Transcripts For CSPAN Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Delivers R

CSPAN Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Delivers Rathbun Lecture On A Meaningful Life February 21, 2017

Good evening, it is my very great pleasure to welcome you to the Memorial Church for this lecture on a Meaningful Life. Tonight we are deeply honored to have as our speaker associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. [cheers and applause] this event, this event, as you may know, has a rich history at stamford. Thatiginated in a lecture a stanford law professor in the 1930s to the 1950s decided to give about the meaning of life his businessay of law class one spring. The lecture was such a success that it turned into an annual tradition at stanford for many years, until the his professor retired. It was revived in 2008, supported by a generous gift to the office of religious life by the foundation for global community, which established the henry enemy henry and emelia fund for exploring what leads to a Meaningful Life. Each year a visiting fellow is selected to come to stamford to deliver this lecture and spend time with our faculty, students, and staff. In a busy world and in a time of great change in our country, this lecture provides us a welcome moment for self reflection and moral inquiry. We are so fortunate this year to have Ruth Bader Ginsburg as our visiting fellow. Her byny of you know another moniker, as the notorious rpg rbg. [cheers and applause] that name got its start several years ago in a tumbler blog but together by an admiring law student and it took off from there. Today she finds herself not only a member of the highest court, but a cultural phenomenon as well. Born in brooklyn, she 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. The971 she cofounded womens rights project of the American Civil Liberties union and served as the aclus general counsel from 1973 to 1980. She was appointed to the u. S. Court of appeals, the district of columbia circuit, in 1980. President clinton the 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. Sufficienty arent 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. Ginsburg went to law school in the 1950s, when many when very few women did. She faced challenges as a woman and a mother in pursuing her career in that area. She then turned her career to the cause of battling discrimination on the behalf of women and families everywhere. At Columbia Law School she became the first tenured female professor. At the womens rights project she argued six cases before the Supreme Court, playing an absolutely central role in establishing contemporary law on equal protection as it relates to equality between the sexes. Called herct have the Thurgood Marshall of womens rights. She was the second woman to join the u. S. Supreme court, serving at the time with Justice Sandra day oconnor, who has also been a visiting fellow with us here at stanford. She will be in conversation tonight with dean jane shaw. The dean for religious life and professor of religious studies are at stanford. Professor shaw previously taught at oxford for 16 years and just before coming to stamford she was the dean of great cathedral in san francisco. We look forward to an insightful and engaging conversation. Please, if you will, join me in welcoming to stanford justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Applause] thank you,sburg thank you. Please, be seated, please. Applause]d persis please Justice Ginsburg please, be seated. Thank you, thank you very much. But please, be seated. [applause] i thought iturg might be inappropriate and appropriate an beginning to tell you a little bit about my life. What im going to say to you comes from a book all the my. Words the preface, all in my own words. Did you always want to be a judge . More exorbitantly, a supreme . Ourt 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 made. Judgeship asuth, an aspiration for a girl is not at all outlandish. This with the early days when i entered law school and women were less than 3 of the lawyers in the United States. Only one woman had ever served on a federal appellate court. Florence allen, appointed by Franklin Delano roosevelt in 1934. By the time i got to law school, she was retired and they were done. Half the law students and one third of the federal judges today 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 serve as general counsel to 24 of fortune 500 companies. In 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 possible to earn successfully 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. , if its skipped, will go on. Well go on to the next one. Speaking about teachers who influenced and encouraged me in. Y growing up years at Cornell University, professor vladimir knockoff novel who changedokov, the way that i read and write. Words could take pictures for him. Choosing the right words in the right order, he illustrated, could make an enormous difference in conveying an image or an idea. From constitutional law Professor Robert cushman and american ideals professor milton [indiscernible] i learned of our nations enduring values and how our congress was straying from them in the red scare years of the 1950s. But also how lawyers could ournd lawmakers and constitution shields the right to think, speak, and right without fear of reprisal from government authorities. At harvard law school, professor Benjamin Kaplan was my first and favorite teacher. He used the socratic method in class. Il procedures always to stimulate, never to wound. He was the model i try to follow in my own law teaching years, from 1963 until 1980. At Columbia Law School, whossor Gerald Gunther later served on the stamford law faculty for many years, he was determined to place me in a federal court clerkship, despite what was then viewed as a grave. Mpediment on graduation i was the mother of a fouryearold child. After heroic efforts, he succeeded in that mission. Caseser years, litigating in the Supreme Court, i turned to gunther for aid in dealing with legalistic issues, boast substantive both substantive and procedural. He never failed to help me find the right path. Often asked question, when i speak in public do you have some good advice you might share with us . Yes, i do. [laughter] it comes from my savvy motherinlaw. On my weddinge me day. In every good marriage, she counseled, it is helpful, sometimes, to be a little deaf. [laughter] Justice Ginsburg i have followed that advice assiduously. In myly at home, but years of partnership and employed it as well in every workplace, including the supreme , whenof the United States a thoughtless or unkind word is spoken, best to tune it out, reacting in anger or annoyance will not advance ones ability to persuade. From my fatherinlaw has also served me well. He gave it during my gap years, 1954 to 1956. When my husband, marty, was fulfilling his obligation to the army as an altar as an artillery officer in oklahoma. My pregnancy 1954, was confirmed. We look forward to becoming three in july of 1955. But i worried about starting law school the next year with an infant to care for. Ruth, if youce dont want to start law school, you have a good reason to resist the undertaking. No one will think less of you if you make that choice. But if you really want to study the law, you will stop worrying and you will find a way to manage child in school. And school. So, we did, engaging a nanny on school days from 8 00 to 4 00. Many times after, when the road was rocky, i thought back to fathers wisdom, at no time dotting, finding a way to what i thought was important to get done. Worklife balance was a term not yet coined in the years that my children were young. 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, studying diligently until 4 00 in the afternoon. Janes time,s were games, ging silly singing silly songs, playing games. Each part of my life provided respite from the other gave me a that of proportion classmates trained only on the law lacked. I have had more than a little bit of luck in life, but nothing equals the magnitude of my marriage to marty ginsburg. I dont have words adequate to describe my supersmart, exuberant, ever loving spouse. Early on in our marriage, it became clear to him that cooking was not my strong suit. [laughter] to the everlasting appreciation of our food loving children, in 1965 when sun james was born, marty made the kitchen his domain and became chef supreme friends,me, on loan to even at the court. Marty coached me through the birth of our son. He was the first critic and reader of the speeches i drafted. , inas at my side constantly and out of the hospital during too long bouts with cancer. I betray no secret in reporting that without him, i would not have gained a seat on the u. S. Supreme court. Associate white House Counsel claim set of my 1993 nomination i would say definitely for 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 that he did to make it happen. Gaining thencluded unqualified support of my home state senator, Daniel Patrick moynihan, and enlisting the aid of many members of the legal bar,my and the practicing familiar with work i had done. I have several times said that the office i hold, now nearing 24 years, is the best and most consuming job a lawyer anywhere could have. s main job is to repair fractures and federal law. To step in when other courts have disagreed on what the. Elevant federal law requires because the court grants review dominantly one other jurists over the meaning of a statute or constitutional prescription, the questions we take up are rarely easy. Righteldom have dutifully answers. Yet, by reasoning together and our conferences, with more depth and precision through the circulation of and sponsors to draft decisions, we ultimately agree far more often than we divide sharply. To 2016, for15 example, we were unanimous, at least on the bottom line casesnt in 25 of the 67 decided after the full briefing in august. We decided five to three or four to three. Justice scalia pot death reduced the number of justices, dividing sharply only eight times. When a justice is of the firm view that the majority got it wrong, she is free to say so in dissent. I take advantage of that prerogative when i think it is important, as do my colleagues. Disagreementsrong on issues think for example about control of Political Campaign spending, 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 could not do the job the constitution assigns to us if we didnt, to use one of Justice Scalias favored expressions, get over it. [laughter] all of us revere the constitution and the court. That when weure leave, the third branch of government will be in as good shape as it was when we joined it. , i spoke of great changes i have seen in womens occupations. Theone must acknowledge still bleak part of the picture. Most people in poverty in the United States in the world over are women and children. Womens earnings, here and abroad, trail the earnings of educationcomparable and experience. Our workplaces do not adequately accommodate the demands of childbearing and child rearing. We have yet to divide devise ways to ward off Sexual Harassment at work and Domestic Violence in our homes. I am optimistic that the Movement Towards enlisting the talents of all who compose we, the people, will continue. As expressed by my brave 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. Ecome visible to others and then to put on an impressive show. As women achieve power, the barriers will fall. As society sees what women can do, as women see what women can do, there will be more women out there doing things and we will all be better off for it. Expectation, i can only say, amen. [applause] persis dean shaw so, do justice so, Justice Ginsburg, its a huge honor to have you with us. As you know, the program was designed to foster inking about what it means to lead a minute lead in Meaningful Life. Could you encapsulate what it means to lead a Meaningful Life to you . Justice ginsburg to put it simply, it means doing something outside yourself. Law students who i addressed now and then, if you want to be a lawyer and just practice or profession, well, you have a skill, very much like a plumber. But if you want to be a true professional, you will do ,omething outside of yourself something to repair the tears in your community. Something to make life a little better for people less fortunate than you. Thats what i think a Meaningful Life is. One lives not just for oneself, but for ones Community Dean shaw . Thats wonderful community. Dean shaw thats wonderful, thank you. Is that the same as a purposeful life . Justice ginsburg the purpose is what you aim for. Dean shaw how has family played a part in your own life . Meaningre a meeting your own meaning in life . Justice ginsburg it plays a large part. That drewf the things Justice Scalia and me together. We both care a lot about families. Change in life in the United States between the birth of my daughter in 1955 in 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 wasnt at all unusual to have the middleamilies by 60s. That made me realize that it would be possible, for the first the lawhistory, to move in the direction of what i called equal citizenship stature for men and women. Dean shaw so, talk a little bit about that. Talk about your own experience and how it led you to that work. Justice ginsburg in the days i went to law school, entering class at harvard, it was over 500 students. There were only nine that were women. There was no antidiscrimination law. Employers were totally upfront anyaying we dont want lady lawyers here. We once hired a woman. She was dreadful. How many men have you hire that didnt live up to your expectations . [laughter] ,ustice ginsburg at any rate things we didnt complain about. School, there were nine women, to teaching buildings at that time. Only one of them had a womans bathroom. You can imagine, if you are in class its one thing, much worse taking a three or four hour exam and having to make a mad to the other building. The thing of it was, we never complained. Thats just the way that things were. 1960s, theate 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 International Womens year. Things were changing all over. Possible to break what is referred to as the separate spheres mentality, where it is the womans place to be with the family, taking care of the home, and the mans place was outside. He was the representative of the family outside the home. Designedur laws were to fit that model of the stayathome woman and the workaday man. So, in the decade of the 1970s, almost all of the laws of that kind were gone. Would you like to talk about one or two of the cases that you felt were most important in that . Justice ginsburg the first one was the turning point case. Going back, up until 1971, the Supreme Court never saw a gender based classification that it didnt think was ok. So, if we take the years of the in the caseen court of white against florida, which was what we would call today and abuse, battered woman, her abusive and philandering husband one day had humiliated her to the breaking point. She spied her young sons baseball bat in the corner of the room, lifted it up, and with all of her might hit him over the head. He fell on the stone floor. And of the altercation, beginning of the murder prosecution. In those days and held borough county, they didnt put women on juries held borough phil hillborough county, they didnt put women on juries. She thought that a woman might better understand her state

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