Iconic is an over- and wrongly-used word, the first resort of lazy writers. But Ruth Bader Ginsburg is among the few recent public figures for whom iconic might properly apply. She was if nothing else a star representing a set of values based on equality before the law for all people and was celebrated on T-shirts and cartoons. Before her death last fall, Ginsburg had been the subject of an astute dramatization, On the Basis of Sex, and a documentary, RBG.
Now, she’s honored with a new documentary, Ruth: Justice Ginsburg in her Own Words (Kino Lorber DVD) and a book that takes up a similar theme, Justice, Justice Thou Shalt Pursue (University of California Press).
Ruth opens with a remark Ginsburg made in the ‘70s: although she graduated with high marks from Harvard Law, she was unable to find work at any New York law firm in the ‘50s. She had three strikes against her: she was Jewish (WASP firms were just beginning to loosen up); a woman (in a nearly all male profession); and a mother (deemed a distraction). But she persevered and in the ‘70s successfully argued a handful of landmark cases that dismantled legal barriers against women.
One jurist quoted in Frieda Lee Mock’s Ruth documentary notes that the force of Ginsburg’s arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court came from the clarity of her writing. To understand what that meant, turn to Justice, Justice Thou Shalt Prevail. Edited and introduced by University of California law professor Amanda L. Tyler, the book includes briefs and arguments for three of her landmark cases, several of her Supreme Court decisions and texts from recent addresses. What they show is that Ginsburg didn’t surrender to pettifogging but got to the point, her elegance of thought finding expression in brevity and fine-tuned phrases. She won cases both because she was smart and because she expressed herself convincingly.
