Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome provost strom. [applause] good evening. It is my very great pleasure to welcome you to Memorial Church for this years lecture on a Meaningful Life. Honored we are deeply to have as our speaker associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United StatesRuth Bader Ginsburg. [cheers and applause] this event, as you may know, has a rich history at stanford. Lecture that in a inry rathbun, a professor the 1930s through the 1950s, decided to give on the last day of his class one spring. The lecture was such a success that it turned into an annual tradition at stanford for many years until professor rathbun retired. It was revised in 2008, supported by a generous gift to the office of religious life by the foundation for Global Community which established the henry and Amelia Rathbun fund for exploring what leads to a Meaningful Life. Each year, a rathbun visiting fellow selected to come to stanford to deliver the lecture and spend time with our faculty, students, and staff. In a time ofld and great change in our country, this lecture provides us a welcome moment for selfreflection and moral inquiry. We are so fortunate this year to have Ruth Bader Ginsburg as our rathbun visiting fellow. Her byny of you know another moniker, as the notorious r. B. G. [cheers and applause] that name got its start several blog put in a tumblr together by an admiring law student, and it just took off from there. Today, Justice Ginsburg finds herself not only a member of our nations highest court but a cultural phenomenon as well. Born in brooklyn, Justice Ginsburg received her bachelors degree from Cornell University and her law degree from Columbia Law School. She was a professor of law at Rutgers University from 1963 to 1972 and at Columbia Law School from 1972 to 1980. In 1971, she cofounded the womens rights project of the American Civil Liberties union. And she served as the aclus general counsel from 1973 to 1980. She was appointed to the United States court of appeals for the district of columbia circuit in 1980. President clinton then nominated her as an associate justice to the Supreme Court, and she took her seat on the court in 1993. These biographical facts come nowhere close to adequately describing the person who is with us tonight. There really are not sufficient words to describe the impact she has had on the law and on the advancement of womens rights in america. Daringazing, pioneering, they are all true but they still dont capture it. Justice ginsburg went to law school in an era, the 1950s, when very few women did. She faced enormous challenges as a woman and as a mother in pursuing her career in that era. She then turned her career to the cause of battling discrimination on behalf of women and families everywhere. At Columbia Law School, she became the schools first tenured female professor. At the womens rights project, she argued six cases before the Supreme Court. She played an absolutely central role in establishing contemporary law on equal protection as it relates to equality between the sexes. Many, in fact, have called her the Thurgood Marshall of womens rights. She was the second woman to join the United StatesSupreme Court, serving at the time with Justice Sandra day oconnor who was also then a rathbun visiting fellow with us. Justice ginsburg will be in conversation with dean shaw, professor of religious studies at stanford. Taughtor shaw previously at oxford for 16 years. And just before coming to was thed, she dean of Grace Cathedral in san francisco. We look forward to exciting and engaging conversation. Please join me in welcoming to stanford justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. [cheers and applause] thank you,sburg thank you. Please be seated. Thank you very much, but please be seated. Anhought it might be appropriate beginning for me to tell you a little bit about my life. And what i am going to say to you comes from a book called my own words. All in my ownace words. Did you always want to be a or a Supreme Court justice . School children who visit me at the court, as they do at least weekly, ask that question more than any other. It is a sign of huge progress that today the aspiration for a girl is not at all outlandish. Contrast the ancient days in 1956 when i entered law school, women were then less than 3 of the lawyers in the United States. And only one woman had ever served on a federal appellate court. She was florence allen, appointed by frank and Delano Roosevelt to the u. S. Court of circuit, 1934. By the time i got a lot school, she was retired and there were none. Today, about half the nations law students and more than 1 3 of our federal judges are women, including three of the nine seated on the Supreme Court bench. Women hold more than 30 of u. S. Law school dean ships and served as general counsel to 24 of fortune 500 companies. My long life, i have seen great changes. How fortunate i was to be alive and a lawyer when, for the first time in u. S. History, it became successfullyrge before legislatures and courts the equal citizenship stature of men and women. There is a page out of place, so bear with me a moment. Should be not too far from here. Skipped, we will go on to the next one. Where i speak about teachers who influenced or encouraged me in my growing up years. At Cornell University, the european literature professor changed the way i read and write. Pictures, ipaint learned from him. Choosing the right word in the right order, he illustrated, could make an enormous difference in conveying an image or idea. From constitutional law professor cushman and another professor, i learned of our nations enduring values and how was [indiscernible] during the red scare of the 1950s. Lawyers protect the right to speak and write without fear of reprisal by government authorities. Professor Benjamin Kaplan was my first and favorite teacher in law school. He used the socratic method in his procedures class, always to stimulate, never to wound, he was the model i tried to follow in my own law teaching years from 1963 until 1980. At Columbia Law School, the professor of constitutional law and federal courts, who later served on the stanford law faculty for many years, he was determined to place me in a federal Court Clerkship despite what was then viewed as a grave impediment. On graduation, i was the mother of a fouryearold child. After heroic efforts, he succeeded in that mission. Caseser years, litigating in or headed to the Supreme Court, i turned to him for aid in dealing with sticky legal issues, both substantive and procedural, and he never failed to help me find the right path. Questionften asked when i speak in public, do you have some good advice you might share with us . Yes, i do. [laughter] comes from my savvy motherinlaw. Advice she gave to me on my wedding day. In every good marriage, she tonseled, it helps sometimes be a little deaf. [laughter] i have followed that advice assiduously. Not only at home through 56 years of marriage and partnership, i have employed it as well in every workplace, including the Supreme Court of the United States. [laughter] when a thoughtless or unkind out. Is spoken, best tune reacting in anger or annoyance will not advance ones ability to persuade. Advice from my fatherinlaw has also served me well. He gave it to me during my gap years of 1954 to 1956 when my husband was fulfilling his obligation to the army as an artillery officer at fort sill, oklahoma. By the end of 1954, my pregnancy was confirmed. We looked forward to becoming three in july of 1955. But i worried about starting law school the next year with an infant to care for. Fathers advice . Ruth, if you dont want to start law school, you have a good reason to resist the undertaking. No one will think the less of you if you make that choice. But if you really want to study law, you will stop worrying and you will find a way to manage a child and school. So, marty and i did by engaging a nanny on the school days from 8 00 to 4 00. Many times after when the road was rocky, i thought back to spent no timem, fretting, and found a way to do what i thought was important to get done. Term notbalance was a yet cleaned coined in the years my children were young, but it is aptly descriptive of the Time Distribution i experienced. My success in law school, i have no doubt, was due in large measure to baby jane, my daughter. I attended classes and study diligently until 4 00 in the afternoon. Timeext hours were janes spent at the park playing silly games or singing funny songs, reading picture books, bathing, and feeding her. After janes bedtime, i returned to the law books with renewed will. Each part of my life guided respite from the other provided respite from the other and gave me a sense of proportion that classmates trained only on the law lacked. I have had more than a little bit of luck in life, but nothing equals in magnitude my marriage to martin ginsburg. I do not have words adequate to describe my supersmart, exuberant, ever loving spouse. [shuffling papers] early on in our marriage, it became clear to him that cooking was not my strong suit. [laughter] appreciationsting of our foodloving children, we became four in 1965 when son james was born, marty made the kitchen his domain and became onf supreme in our home, loan to friends and even at the court. Marty coached me through the birth of our son. He was the first reader and critic of articles, speeches, and briefs i drafted. And he was at my side constantly in and out of the hospital during two long bouts with cancer. And i betrayed no secret in reporting that without him, i would not have gained a seat on the u. S. Supreme court. Then associate white House Counsel ron klain set of my 1995 nomination, i would say definitely for the record, though Ruth Ginsburg should have been picked for the Supreme Court anyway, she would not have been picked if her husband had not done everything he did to make it happen. Gainingrything included the unqualified support of my home state senator, Daniel Patrick moynihan, and enlisting the aid of many members of the barl academy and practicing. I have several times said the office i hold, now nearing 24 years, is the best and most consuming job a lawyer anywhere could have. I have several time said that the office i hold, now nearing 24 years, is the best and both most consuming job a lawyer anywhere could have. The courts main job is to repair fractures in federal law, to step in when other courts have disagreed on what the relevant federal law requires. Because the court grants review dominantly when other has provided. The questions we take up are rarely easy. They seldom have indubitably right answers. But by being together at our conferences, and with more depth and precision through the circulation of an responses to draft opinions, we ultimately agree far more often than we divide sharply. Last term, 2015 to 2016, we were unanimous on the bottomline judgment in 25 of the 67 cases after the full briefing and argument. In contrast we divided 53 or 43. Justice scalias death reduced the number of justices. And we divided sharply only eight times. When the justices believe that they got it wrong she is free to , say so in dissent. I take advantage of that prerogative when i think its important, as do my colleagues. Despite our strong disagreements on issues, for example the control of Political Campaign spending, access to the ballot, affirmative action, access to abortion, samesex marriage, we genuinely respect each other and even enjoy each others company, collegiality is key to the success of our mission. We cannot do the job the constitution assigns to us if we did not use one of Justice Scalia is favorite expressions Justice Scalias favorite expressions, get over it. All of us revere the constitution and the court, we aim to leave the court in as good of shape as it wasnt we as it was when we joined it. Earlier i spoke of great changes i have seen in womens occupations. But one must acknowledge the scale the still bleak part of the picture. Most people in poverty in the United States and the world over are women and children. Womens earnings here and abroad trail the earnings of men with comparable education and experience. Our workplaces do not adequately accommodate the demands of childbearing and child rearing, and we have yet to devise effectively to ward off Sexual Harassment at work and Domestic Violence in our homes. But i am optimistic that the Movement Towards enlisting the talents of all who compose we the people will continue, as expressed by my colleague, the first woman to serve on the u. S. Supreme court, Justice Sandra day oconnor, for both men and women the first step in getting power is to become visible to others. And then to put on an impressive show. As women achieve power, the barriers fall. As societies see what women can do, as women can see what women can do, there will be more women out there doing things and we will all be better off for it. To that expectation i can only say amen. [applause] dean shaw Justice Ginsburg, its a huge honor to have you with us. Thank you for accepting my invitation to be our sitting fellow. As you know, the program is designed to foster thinking about what it means to lead a Meaningful Life. He spoke about that already. Could you encapsulate what it means to lead a Meaningful Life for you . Justice ginsburg to put simply, it means doing something outside of yourself. I tell the law students if you are going to be a lawyer, and just practice your profession, you have a skill, see you are very much like a plumber so you are like a plumber. If you want to be a true professional, you will do something outside of yourself. Something to repair tears in your community. Something to make life a little better for people less fortunate than you. Thats what i think Meaningful Life is, one lives not just for oneself, but for ones community. Dean shaw thats wonderful. Do you think thats the same as a purposeful life . Justice ginsburg yes, the purpose is what you aim for. Dean shaw how has family played a part in your own life and your own meaning in your life . Justice ginsburg it plays a very large part. Its one of the things that drew Justice Scalia and me together. We care a lot about families. I saw a big change in life in the United States between the birth of my daughter in 1955, and my son in 1965 when my daughter jane started school, i was one of a very few working moms. 10 years later there had been an enormous change. It was not at all unusual to have 200 families by the middle 60s that made me realize it would be possible for the first time in history to move the law in the direction of what i call equal citizenship stature for men and women and what i saw as equal citizenship stature for men and women. Dean shaw talk about your experience that led you to that work. Justice ginsburg in the days that i went to law school, when i was entering class at harvard, there were 500 students. Only nine were women. There were no antidiscrimination laws. So employers were totally upfront in saying we dont want any lady lawyers here. Or we once hired a woman, she was dreadful. And how many men have you hired that did not live up to your expectations . [laughter] anyways, things we did not complain about. Harvard law school had nine women, there were two teaching buildings at that time. Only one of them had a womens bathroom. So if you are in class, but if youre taking a three or four hour exam, you had to make a mad to the building. But we never complained. It was just the way things were. By the late 60s, the feminist movement had revived in the United States, in part as a result of the civil rights movement, but also as part of a worldwide movement, the u. N. Had declared in connection with International Womens year, things were changing all over. It became possible to break down what is referred to as the separate spheres mentality, that is the womans place was with the family, taking care of the home, and the mans place was outside. He was the representative of the family outside. And many of our laws were designed to fit that model of the stayathome woman and the work the day man. So in the decade of the 70s, almost all of the laws of that kind were like that. Laws of that kind were gone. Dean shaw would you like to talk about one or two cases that are important . Justice ginsburg the first was the turning point case. If you go back up until 1971 the Supreme Court never saw a genderbased classificatio