must be hard for you commuting
back and forth to New York."

721
00:46:55,248 --> 00:46:59,502
They couldn't imagine that
a man would leave his work

722
00:46:59,852 --> 00:47:02,072
to follow his... his wife.

723
00:47:03,377 --> 00:47:07,291
He... had been
extraordinarily successful

724
00:47:07,326 --> 00:47:09,908
as a practicing lawyer
in New York.

725
00:47:10,229 --> 00:47:12,083
There were people who would say,

726
00:47:12,119 --> 00:47:14,864
he was the best tax lawyer
in the city of New York

727
00:47:14,900 --> 00:47:17,181
and believe me, that is saying
something.

728
00:47:17,370 --> 00:47:18,662
He was...

729
00:47:19,837 --> 00:47:21,900
okay playing second fiddle.

730
00:47:22,064 --> 00:47:24,963
In fact, he would make a joke
of it always, he would say,

731
00:47:25,384 --> 00:47:28,178
"I moved to Washington
because my wife got a good job."

732
00:47:28,673 --> 00:47:31,486
How much advice
do you give each other?

733
00:47:38,336 --> 00:47:39,503
Well...

734
00:47:41,142 --> 00:47:44,094
Marty was the funny one
in the family and she loved it

735
00:47:44,884 --> 00:47:47,831
and you could see the twinkle
in her eye when he would do

736
00:47:47,866 --> 00:47:49,838
his funny little quips
and jokes.

737
00:47:49,968 --> 00:47:51,223
As a general rule,

738
00:47:51,259 --> 00:47:54,822
my wife does not give me
any advice about cooking

739
00:47:54,861 --> 00:47:57,541
and I do not give her any advice
about the law.

740
00:47:57,884 --> 00:48:00,634
This seems to work quite well
on both sides.

741
00:48:02,189 --> 00:48:06,294
My father was very outgoing,
very fun person,

742
00:48:06,330 --> 00:48:08,400
and I think he helped, uh,

743
00:48:09,001 --> 00:48:12,666
temper some of mom's seriousness
at times which I think was

744
00:48:12,702 --> 00:48:14,052
to everybody's benefit.

745
00:48:14,088 --> 00:48:16,560
We used to keep a book called
mommy laughed.

746
00:48:16,735 --> 00:48:19,478
Which had parsimonious entries.

747
00:48:20,689 --> 00:48:22,365
You are giving me
constant advice.

748
00:48:22,401 --> 00:48:24,931
It's starts calling about, uh...

749
00:48:25,861 --> 00:48:30,056
7:00, it's time to come home
for dinner and then 7:30

750
00:48:30,572 --> 00:48:35,312
and somewhere between 7:30
and 9:00, we generally make it.

751
00:48:35,955 --> 00:48:38,259
And the other thing is time
for you to go to sleep.

752
00:48:39,159 --> 00:48:40,778
Those are the daily...

753
00:48:40,814 --> 00:48:42,564
um, that's the daily advice,

754
00:48:43,442 --> 00:48:44,275
that I get.

755
00:48:44,361 --> 00:48:47,958
Well, it's not that bad advice
you have to eat one meal a day

756
00:48:47,993 --> 00:48:49,853
and you have to go to sleep
sometime.

757
00:48:50,861 --> 00:48:55,832
He allowed Ruth to be
who she was, that is,

758
00:48:56,330 --> 00:49:00,439
a relatively reserved,
serious person,

759
00:49:00,916 --> 00:49:04,556
who focused on her law work
and loved doing that.

760
00:49:04,736 --> 00:49:07,711
And the relationship was just
magnificent to watch.

761
00:49:08,424 --> 00:49:11,814
And when Marty was
starting out in law practice

762
00:49:12,084 --> 00:49:13,825
and eager to make partner,

763
00:49:13,861 --> 00:49:16,019
I was responsible
for the lion's share

764
00:49:16,055 --> 00:49:17,814
of taking care of the home.

765
00:49:18,377 --> 00:49:21,658
But when the women's movement
came alive and Marty appreciated

766
00:49:21,693 --> 00:49:24,736
the importance of the work
I was doing,

767
00:49:25,134 --> 00:49:29,433
then I became the person
whose career came first.

768
00:49:29,728 --> 00:49:31,392
What was she like as a mom?

769
00:49:31,428 --> 00:49:32,463
Exigent.

770
00:49:32,517 --> 00:49:33,841
What do you mean by that?

771
00:49:33,877 --> 00:49:38,549
"Do your homework, clean
your room, don't disappoint us."

772
00:49:41,838 --> 00:49:44,252
Helping a lot
with, uh, schoolwork,

773
00:49:44,616 --> 00:49:47,250
commenting, pulling out
the red pen.

774
00:49:47,963 --> 00:49:51,388
Our dear
daughter Jane, all smiles,

775
00:49:51,547 --> 00:49:53,744
volunteered to the press.

776
00:49:53,963 --> 00:49:58,439
She had grown up in a home
in which responsibility

777
00:49:58,797 --> 00:50:00,595
was equally divided.

778
00:50:00,720 --> 00:50:03,869
Her father did the
cooking, she explained,

779
00:50:04,041 --> 00:50:06,228
and her mother did the thinking.

780
00:50:09,056 --> 00:50:11,475
So is she really
such a horrible cook?

781
00:50:11,650 --> 00:50:12,919
- Yes.
- Oh yeah.

782
00:50:12,955 --> 00:50:14,947
To this day I still can't eat
swordfish...

783
00:50:15,603 --> 00:50:17,322
after what she did to it.

784
00:50:18,017 --> 00:50:20,250
It wasn't until I was 14
that I encountered

785
00:50:20,285 --> 00:50:21,533
a live vegetable.

786
00:50:22,564 --> 00:50:25,488
Ruth is no longer
permitted in the kitchen...

787
00:50:26,502 --> 00:50:29,994
...this by the demand of our
children, who have taste.

788
00:50:41,627 --> 00:50:44,330
This is a book that Tata,

789
00:50:45,150 --> 00:50:47,444
he collected letters about me

790
00:50:47,588 --> 00:50:48,924
for my 50th birthday.

791
00:50:49,283 --> 00:50:51,799
- Tata organized all this.
- It was his idea.

792
00:50:52,117 --> 00:50:54,584
Tata, my... her husband,
my grandfather,

793
00:50:54,619 --> 00:50:56,231
he was especially doting,

794
00:50:56,267 --> 00:50:59,456
so they almost had a bad cop,
good cop relationship,

795
00:50:59,491 --> 00:51:01,258
when it came to the grandkids.

796
00:51:01,634 --> 00:51:04,603
Tata was more often the good cop
I would say,

797
00:51:04,720 --> 00:51:07,664
uh, mostly because bubbe
was often buried in her work

798
00:51:07,699 --> 00:51:09,192
so if we
really wanted something,

799
00:51:09,228 --> 00:51:12,236
we felt like we could nag tata
more often for it.

800
00:51:13,237 --> 00:51:14,283
"Dear Ruth,"

801
00:51:14,533 --> 00:51:17,541
I have little doubt
that you are proud, rightly so,

802
00:51:17,955 --> 00:51:20,400
of all you have achieved
as a judge

803
00:51:20,447 --> 00:51:22,799
and as a spouse
and a parent as well.

804
00:51:22,845 --> 00:51:24,581
But I conceive no way
you can take

805
00:51:24,616 --> 00:51:28,452
"greater pride than I do.
Love, Tata."

806
00:51:28,487 --> 00:51:30,205
- Nice.
- Very nice.

807
00:51:31,861 --> 00:51:34,384
- Do you read these often?
- No, I never read them.

808
00:51:34,447 --> 00:51:36,593
You should, they are very nice,
if you ever need a boost

809
00:51:36,628 --> 00:51:38,150
of self-confidence.

810
00:51:38,994 --> 00:51:41,164
So much of the shape of America
is a work

811
00:51:41,199 --> 00:51:42,236
of the U.S. Supreme Court

812
00:51:42,272 --> 00:51:44,049
and so the makeup of that Court

813
00:51:44,158 --> 00:51:45,739
is one of the enduring legacies

814
00:51:45,775 --> 00:51:48,916
of a president who has an
opportunity to appoint justices.

815
00:51:49,002 --> 00:51:50,794
And tonight this new president

816
00:51:50,830 --> 00:51:53,380
has his first chance to make it
a Clinton Court.

817
00:51:53,416 --> 00:51:57,214
This president has a very clear idea
of what he wants in this justice.

818
00:51:58,080 --> 00:52:01,322
I really did want to put
Governor Cuomo on the Court,

819
00:52:01,939 --> 00:52:04,283
but he didn't want to do it
so I started looking around.

820
00:52:04,611 --> 00:52:08,330
He kept moving from his favorite
person of the week

821
00:52:08,377 --> 00:52:10,267
to the next favorite person
of the week

822
00:52:10,650 --> 00:52:13,553
and judge Ginsburg
was sort of old

823
00:52:13,589 --> 00:52:14,998
to be a nominee.

824
00:52:15,189 --> 00:52:17,463
She was in her early 60s.

825
00:52:17,963 --> 00:52:19,989
Most people, I think, thought

826
00:52:20,025 --> 00:52:22,049
she was out of the running
for that reason

827
00:52:22,408 --> 00:52:24,975
and Marty was just not gonna
accept that.

828
00:52:25,010 --> 00:52:27,525
We're talking about Ruth

829
00:52:27,806 --> 00:52:30,313
and we must remember
how shy she was.

830
00:52:30,908 --> 00:52:36,525
I can't think of anyone
less likely to toot her own horn

831
00:52:37,172 --> 00:52:38,330
than Ruth.

832
00:52:40,279 --> 00:52:43,611
So Marty had to play
the New York Philharmonic.

833
00:52:55,573 --> 00:52:57,255
No question about it,

834
00:52:57,291 --> 00:52:59,650
people who observed
at the time, said,

835
00:52:59,759 --> 00:53:01,595
"well, Ruth would
have been on a list,"

836
00:53:01,631 --> 00:53:04,361
"maybe she would be 22 or 23"

837
00:53:04,843 --> 00:53:07,299
but it was Marty who
made her number one.

838
00:53:09,455 --> 00:53:12,916
He had a little book of
people that he contacted.

839
00:53:13,351 --> 00:53:14,424
They were...

840
00:53:16,056 --> 00:53:19,094
He had lots of contacts
in the business community,

841
00:53:19,336 --> 00:53:21,667
lots of contacts in the legal
community,

842
00:53:21,703 --> 00:53:25,402
in the academic community,
among the women she had helped.

843
00:53:25,937 --> 00:53:30,190
And he... I don't even know
all the things he did.

844
00:53:30,226 --> 00:53:34,289
He was so in love with his wife
and so respected her

845
00:53:34,805 --> 00:53:37,347
as a real giant
in the legal profession,

846
00:53:37,382 --> 00:53:38,862
he felt it would be an outrage

847
00:53:38,898 --> 00:53:40,961
if she wasn't seriously
considered.

848
00:53:41,140 --> 00:53:43,854
And look, he wasn't the only one
that was campaigning

849
00:53:43,889 --> 00:53:45,488
for somebody to be on the Court.

850
00:53:45,765 --> 00:53:47,445
He had
some pretty stiff opposition...

851
00:53:48,344 --> 00:53:50,906
but it was her interview
that did it.

852
00:53:54,758 --> 00:53:56,917
We arranged for her to come
to the white house.

853
00:53:56,953 --> 00:53:58,672
I wanted to see how her mind
worked.

854
00:53:59,027 --> 00:54:00,793
So I engaged her
in this conversation.

855
00:54:01,273 --> 00:54:03,690
And all of a sudden, I wasn't
the president interviewing her

856
00:54:03,726 --> 00:54:06,237
for the Supreme Court anymore,
we were two people having

857
00:54:06,273 --> 00:54:08,912
an honest discussion
about what's the best way

858
00:54:09,305 --> 00:54:12,789
in the moment and for the future
to make law.

859
00:54:13,750 --> 00:54:17,469
Ruth Ginsburg,
as quiet and kind of withdrawn

860
00:54:17,883 --> 00:54:21,558
and almost timid as she can be,
she is a performer

861
00:54:22,187 --> 00:54:24,484
and she walked in that room
and he fell for her.

862
00:54:24,531 --> 00:54:27,063
Literally, within 15 minutes,
I decided

863
00:54:27,098 --> 00:54:28,464
I was going to name her.

864
00:54:32,797 --> 00:54:35,570
I'm proud to nominate
this path-breaking attorney,

865
00:54:35,726 --> 00:54:39,209
advocate, and judge to be
the 107th justice

866
00:54:39,680 --> 00:54:41,844
to the United States Supreme Court.

867
00:54:49,851 --> 00:54:53,320
When I was nominated
back in 1993,

868
00:54:53,359 --> 00:54:55,656
senator Biden chaired
the committee.

869
00:54:56,219 --> 00:54:59,663
The leading republican
member was Orrin Hatch.

870
00:55:00,305 --> 00:55:01,865
Do you have
any concerns right now?

871
00:55:01,900 --> 00:55:03,116
There are always concerns

872
00:55:03,152 --> 00:55:05,519
because these are very important
positions.

873
00:55:05,555 --> 00:55:08,195
And so there will be a lot
of questions asked.

874
00:55:13,297 --> 00:55:16,713
Day two of the Ruth Bader
Ginsburg confirmation hearings.

875
00:55:16,748 --> 00:55:18,526
Judge Ginsburg did something

876
00:55:18,562 --> 00:55:21,058
no recent High Court
nominee has done,

877
00:55:21,094 --> 00:55:24,242
spoke at length about her
support for abortion rights.

878
00:55:24,680 --> 00:55:28,953
It is essential
to women's equality with man...

879
00:55:30,070 --> 00:55:33,945
that her choice... that she be
the decision maker.

880
00:55:35,101 --> 00:55:38,578
This is something central
to a woman's...

881
00:55:39,336 --> 00:55:41,204
life, to her dignity.

882
00:55:41,859 --> 00:55:44,805
And when government controls
that decision for her,

883
00:55:45,336 --> 00:55:49,211
she is being treated as less
than a fully adult...

884
00:55:49,714 --> 00:55:51,601
human responsible for...

885
00:55:52,748 --> 00:55:54,549
her own choices.

886
00:55:55,117 --> 00:55:57,624
She was put on the Court
by a liberal president,

887
00:55:58,490 --> 00:56:01,234
uh, as a liberal justice.

888
00:56:02,039 --> 00:56:04,239
And that's the way this country
works.

889
00:56:04,687 --> 00:56:06,529
I disagree with you
on a number of things,

890
00:56:06,564 --> 00:56:08,665
and I am sure you disagree
with me.

891
00:56:08,700 --> 00:56:10,273
But that isn't the issue, is it?

892
00:56:10,422 --> 00:56:12,130
And frankly, I admire you.

893
00:56:12,656 --> 00:56:14,175
You've earned the right,

894
00:56:14,211 --> 00:56:16,531
in my opinion,
to be on the Supreme Court.

895
00:56:16,877 --> 00:56:18,750
She was confirmed 96-3.

896
00:56:18,890 --> 00:56:21,664
Now, you could argue that it was
not as partisan a time

897
00:56:21,700 --> 00:56:23,734
as it is now
but it was pretty partisan.

898
00:56:36,679 --> 00:56:38,714
Promising to defend
the Constitution,

899
00:56:38,805 --> 00:56:41,131
pioneering women's rights
advocate Ruth Bader Ginsburg

900
00:56:41,166 --> 00:56:43,099
has been sworn in as the second
woman,

901
00:56:43,134 --> 00:56:44,901
on the U.S. Supreme Court bench.

902
00:56:45,287 --> 00:56:48,055
I will well and faithfully
discharge.

903
00:56:48,273 --> 00:56:51,180
The duties of the office
on which I am about to enter.

904
00:56:51,750 --> 00:56:55,612
The duties of the office
on which I am about to enter.

905
00:56:55,953 --> 00:56:59,148
- So help me God.
- So help me God.

906
00:57:02,484 --> 00:57:04,711
It was extremely exciting

907
00:57:05,015 --> 00:57:08,101
because this powerful
little woman

908
00:57:08,211 --> 00:57:09,562
was going on the Supreme Court,

909
00:57:09,627 --> 00:57:12,328
and that meant there
were going to be two.

910
00:57:23,953 --> 00:57:27,180
The standard robe is made
for a man,

911
00:57:27,258 --> 00:57:31,681
because it has a place for the
shirt to show and the tie.

912
00:57:32,390 --> 00:57:36,190
So Sandra Day O'Connor and I,
thought it would be appropriate

913
00:57:36,226 --> 00:57:39,633
if we included as part
of our robe,

914
00:57:39,846 --> 00:57:42,469
something typical of a woman.

915
00:57:44,337 --> 00:57:46,180
During my long tenure here,

916
00:57:46,279 --> 00:57:48,367
I was not the most quote,

917
00:57:48,484 --> 00:57:50,238
liberal justice on the Court.

918
00:57:50,492 --> 00:57:53,219
From the beginning, I think
what she was looking for

919
00:57:53,404 --> 00:57:55,523
was to build consensus.

920
00:57:56,586 --> 00:57:58,597
Even though chief justice
Rehnquist

921
00:57:58,633 --> 00:58:01,558
and Sandra day O'Connor were
conservative justices.

922
00:58:01,594 --> 00:58:04,479
They were still justices
with which,

923
00:58:04,515 --> 00:58:06,633
Ginsburg was able to find
common ground.

924
00:58:07,452 --> 00:58:08,828
That was her style.

925
00:58:09,039 --> 00:58:12,489
She really wanted to be able
to convince her fellow justices

926
00:58:12,703 --> 00:58:14,789
to move her way even if it means

927
00:58:15,023 --> 00:58:17,680
conceding certain things
and compromising.

928
00:58:32,023 --> 00:58:33,367
To start out,

929
00:58:33,461 --> 00:58:36,890
I thought you might like
to know a little about the

930
00:58:37,226 --> 00:58:39,328
gentlemen who
are surrounding us.

931
00:58:40,156 --> 00:58:43,242
These are the first set
of chief justices

932
00:58:43,278 --> 00:58:44,742
of the Supreme Court.

933
00:58:45,711 --> 00:58:48,375
John Marshall is the
4th chief justice and

934
00:58:48,753 --> 00:58:50,011
what he said was,

935
00:58:50,261 --> 00:58:52,312
that this Constitution

936
00:58:52,896 --> 00:58:54,964
is the highest law of the land.

937
00:58:55,750 --> 00:58:57,203
The 14th amendment

938
00:58:57,680 --> 00:59:00,312
has a clause that you
all should know about

939
00:59:01,161 --> 00:59:04,039
and I'll read it to you.
It says...

940
00:59:06,210 --> 00:59:09,883
"And nor shall any state deny
to any person

941
00:59:10,640 --> 00:59:13,953
the equal protection
of the laws."

942
00:59:14,885 --> 00:59:17,265
So if Congress passes a law

943
00:59:17,570 --> 00:59:20,703
or the president issues
an executive order

944
00:59:20,937 --> 00:59:23,336
that is in conflict
with the Constitution,

945
00:59:24,094 --> 00:59:27,469
the Constitution must prevail.

946
00:59:48,265 --> 00:59:51,867
VMI was a 150 year old,

947
00:59:52,354 --> 00:59:54,812
all-male military college.

948
00:59:55,648 --> 00:59:59,562
It had a tremendous endowment,
well-connected alumni,

949
00:59:59,597 --> 01:00:01,237
four star generals.

950
01:00:01,273 --> 01:00:04,390
When you came out of VMI
that was something.

951
01:00:04,453 --> 01:00:06,465
Virginia military
institute was the last

952
01:00:06,500 --> 01:00:08,409
all-male state supported school
in the country.

953
01:00:08,445 --> 01:00:12,805
157 years of school tradition as
an all-male military academy.

954
01:00:15,101 --> 01:00:18,425
Boys can be troublesome,
full of hormones and so forth,

955
01:00:18,461 --> 01:00:21,718
and I don't mean to make general
gender characteristics

956
01:00:21,815 --> 01:00:25,269
or generalizations here
but for some young men,

957
01:00:25,320 --> 01:00:28,609
at that time of their life
they need discipline,

958
01:00:29,031 --> 01:00:31,128
they need hard work
and they need

959
01:00:31,164 --> 01:00:33,664
not a lot of extra time
to get into trouble.

960
01:00:33,898 --> 01:00:35,672
And VMI provided that.

961
01:00:35,711 --> 01:00:37,937
Look at the men
which stand before you!

962
01:00:37,992 --> 01:00:40,851
They represent the essence
of VMI!

963
01:00:42,109 --> 01:00:46,042
A female high school student
wanted to attend VMI.

964
01:00:46,078 --> 01:00:50,367
So she brought a case against
Virginia, claiming that

965
01:00:50,422 --> 01:00:53,273
the all-male admissions policy
violated equal protection.

966
01:00:54,286 --> 01:00:55,956
It actually went
from the District Court

967
01:00:55,992 --> 01:00:58,750
to the appellate Court before it
came up to the Supreme Court.

968
01:00:59,359 --> 01:01:03,914
This was an extremely important
case for justice Ginsburg.

969
01:01:04,163 --> 01:01:09,225
It was her first women's rights
case on the Supreme Court.

970
01:01:10,286 --> 01:01:12,300
The honorable chief justice

971
01:01:12,336 --> 01:01:15,070
and the associate justices
of the Supreme Court

972
01:01:15,106 --> 01:01:16,839
of the United States.

973
01:01:17,442 --> 01:01:21,081
I was very much aware
of justice Ginsburg's history

974
01:01:21,117 --> 01:01:25,011
with respect to gender excluding
women from an institution.

975
01:01:25,047 --> 01:01:28,394
I was very much aware of that
and I was trying to fashion

976
01:01:28,430 --> 01:01:32,055
an argument that would penetrate
that.

977
01:02:06,047 --> 01:02:11,960
I was dealing with a very
worthy and formidable force

978
01:02:11,996 --> 01:02:14,130
at the other side of that bench.

979
01:02:27,258 --> 01:02:30,836
That was my pitch. As you know
it didn't work.

980
01:03:03,513 --> 01:03:06,616
...to aspire, achieve,

981
01:03:07,086 --> 01:03:11,453
participate in, and contribute
to society...

982
01:03:12,222 --> 01:03:14,524
based on what they can do.

983
01:03:15,156 --> 01:03:18,269
The for-men only
tradition of VMI became history

984
01:03:18,305 --> 01:03:21,578
with the arrival of women
entering as first year cadets.

985
01:03:21,719 --> 01:03:24,400
Cadre, take charge of your rats.

986
01:03:27,724 --> 01:03:30,105
I was in
the first class of women.

987
01:03:30,820 --> 01:03:34,351
We were here not to break
tradition not to ruin history

988
01:03:34,631 --> 01:03:36,336
but to help grow it.

989
01:03:41,530 --> 01:03:44,519
For those four years I worked
extremely hard,

990
01:03:44,555 --> 01:03:46,389
to be the best person I could be

991
01:03:46,424 --> 01:03:48,359
and to represent women
as a whole.

992
01:03:48,672 --> 01:03:51,093
I wanted to be that person
that stood in front of the men

993
01:03:51,128 --> 01:03:52,687
and said, "I can do it, too."

994
01:03:58,268 --> 01:04:00,820
It's most
appropriate that we welcome today

995
01:04:00,856 --> 01:04:02,797
a member of our
nation's highest Court,

996
01:04:03,119 --> 01:04:04,469
a notable example

997
01:04:04,734 --> 01:04:08,242
of a citizen with a lifelong
dedication to public service,

998
01:04:08,515 --> 01:04:10,513
justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

999
01:04:10,572 --> 01:04:11,572
Thank you.

1000
01:04:11,661 --> 01:04:14,517
Welcome to the
Virginia Military Institute.

1001
01:04:14,922 --> 01:04:17,553
VMI fought very hard to keep
women out.

1002
01:04:18,156 --> 01:04:21,394
I had an alumni walk up to me,
and he says,

1003
01:04:21,430 --> 01:04:23,220
"I'm not going to shake
your hand. I want to know"

1004
01:04:23,255 --> 01:04:24,788
why you're here,

1005
01:04:25,500 --> 01:04:28,264
"um, and why you
decided to ruin my school."

1006
01:04:28,875 --> 01:04:31,570
I know that there were some
people who did not...

1007
01:04:32,797 --> 01:04:37,206
react well to the change
and my response to this was,

1008
01:04:37,656 --> 01:04:41,617
"wait and see, you will be proud
of the women

1009
01:04:41,913 --> 01:04:45,250
who become graduates of VMI."

1010
01:04:49,125 --> 01:04:52,862
It wasn't just about VMI,
it was about the notion

1011
01:04:52,898 --> 01:04:57,933
that you cannot exclude women
just because they're women.

1012
01:04:57,969 --> 01:04:59,703
You cannot say categorically,

1013
01:05:00,177 --> 01:05:02,054
"they can't handle this."

1014
01:05:02,320 --> 01:05:04,834
It's way beyond VMI, way beyond.

1015
01:05:05,484 --> 01:05:08,838
And she pulled some
of the justices of that Court

1016
01:05:09,515 --> 01:05:15,125
over to see that you start,
you start with an assumption

1017
01:05:16,289 --> 01:05:19,719
that you have got to treat
both genders equally.

1018
01:05:20,961 --> 01:05:24,933
That majority opinion,
was the culmination of Ruth's

1019
01:05:24,969 --> 01:05:28,578
dedication to the concept
of equality for women.

1020
01:05:30,722 --> 01:05:33,258
Those are current cadets.

1021
01:05:36,219 --> 01:05:40,648
One wanted to be a nuclear
scientist, the others engineers.

1022
01:05:41,371 --> 01:05:44,523
All very well adjusted to life
at VMI.

1023
01:05:51,681 --> 01:05:53,461
So, you can see...

1024
01:05:54,578 --> 01:05:58,562
many varieties there are more up
on top.

1025
01:05:59,258 --> 01:06:01,453
This is the latest one
I've gotten.

1026
01:06:03,515 --> 01:06:04,985
So people just send them to you?

1027
01:06:05,020 --> 01:06:06,453
Yes.

1028
01:06:08,832 --> 01:06:10,156
What's in this one?

1029
01:06:11,086 --> 01:06:15,404
Oh this one was given to me
by the University of Hawaii,

1030
01:06:15,642 --> 01:06:17,078
with French lace...

1031
01:06:17,911 --> 01:06:19,867
and the beads are
from the beach.

1032
01:06:22,601 --> 01:06:27,055
It is a gift from law clerks,
a few terms back.

1033
01:06:27,551 --> 01:06:29,633
And this is what I use...

1034
01:06:30,087 --> 01:06:32,758
for announcing majority opinion.

1035
01:06:33,402 --> 01:06:36,898
And this one is for dissenting
opinion.

1036
01:06:43,567 --> 01:06:46,890
Every day before we sit
in the Court,

1037
01:06:47,039 --> 01:06:49,508
the first thing we do is,
we go around the room

1038
01:06:49,906 --> 01:06:52,992
each justice shaking hands
with every other.

1039
01:06:53,922 --> 01:06:56,987
We know that collegiality
is very important

1040
01:06:57,023 --> 01:06:59,382
to the effective working
of the Court.

1041
01:07:00,219 --> 01:07:04,781
So we better respect each other
and even like each other.

1042
01:07:05,430 --> 01:07:07,009
She did something I'm not sure
I could have done,

1043
01:07:07,044 --> 01:07:09,484
she made real friendship
with Scalia.

1044
01:07:09,523 --> 01:07:13,240
They are the leading
voice of opposite points of views

1045
01:07:13,276 --> 01:07:15,062
on the United States Supreme Court.

1046
01:07:15,125 --> 01:07:17,125
Why don't you call us,
the odd couple?

1047
01:07:19,695 --> 01:07:22,906
He is a very funny fellow.

1048
01:07:22,969 --> 01:07:24,386
She is a very nice person,

1049
01:07:24,422 --> 01:07:26,711
she likes opera, what's not
to like?

1050
01:07:28,328 --> 01:07:30,937
Except her views of law
of course.

1051
01:07:33,336 --> 01:07:35,094
Justice Scalia believes

1052
01:07:35,130 --> 01:07:37,307
that one should read
the Constitution

1053
01:07:37,343 --> 01:07:39,995
according to its plain language,

1054
01:07:40,031 --> 01:07:44,026
according to the meanings
that were ascribed, uh,

1055
01:07:44,062 --> 01:07:48,065
to those words when those words
were enacted.

1056
01:07:48,101 --> 01:07:50,339
But you're saying is,
let's try to figure out

1057
01:07:50,375 --> 01:07:53,320
the mindset of people back
200 years ago, right?

1058
01:07:53,570 --> 01:07:55,444
Well, it isn't the mindset,

1059
01:07:55,480 --> 01:07:58,151
it's - it's, what - what
did the words mean

1060
01:07:58,187 --> 01:08:00,245
to the people who ratified
the bill of rights

1061
01:08:00,281 --> 01:08:01,777
or who ratified
the Constitution.

1062
01:08:01,813 --> 01:08:03,940
As opposed to what people today
think it meant?

1063
01:08:03,976 --> 01:08:06,548
As opposed to what people today
would like.

1064
01:08:06,584 --> 01:08:08,461
I see the Constitution,

1065
01:08:08,578 --> 01:08:11,562
as striving for
a more perfect union.

1066
01:08:11,898 --> 01:08:15,124
Who were we the people in 1787?

1067
01:08:15,508 --> 01:08:17,995
You would not be among
we the people,

1068
01:08:18,031 --> 01:08:21,063
African Americans would not be
among the people.

1069
01:08:21,664 --> 01:08:24,144
She's this
supposed famous liberal,

1070
01:08:24,180 --> 01:08:26,144
he's this supposed famous
conservative.

1071
01:08:26,180 --> 01:08:29,271
She's a Jewish, he's, uh,
catholic.

1072
01:08:29,765 --> 01:08:33,430
She's retiring at times,
and he almost never is.

1073
01:08:33,898 --> 01:08:38,136
And yet as with many great
friendships there's chemistry

1074
01:08:38,172 --> 01:08:40,542
that maybe you can't
entirely explain.

1075
01:08:40,578 --> 01:08:43,917
That's thing about Ruth
is that she can compartmentalize

1076
01:08:43,953 --> 01:08:46,889
better than I do. She is able
to have a close friend

1077
01:08:46,924 --> 01:08:48,969
who had these outrageous views,

1078
01:08:49,429 --> 01:08:50,176
um,

1079
01:08:50,358 --> 01:08:53,063
about women and about gays
and lesbians.

1080
01:08:53,573 --> 01:08:54,840
I have a little bit of trouble
with that.

1081
01:08:54,875 --> 01:08:56,922
I don't have close friends
who are right wing

1082
01:08:56,958 --> 01:08:57,604
nutcases.

1083
01:08:57,640 --> 01:08:59,558
Even though they had
differing points of view,

1084
01:08:59,594 --> 01:09:02,104
they were dear friends.
I'm sure they were...

1085
01:09:02,508 --> 01:09:04,273
picking at each other
the whole time.

1086
01:09:04,338 --> 01:09:06,225
But they kind of enjoyed it.

1087
01:09:06,570 --> 01:09:09,484
Justice scalia would
whisper something to me.

1088
01:09:09,609 --> 01:09:12,956
All I could do to avoid
laughing out loud,

1089
01:09:12,992 --> 01:09:15,284
so I would sometimes pinch
myself.

1090
01:09:15,351 --> 01:09:16,776
People sometimes ask me,

1091
01:09:16,812 --> 01:09:19,603
"well, what was your favorite
scalia joke?" And I said,

1092
01:09:19,639 --> 01:09:21,633
"I know what it is,
but I can't tell you."

1093
01:09:23,014 --> 01:09:24,919
They enjoyed going to the operas
together,

1094
01:09:24,955 --> 01:09:27,750
and they enjoyed discussing
particular operas

1095
01:09:27,801 --> 01:09:30,718
and of course, they appeared
together in an opera.

1096
01:09:32,813 --> 01:09:35,484
What's the most fun
thing you've ever done together?

1097
01:09:35,520 --> 01:09:38,039
Was it being on that elephant
together in India?

1098
01:09:38,631 --> 01:09:40,758
That was a rather bumpy ride.

1099
01:09:40,984 --> 01:09:44,578
Some of her feminist
friends gave her a hard time

1100
01:09:44,712 --> 01:09:47,747
because she rode behind me
on the elephant.

1101
01:09:47,852 --> 01:09:50,062
- And that's wha...
- I'm not kidding.

1102
01:09:50,117 --> 01:09:53,422
It-- it was... the driver
explained it was a matter

1103
01:09:53,457 --> 01:09:55,257
of distribution of weight.

1104
01:09:57,320 --> 01:09:59,728
Washington has a reputation
as being a hard town

1105
01:09:59,763 --> 01:10:01,190
to make good friendships.

1106
01:10:01,226 --> 01:10:04,140
And the Supreme Court itself
is a place where your colleagues

1107
01:10:04,176 --> 01:10:06,578
on any given case are also
your adversaries.

1108
01:10:06,914 --> 01:10:09,906
It was very gratifying to see
the two of them together

1109
01:10:09,942 --> 01:10:11,806
and know that they had
their disagreements

1110
01:10:11,851 --> 01:10:14,594
but that my father had this
just really wonderful friend.

1111
01:10:16,883 --> 01:10:18,862
The presidential
election is over.

1112
01:10:18,898 --> 01:10:22,492
George Bush prevails by one
vote in the Supreme Court.

1113
01:10:23,812 --> 01:10:25,883
George, this effectively ends
the election.

1114
01:10:25,919 --> 01:10:27,120
It has ended the election and Peter,

1115
01:10:27,155 --> 01:10:30,031
literally one of the closest
elections in American history.

1116
01:10:30,164 --> 01:10:33,542
600 votes approximately
separated Gore and bush

1117
01:10:33,578 --> 01:10:35,894
in the state of Florida,
and now by one vote

1118
01:10:35,930 --> 01:10:38,133
on the Supreme Court,
this election is over.

1119
01:10:38,765 --> 01:10:41,562
Look at the dissents and the
strong language in the dissents.

1120
01:10:41,598 --> 01:10:43,722
Justice Ginsburg, "the
Court's conclusion"

1121
01:10:43,758 --> 01:10:46,120
that a recount is impractical,
is a prophecy

1122
01:10:46,156 --> 01:10:49,245
the Court's own judgment
will not allow to be tested.

1123
01:10:49,280 --> 01:10:51,183
"Such an untested prophecy..."

1124
01:10:51,219 --> 01:10:54,250
...should not decide
the presidency

1125
01:10:54,518 --> 01:10:56,219
of the United States.

1126
01:10:57,159 --> 01:10:58,328
I dissent.

1127
01:11:00,698 --> 01:11:03,300
She was never supposed
to be the great dissenter

1128
01:11:03,336 --> 01:11:06,383
but that's the course
that history took her on.

1129
01:11:08,195 --> 01:11:12,167
George W. Bush was able
to appoint two justices.

1130
01:11:12,859 --> 01:11:16,703
The addition of Samuel Alito
and John Roberts on the Court

1131
01:11:17,074 --> 01:11:18,898
pushed it far to the right.

1132
01:11:19,695 --> 01:11:24,179
The role of an individual
justice can change dramatically

1133
01:11:24,215 --> 01:11:25,614
as the Court changes.

1134
01:11:26,031 --> 01:11:28,751
With the departure
of justice O'Connor

1135
01:11:29,328 --> 01:11:33,480
and with more conservatives
joining the bench.

1136
01:11:33,516 --> 01:11:38,094
She found she had to really
exercise her dissenting voice.

1137
01:11:40,640 --> 01:11:43,599
Of course I prefer to be
in the majority

1138
01:11:43,634 --> 01:11:45,901
but if necessary...

1139
01:11:46,461 --> 01:11:49,695
I will write separately
in dissent.

1140
01:11:55,906 --> 01:11:57,569
Lilly Ledbetter:
I went to work one night

1141
01:11:57,605 --> 01:11:59,484
and someone had left me a note.

1142
01:11:59,672 --> 01:12:05,281
It had my name and three men.
We four had the exact same job.

1143
01:12:05,873 --> 01:12:09,275
My pay was 40 percent less
than theirs.

1144
01:12:09,508 --> 01:12:12,440
I had been shortchanged
for no other reason

1145
01:12:12,476 --> 01:12:16,492
than I had been born
the wrong sex, I was a woman.

1146
01:12:17,476 --> 01:12:20,383
The jury found that I had been
discriminated against

1147
01:12:20,437 --> 01:12:21,993
but of course, Goodyear appealed

1148
01:12:22,029 --> 01:12:23,305
and then we were notified

1149
01:12:23,340 --> 01:12:26,414
that we would be heard
in the Supreme Court.

1150
01:12:28,411 --> 01:12:30,344
I looked at the Court makeup,

1151
01:12:30,531 --> 01:12:34,164
that's when justice Alito
had just gone on the bench.

1152
01:12:34,328 --> 01:12:38,140
Justice Ginsburg at the time
was the only female left.

1153
01:12:38,344 --> 01:12:40,402
Justice Alito read the opinion,

1154
01:12:40,859 --> 01:12:41,776
he said,

1155
01:12:41,812 --> 01:12:43,889
"I was definitely" discriminated

1156
01:12:43,994 --> 01:12:47,593
against but I had not
filed my charge timely,

1157
01:12:47,789 --> 01:12:50,780
"that I'd waited too late
to file my charge."

1158
01:13:25,183 --> 01:13:28,619
She's hit the nail on the head
because she definitely said,

1159
01:13:28,655 --> 01:13:31,807
"they do not know what it's like
in the real world."

1160
01:13:32,436 --> 01:13:35,811
Today, the ball again lies
in Congress' Court...

1161
01:13:36,483 --> 01:13:40,716
"...to correct the error into
which the Court has fallen."

1162
01:13:41,092 --> 01:13:44,575
She was laying down a marker
for Congress and in fact

1163
01:13:44,748 --> 01:13:47,482
federal law was changed
because of her dissent.

1164
01:13:47,653 --> 01:13:50,747
Three fifths of the senators
having voted in the affirmative,

1165
01:13:51,196 --> 01:13:52,575
the bill has passed.

1166
01:13:57,551 --> 01:14:02,527
It is fitting that
the very first bill that I sign,

1167
01:14:03,083 --> 01:14:07,727
the Lilly Ledbetter fair pay
restoration act is upholding

1168
01:14:07,763 --> 01:14:10,591
one of this nation's
founding principles...

1169
01:14:11,380 --> 01:14:13,549
that we are all created equal...

1170
01:14:13,903 --> 01:14:16,552
and each deserve a chance
to pursue

1171
01:14:16,680 --> 01:14:18,880
our own version of happiness.

1172
01:14:29,364 --> 01:14:31,667
Ruth and I were in New York City

1173
01:14:31,702 --> 01:14:33,402
to see the play proof.

1174
01:14:33,739 --> 01:14:37,208
And as we walked down the aisle
to our seats,

1175
01:14:37,247 --> 01:14:41,716
what seemed like the entire
audience began to applaud,

1176
01:14:42,012 --> 01:14:45,059
many stood, Ruth beamed.

1177
01:14:45,581 --> 01:14:48,951
I beamed too, leaned over

1178
01:14:49,153 --> 01:14:51,434
and whispered loudly,

1179
01:14:51,708 --> 01:14:56,192
"I bet you didn't know there's a
convention of tax lawyers in town."

1180
01:14:58,138 --> 01:15:01,773
Well, without changing
her bright smile,

1181
01:15:02,044 --> 01:15:04,700
Ruth smacked me right
in the stomach.

1182
01:15:05,513 --> 01:15:09,583
I give you this picture
because it fairly captures

1183
01:15:09,723 --> 01:15:13,273
our nearly
50-year happy marriage.

1184
01:15:13,309 --> 01:15:16,220
During which I've offered
up an astonishing

1185
01:15:16,256 --> 01:15:18,438
number of foolish pronouncements

1186
01:15:18,521 --> 01:15:21,179
and Ruth has
ignored almost every one.

1187
01:15:27,857 --> 01:15:29,320
Well, I think part of the time

1188
01:15:29,356 --> 01:15:31,622
when he was sick,
she was in denial.

1189
01:15:32,067 --> 01:15:34,700
He just became weaker
and weaker.

1190
01:15:35,153 --> 01:15:37,513
The way people get
sick when they're...

1191
01:15:37,983 --> 01:15:39,719
close to dying, but...

1192
01:15:41,247 --> 01:15:46,028
she somehow knew how to turn off
those tear ducts in public.

1193
01:15:46,776 --> 01:15:48,684
She steeled herself for it.

1194
01:15:50,346 --> 01:15:53,582
I found this letter...

1195
01:15:54,083 --> 01:15:56,669
next to Marty's bed
in the hospital.

1196
01:15:57,553 --> 01:15:59,254
"My dearest Ruth,"

1197
01:15:59,942 --> 01:16:03,325
you are the only person
I have loved in my life,

1198
01:16:03,997 --> 01:16:07,817
setting aside a bit parents
and kids and their kids.

1199
01:16:08,973 --> 01:16:12,234
What a treat it has been
to watch you progress

1200
01:16:12,716 --> 01:16:15,020
to the very top
of the legal world.

1201
01:16:16,466 --> 01:16:18,828
I have admired and loved you

1202
01:16:18,864 --> 01:16:21,638
almost since the day we
first met at Cornell,

1203
01:16:21,822 --> 01:16:23,968
some 56 years ago.

1204
01:16:26,450 --> 01:16:29,544
The time has come for me
to take leave of life...

1205
01:16:30,186 --> 01:16:32,341
because the loss of quality...

1206
01:16:32,922 --> 01:16:35,872
now simply overwhelms.

1207
01:16:37,481 --> 01:16:40,356
I hope you will support
where I come out...

1208
01:16:41,564 --> 01:16:43,927
and I understand you may not.

1209
01:16:46,202 --> 01:16:48,145
I will not love you...

1210
01:16:49,505 --> 01:16:51,640
"a jot less."

1211
01:16:54,802 --> 01:16:58,247
We met on a blind date in 1950.

1212
01:16:58,458 --> 01:17:03,169
The truth is it was a blind
date only on Ruth's side.

1213
01:17:05,356 --> 01:17:07,067
I cheated.

1214
01:17:08,677 --> 01:17:13,169
I asked a classmate
to point her out in advance.

1215
01:17:13,575 --> 01:17:17,666
"Oh, ho, she's really cute,"
I perceptively noticed.

1216
01:17:18,309 --> 01:17:22,216
And then after a couple
of evenings out, I, uh, added,

1217
01:17:22,252 --> 01:17:25,684
"and boy she's really,
really smart."

1218
01:17:26,372 --> 01:17:30,677
In the intervening 53 years,
nothing changed.

1219
01:17:39,121 --> 01:17:40,329
Where are we headed?

1220
01:17:40,365 --> 01:17:42,633
We're headed
to these outdoor sculptures,

1221
01:17:42,677 --> 01:17:44,381
and all the sculptures are done
by contemporary

1222
01:17:44,416 --> 01:17:45,583
native American artists.

1223
01:17:46,411 --> 01:17:50,132
After a period
of very justified mourning,

1224
01:17:50,403 --> 01:17:52,567
she sort of relaunched herself,

1225
01:17:52,629 --> 01:17:54,755
into her work and
filled the time

1226
01:17:54,791 --> 01:17:56,359
that she would have spent

1227
01:17:56,395 --> 01:17:58,516
with my grandfather, with work

1228
01:17:58,552 --> 01:18:00,031
both to distract herself I think

1229
01:18:00,067 --> 01:18:02,844
from his absence but also
to honor him.

1230
01:18:03,403 --> 01:18:07,315
This is her son, James,
and this is her grandson...

1231
01:18:07,950 --> 01:18:09,672
Marty was her life.

1232
01:18:09,708 --> 01:18:12,421
And her children
and grandchildren who

1233
01:18:12,456 --> 01:18:14,289
have a life of their own.

1234
01:18:14,622 --> 01:18:16,658
She's very much interested
in arts

1235
01:18:16,693 --> 01:18:18,677
and loves to go to those things.

1236
01:18:18,934 --> 01:18:21,716
And then she goes home
at the end of the evening

1237
01:18:21,824 --> 01:18:23,524
and works until four
in the morning.

1238
01:18:23,747 --> 01:18:27,403
These two pieces
are by a creek artist.

1239
01:18:27,481 --> 01:18:29,591
And what is she called,
that one?

1240
01:18:29,665 --> 01:18:31,001
She's called a woman warrior.

1241
01:18:31,036 --> 01:18:34,591
Any kind of battle you bring
to her, she's ready for it.

1242
01:18:38,419 --> 01:18:41,031
It's considered one of the most
important pieces

1243
01:18:41,067 --> 01:18:43,731
of civil rights legislation
ever passed,

1244
01:18:43,778 --> 01:18:46,555
but by 5-4 the
U.S. Supreme Court today,

1245
01:18:46,591 --> 01:18:49,898
took the teeth out of a law
enacted nearly 50 years ago.

1246
01:18:49,934 --> 01:18:53,255
Voting rights act has
policed voting discrimination

1247
01:18:53,302 --> 01:18:56,434
but today's decision
effectively puts it on hold.

1248
01:18:56,567 --> 01:18:58,227
Chief justice, John Roberts,

1249
01:18:58,263 --> 01:19:01,536
summarized his opinion
with four telling words,

1250
01:19:01,571 --> 01:19:04,106
"our country has changed."

1251
01:19:13,014 --> 01:19:15,809
"...is like throwing away
your umbrella..."

1252
01:19:16,622 --> 01:19:18,056
"in a rainstorm..."

1253
01:19:18,497 --> 01:19:20,528
"because you are not getting
wet."

1254
01:19:20,934 --> 01:19:25,645
She called out the majority
and said this makes zero sense.

1255
01:19:26,028 --> 01:19:30,427
The entire reason that racial
discrimination in voting

1256
01:19:30,825 --> 01:19:35,367
is not happening is because
we have this very important law.

1257
01:19:35,403 --> 01:19:39,239
I was righteously angry
right alongside with her.

1258
01:19:39,395 --> 01:19:43,036
Her dissent was the introduction
for many young people

1259
01:19:43,161 --> 01:19:45,927
about how important the Court is
to our everyday lives.

1260
01:19:46,223 --> 01:19:48,183
I just pulled up Photoshop
and did the design

1261
01:19:48,218 --> 01:19:49,356
in like 15 minutes.

1262
01:19:49,411 --> 01:19:51,062
I came up with a couple slogans

1263
01:19:51,098 --> 01:19:53,161
but the one that kept coming
back to me was,

1264
01:19:53,204 --> 01:19:56,071
"you can't spell truth
without Ruth."

1265
01:19:57,116 --> 01:19:59,344
A friend of mine
posted on Facebook saying,

1266
01:19:59,380 --> 01:20:01,364
"Wow! Justice Ginsburg,
sure can write"

1267
01:20:01,407 --> 01:20:02,797


1268
01:20:03,388 --> 01:20:07,035
So I started a Tumblr
and I called it Notorious RBG.

1269
01:20:07,770 --> 01:20:09,825
She is known to fans
the world over as,

1270
01:20:09,861 --> 01:20:12,106
the Notorious RBG.

1271
01:20:13,142 --> 01:20:16,473
♪<i>Yeah... This album is
dedicated to all the teachers</i>

1272
01:20:16,509 --> 01:20:18,552
<i>that told me I'd never amount
to nothing.</i>

1273
01:20:18,622 --> 01:20:22,851
I do know where
the Notorious RBG came from.

1274
01:20:23,402 --> 01:20:28,252
It... it was the rapper
the Notorious B.I.G.

1275
01:20:34,263 --> 01:20:38,270
People ask me, "don't you feel
uncomfortable being"

1276
01:20:38,847 --> 01:20:42,231
with a name
like notorious B.I.G?"

1277
01:20:43,206 --> 01:20:46,200
Um... why should I feel
uncomfortable?

1278
01:20:46,661 --> 01:20:48,536
We have a lot in common.

1279
01:20:54,098 --> 01:20:55,785
First and foremost...

1280
01:20:56,228 --> 01:20:59,309
we were both born and bred
in Brooklyn, New York.

1281
01:21:01,208 --> 01:21:03,425
Young people are really craving

1282
01:21:03,460 --> 01:21:04,793
different kinds of icons.

1283
01:21:05,153 --> 01:21:07,095
Realizing that somebody like RBG

1284
01:21:07,130 --> 01:21:09,950
has been doing her job
for decades

1285
01:21:10,098 --> 01:21:12,801
and being forceful
and speaking truth to power

1286
01:21:12,836 --> 01:21:14,436
kind of blows my mind.

1287
01:21:14,903 --> 01:21:16,538
A big win for conservatives

1288
01:21:16,573 --> 01:21:18,388
in the hobby lobby case.

1289
01:21:24,050 --> 01:21:26,754
Justice Ginsburg
has filed a dissenting opinion.

1290
01:21:38,475 --> 01:21:42,234
We were all so hungry to hear
from Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

1291
01:21:42,270 --> 01:21:44,199
Every time justice Ginsburg
wrote a dissent,

1292
01:21:44,234 --> 01:21:45,461
the Internet would explode.

1293
01:21:45,497 --> 01:21:47,766
Justice Ginsburg
has filed a dissenting opinion.

1294
01:21:47,802 --> 01:21:50,242
Justice Ginsburg has
filed a dissenting opinion.

1295
01:21:50,278 --> 01:21:52,239
My dissenting opinion.
I dissent.

1296
01:21:52,275 --> 01:21:54,180
Dissent from today's decision.

1297
01:21:54,216 --> 01:21:56,510
You just had to put
the words Ruth Bader Ginsburg

1298
01:21:56,546 --> 01:22:00,005
into something and it would be
shared compulsively.

1299
01:22:11,458 --> 01:22:17,799
She's become such
a rock star and she enjoys it.

1300
01:22:18,500 --> 01:22:19,329
To see

1301
01:22:19,365 --> 01:22:22,013
people wear
Notorious RBG t-shirts

1302
01:22:22,049 --> 01:22:25,288
or other paraphernalia
with her face on it.

1303
01:22:25,475 --> 01:22:27,133
It's weird honestly.

1304
01:22:27,169 --> 01:22:29,310
She gives her RBG t-shirts
to people.

1305
01:22:29,513 --> 01:22:31,313
She called and laughed
did you get the birthday gift?

1306
01:22:31,348 --> 01:22:33,448
I said I did I'm wearing it.

1307
01:22:33,483 --> 01:22:35,802
- Tattoos! Yeah.
- Lots of tattoos.

1308
01:22:35,990 --> 01:22:38,253
I had a picture
of one of the tattoos

1309
01:22:38,294 --> 01:22:41,091
and I showed it to her
and she goes "uh!"

1310
01:22:41,383 --> 01:22:43,591
Why would you do something
so permanent?"

1311
01:22:45,209 --> 01:22:47,740
Here now to comment
is Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

1312
01:22:50,953 --> 01:22:52,587
Alright! Justice coming in hot.

1313
01:22:52,623 --> 01:22:55,804
I'm ready to rumble
Mayweather, Pacquiao style.

1314
01:22:56,115 --> 01:22:58,707
I float like a butterfly,
sting like a bee,

1315
01:22:58,742 --> 01:23:00,779
I clean myself like a fly.

1316
01:23:03,546 --> 01:23:04,797
It's so unlike mom,

1317
01:23:04,833 --> 01:23:07,949
but I don't think mom...
an accurate imitation of mom

1318
01:23:07,984 --> 01:23:09,724
would be that funny.

1319
01:23:09,896 --> 01:23:11,857
Do you think she watches them?

1320
01:23:11,958 --> 01:23:13,388
I don't think she ever has
watched television.

1321
01:23:13,423 --> 01:23:15,090
Yeah, I'm not sure she knows
how to turn on...

1322
01:23:15,125 --> 01:23:17,435
No, no, she watches the NewsHour
while she's working out.

1323
01:23:17,560 --> 01:23:19,995
Yeah, but that's at the Court,
does she know how to turn on

1324
01:23:20,030 --> 01:23:22,107
- the television at home?
- I don't think so.

1325
01:23:22,740 --> 01:23:27,068
Here to explain is Supreme Court
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

1326
01:23:27,103 --> 01:23:28,803
Is this' Saturday Night Live'?

1327
01:23:29,599 --> 01:23:34,042
I like my men like I like
my decisions: 5-4.

1328
01:23:34,077 --> 01:23:36,711
That's a third-degree Gins-burn!!

1329
01:23:47,295 --> 01:23:49,826
It's marvelously funny.
How did they...

1330
01:23:50,466 --> 01:23:51,912
Remind you of yourself?

1331
01:23:52,677 --> 01:23:54,146
Not one bit.

1332
01:23:57,800 --> 01:23:59,367
Except for the collar.

1333
01:23:59,849 --> 01:24:01,102
What about the state
of the union

1334
01:24:01,137 --> 01:24:02,607
where you were caught sleeping?

1335
01:24:02,654 --> 01:24:04,739
No, I wasn't sleeping
I was just giving in

1336
01:24:04,774 --> 01:24:06,716
to the weight of my glasses.

1337
01:24:11,315 --> 01:24:12,650
Watching the state of the union

1338
01:24:12,685 --> 01:24:15,758
and I notice that her head
is drooping a little bit

1339
01:24:15,794 --> 01:24:19,646
and she might have dozed off
for about a minute or two.

1340
01:24:19,880 --> 01:24:21,790
After that happened,
I called her up and said,

1341
01:24:22,246 --> 01:24:24,241
"you know, bubbe, you were asleep
during the state of the union,

1342
01:24:24,276 --> 01:24:25,204
you can't do that."

1343
01:24:25,240 --> 01:24:26,920
You went to
the state of the union

1344
01:24:26,955 --> 01:24:28,187
and you fell asleep.

1345
01:24:29,858 --> 01:24:31,599
As I often do.

1346
01:24:32,099 --> 01:24:34,243
The audience for the most part
is awake,

1347
01:24:34,279 --> 01:24:37,446
because they're bobbing up
and down all the time...

1348
01:24:37,771 --> 01:24:40,723
and we sit there, stone faced...

1349
01:24:41,044 --> 01:24:43,211
sober judges. But we're not...

1350
01:24:43,638 --> 01:24:46,443
at least I wasn't,
a hundred percent sober.

1351
01:24:49,263 --> 01:24:53,021
She does look vulnerable,
she is this tiny little person

1352
01:24:53,107 --> 01:24:55,190
and that is somehow in contrast
with being

1353
01:24:55,225 --> 01:25:01,248
the ferocious defender
of minorities and women and...

1354
01:25:02,064 --> 01:25:03,780
certain kinds of ideals.

1355
01:25:03,816 --> 01:25:05,833
There's always I think
the concern that can she

1356
01:25:05,873 --> 01:25:07,779
continue to keep up this pace?

1357
01:25:07,815 --> 01:25:10,671
Well, she's now been through

1358
01:25:10,707 --> 01:25:12,419
two different types of cancer

1359
01:25:12,455 --> 01:25:14,341
without missing a day
on the bench.

1360
01:25:14,826 --> 01:25:19,514
I had my first cancer
bout in 1999,

1361
01:25:19,549 --> 01:25:21,249
Colorectal cancer.

1362
01:25:21,654 --> 01:25:24,552
It was the year of first surgery

1363
01:25:24,587 --> 01:25:26,888
and then chemotherapy.

1364
01:25:27,490 --> 01:25:30,302
Ten years later,
I had pancreatic cancer.

1365
01:25:31,005 --> 01:25:33,828
I think what it has left me
is...

1366
01:25:34,388 --> 01:25:38,767
an enhanced appreciation
of the joys of being alive.

1367
01:25:39,270 --> 01:25:41,837
What I need you to do
is just grab them and just pull.

1368
01:25:42,154 --> 01:25:44,852
- Just standing up straight?
- Just pull, don't lean back.

1369
01:25:44,888 --> 01:25:49,248
Good, just pull, pull, okay?
Arch that back. Good.

1370
01:25:50,716 --> 01:25:52,927
- This is light.
- I know, I know,

1371
01:25:53,449 --> 01:25:54,716
I got a heavier one.

1372
01:25:54,912 --> 01:25:56,985
Since it's too light,
I got a heavier one

1373
01:25:57,607 --> 01:26:00,818
I started training
justice Ginsburg back in 1999.

1374
01:26:01,162 --> 01:26:03,212
She had just come out
of chemotherapy

1375
01:26:03,248 --> 01:26:06,732
and she wanted to build muscle
and get stronger.

1376
01:26:07,747 --> 01:26:08,880
She's like a cyborg.

1377
01:26:08,994 --> 01:26:11,594
And when I say cyborg,
she's like a machine.

1378
01:26:20,849 --> 01:26:24,060
Lean back. Good, yeah,
and pull yourself up.

1379
01:26:24,514 --> 01:26:26,281
Exactly. Good.

1380
01:26:30,419 --> 01:26:32,987
Alright, bring chest down
to the ball, good.

1381
01:26:33,271 --> 01:26:35,757
They're real push-ups right,
they're not girl push-ups.

1382
01:26:35,854 --> 01:26:39,481
No, th... they are...
very real, yes.

1383
01:26:40,724 --> 01:26:43,231
I've heard
that she's does 20 push-ups,

1384
01:26:43,266 --> 01:26:44,533
three times a week or something.

1385
01:26:44,568 --> 01:26:46,281
I mean we can't even
get off the floor.

1386
01:26:46,317 --> 01:26:47,900
We can't even get
down to the floor.

1387
01:26:49,602 --> 01:26:51,140
That's true.

1388
01:26:51,693 --> 01:26:55,443
I always feel better
no matter how tired I am,

1389
01:26:55,931 --> 01:26:59,123
at the end of that hour,
I'm ready to go again.

1390
01:27:02,185 --> 01:27:06,208
She definitely embodies
the larger than life nature

1391
01:27:06,256 --> 01:27:09,390
of the "notorious" title...

1392
01:27:09,691 --> 01:27:10,892
more and more as she gets older.

1393
01:27:10,927 --> 01:27:13,774
She's become much more public,
much more vocal.

1394
01:27:13,810 --> 01:27:15,496
Especially in a time
when our politics

1395
01:27:15,531 --> 01:27:17,474
are just so garbage.

1396
01:27:17,724 --> 01:27:20,168
Justice Ruth Bader
Ginsburg spoke fearfully

1397
01:27:20,203 --> 01:27:21,787
of a Donald Trump presidency.

1398
01:27:21,880 --> 01:27:24,704
An unusually candid
political outpouring

1399
01:27:24,740 --> 01:27:26,423
calling Trump a "faker."

1400
01:27:26,459 --> 01:27:28,158
Justice Ginsburg, uh,

1401
01:27:28,194 --> 01:27:30,575
made some very,
very inappropriate...

1402
01:27:30,611 --> 01:27:31,974
statements toward me.

1403
01:27:32,015 --> 01:27:33,466
I was flabbergasted.

1404
01:27:33,662 --> 01:27:37,286
It surprised me that she would
comment in a derogatory way

1405
01:27:37,322 --> 01:27:40,896
about any candidate
for president. It's...

1406
01:27:43,592 --> 01:27:44,692
it's inappropriate.

1407
01:27:44,728 --> 01:27:46,828
It's not just a matter
of decorum...

1408
01:27:47,005 --> 01:27:49,931
it's a matter of her
not understanding

1409
01:27:49,966 --> 01:27:51,297
her Constitutional role.

1410
01:27:51,333 --> 01:27:54,282
She has just come out and issued
an apology.

1411
01:27:54,318 --> 01:27:57,305
You released a statement
that read, "judges should avoid"

1412
01:27:57,341 --> 01:27:59,990
commenting on a candidate
for public office."

1413
01:28:00,248 --> 01:28:03,645
But do you really regret
the substance of what you said?

1414
01:28:03,680 --> 01:28:05,271
I think in the best,

1415
01:28:05,318 --> 01:28:08,185
the wisest course would have
been to say nothing.

1416
01:28:08,482 --> 01:28:11,586
Is it wrong
for Supreme Court justices to...

1417
01:28:12,052 --> 01:28:14,722
uh, to occasionally make
a mistake? No.

1418
01:28:14,757 --> 01:28:16,060
They're human beings

1419
01:28:16,130 --> 01:28:18,407
and she's a human being
and she apologized for it.

1420
01:28:18,443 --> 01:28:22,857
It is quite possible that many,
many executive orders

1421
01:28:22,990 --> 01:28:27,029
or other things that a president
has supported or done

1422
01:28:27,107 --> 01:28:29,399
are going to come before
the Supreme Court

1423
01:28:29,435 --> 01:28:33,044
and that now we have a sitting
justice indicating,

1424
01:28:33,107 --> 01:28:35,777
that the person
has a deep antipathy,

1425
01:28:35,812 --> 01:28:38,479
uh, against the lawmaker.

1426
01:28:38,514 --> 01:28:39,781
The notion that I...

1427
01:28:40,044 --> 01:28:42,750
I don't comprehend that my job...

1428
01:28:43,107 --> 01:28:46,076
is to interpret the law fairly...

1429
01:28:47,021 --> 01:28:49,935
that I'm going to vote
one way...

1430
01:28:50,809 --> 01:28:54,185
based on who I might have voted
for president is just...

1431
01:28:57,264 --> 01:28:58,779
none of us...

1432
01:28:59,958 --> 01:29:01,585
even if we wanted to...

1433
01:29:02,208 --> 01:29:05,216
could be successful if that's
the attitude that we had.

1434
01:29:18,951 --> 01:29:20,922
You look marvelous.

1435
01:29:21,090 --> 01:29:24,404
Knowing that we were opening on
the Saturday after the election,

1436
01:29:24,646 --> 01:29:27,943
I wanted somebody who was
a Washington insider

1437
01:29:28,130 --> 01:29:30,832
to play the
'Duchess of Krakenthorp'.

1438
01:29:31,037 --> 01:29:34,037
"The best of the
house of Krakenthorp..."

1439
01:29:34,216 --> 01:29:38,612
There are very few operas
that have speaking parts

1440
01:29:39,042 --> 01:29:42,076
and the Duchess of Krackenthorp

1441
01:29:42,290 --> 01:29:45,357
is one such part. So I wrote...

1442
01:29:46,105 --> 01:29:49,581
basically my own lines for
the Duchess of Krackenthorp.

1443
01:29:59,214 --> 01:30:02,526
"The best of the house
of Krakenthorp"

1444
01:30:03,029 --> 01:30:06,698
have open, but not empty minds.

1445
01:30:07,175 --> 01:30:08,908
No surprise then

1446
01:30:09,456 --> 01:30:13,241
that the most valorous
krakenthorpians

1447
01:30:13,276 --> 01:30:14,691
"have been women!"

1448
01:30:18,745 --> 01:30:21,093
"A lady Krackenthorp"

1449
01:30:21,816 --> 01:30:25,319
at all times must conduct herself

1450
01:30:25,354 --> 01:30:28,189
with dignity and grace.

1451
01:30:28,667 --> 01:30:32,620
We now request certain
essential documents.

1452
01:30:33,929 --> 01:30:36,761
"Have you brought your niece's
birth certificate?"

1453
01:30:46,757 --> 01:30:50,300
"Ours is a family
wildly trumpeted,"

1454
01:30:50,862 --> 01:30:54,218
hence we must take
precautions against

1455
01:30:54,801 --> 01:30:56,409
"fraudulent pretenders."

1456
01:31:13,472 --> 01:31:16,838
Justice Ginsburg, I think everyone
expected you to retire soon.

1457
01:31:16,874 --> 01:31:17,948
I mean, you're 83.

1458
01:31:18,003 --> 01:31:21,058
Yeah, you're damn right.
I was gonna retire. Ugh!

1459
01:31:21,283 --> 01:31:22,428
But not now.

1460
01:31:22,464 --> 01:31:24,745
Not now, now I gotta stay
alive and healthy.

1461
01:31:24,780 --> 01:31:26,647
Damn it. Give me my thing.

1462
01:31:27,026 --> 01:31:29,167
Excuse me, I gotta take
my vitamins.

1463
01:31:30,143 --> 01:31:32,570
Oh my god, that's...

1464
01:31:33,754 --> 01:31:35,909
...That's...
that's a packet.

1465
01:31:42,438 --> 01:31:45,741
Justice Ginsburg,
let me ask you a tough question.

1466
01:31:45,878 --> 01:31:50,550
There were liberals who publicly
urged you to retire, uh...

1467
01:31:51,473 --> 01:31:52,733
two or three years ago,

1468
01:31:52,769 --> 01:31:55,909
so that president Obama
could name a replacement.

1469
01:31:56,776 --> 01:31:59,245
Any second thoughts
about not doing that?

1470
01:32:01,769 --> 01:32:04,237
I have said many times
that I will...

1471
01:32:05,042 --> 01:32:06,342
do this job...

1472
01:32:06,774 --> 01:32:10,690
as long as I can do it
full steam.

1473
01:32:11,364 --> 01:32:13,466
And when I can't...

1474
01:32:14,500 --> 01:32:16,058
that will be the time,

1475
01:32:16,639 --> 01:32:18,373
I will step down.

1476
01:32:20,691 --> 01:32:23,691
She has found her voice
on the Court.

1477
01:32:24,207 --> 01:32:26,175
She is a center of power...

1478
01:32:27,042 --> 01:32:29,284
on the Court and off the Court.

1479
01:32:29,394 --> 01:32:31,295
When the history books are written,

1480
01:32:31,331 --> 01:32:32,980
an enormous amount will be about

1481
01:32:33,015 --> 01:32:36,167
what she did as a very young lawyer.

1482
01:32:36,581 --> 01:32:39,537
There would not
have been the legal status

1483
01:32:39,573 --> 01:32:42,730
of women today had it not been
for her work in the '70s.

1484
01:32:42,932 --> 01:32:45,420
She changed everything.

1485
01:32:45,456 --> 01:32:49,401
The gender line helps
to keep women not on a pedestal

1486
01:32:49,944 --> 01:32:51,110
but in a cage

1487
01:32:51,620 --> 01:32:55,436
Ruth's work made me feel
as if I was protected

1488
01:32:55,472 --> 01:32:58,230
by the U.S. Constitution
for the first time.

1489
01:32:58,441 --> 01:33:00,841
Men and women are persons
of equal dignity

1490
01:33:00,876 --> 01:33:03,941
and they should count equally
before the law.

1491
01:33:04,034 --> 01:33:07,782
She may be small but she's got
a firm backbone.

1492
01:33:08,269 --> 01:33:10,326
It's been a long road for her

1493
01:33:10,362 --> 01:33:13,542
and she's fought really hard
all the way down it.

1494
01:33:13,923 --> 01:33:15,489
She's not done fighting.

1495
01:33:15,980 --> 01:33:18,559
Looking back over my long life.

1496
01:33:19,128 --> 01:33:21,948
Yes, we may be in trying times...

1497
01:33:23,231 --> 01:33:25,332
but think how it was.

1498
01:33:25,714 --> 01:33:27,849
When I went to college...

1499
01:33:28,151 --> 01:33:31,439
there was a big red scare
in our country.

1500
01:33:32,042 --> 01:33:35,462
Some people in our Congress saw
a communist in every closet

1501
01:33:35,498 --> 01:33:37,322
and in every corner.

1502
01:33:37,566 --> 01:33:40,348
But it impressed me, that there
were lawyers reminding our Congress

1503
01:33:40,383 --> 01:33:43,276
that we have freedom of speech
and of the press.

1504
01:33:43,390 --> 01:33:47,194
So I thought that that was a
pretty good thing to do...

1505
01:33:49,731 --> 01:33:52,237
To help keep our country in tune

1506
01:33:52,273 --> 01:33:56,300
with its most basic values.

1507
01:33:58,683 --> 01:34:01,275
Now is the busiest season
for the Court.

1508
01:34:01,311 --> 01:34:04,894
All dissenting opinions
have to be...

1509
01:34:05,823 --> 01:34:07,191
circulated.

1510
01:34:07,636 --> 01:34:11,245
And I have a few of those
still to go.

1511
01:34:11,995 --> 01:34:15,916
One of the world's greatest
jurists, judge learned hand...

1512
01:34:16,386 --> 01:34:19,304
said, that the spirit of Liberty

1513
01:34:19,340 --> 01:34:23,925
that imbues our Constitution
must lie first and foremost

1514
01:34:24,094 --> 01:34:26,531
in the hearts of
the men and women

1515
01:34:26,926 --> 01:34:29,223
who compose this great nation...

1516
01:34:29,558 --> 01:34:34,776
a community where the least
shall be heard and considered

1517
01:34:35,004 --> 01:34:38,386
side by side with the greatest.

1518
01:34:39,414 --> 01:34:43,230
I will keep that wisdom
in the front of my mind

1519
01:34:43,386 --> 01:34:46,213
as long as I am capable
of judicial service.

1520
01:34:47,003 --> 01:34:52,764
Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!
The Court is now sitting.