THE NOTORIOUS RBG LIVES ON IN ME HOW THE LATE JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBERG CHANGED MY LIFE
I was sitting at home on my couch when I got the news. A Google alert popped up on my phone, and when I made the mistake of clicking on it, I read that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg was dead. There was no holding back the floodgates — I started sobbing hysterically. Still, the news wasn’t sinking in. I couldn’t believe it! Not only had one of my idols passed away, but she’d also gone at the most heartbreaking possible moment: right before the 2020 presidential election. I never met Justice Ginsberg personally, but I still felt like I knew her. I’ve looked up to her for as long as I can remember. My admiration really solidified in college, when I was getting my undergraduate degree in political science and American political theory at Florida International University and took a course all about the U.S. Supreme Court. Every student in the class was assigned a Justice to “be” for the semester. We had to follow all of the Supreme Court rulings, and when our Justice wrote an opinion or a dissent in real life, we had to share it with the class and defend it in the first person, as though we really were that Justice. We got the opportunity to pick the Justice we wanted to be, and, of course, I picked RBG. Unfortunately, so did pretty much everyone else! We all wanted to be the famous pioneer for women’s rights and equality, even though she wasn’t a pop culture icon yet. In the end, I was assigned Chief Justice John Roberts. Justice Roberts and Justice Ginsberg are on the opposite ends of the political spectrum, though, which meant that almost every time I went online to read one of Justice Roberts’ opinions for my assignment, Justice Ginsberg had written the dissent, and I had to read that, too. For months, I was hyper-focused on all of the things she wrote. Only when I put her under a magnifying glass like that did I realize what a sharp, inspiring litigator and judge she really was. Her fight for women’s equality had translated into a fight for equality on all fronts. My admiration went through the roof, and when the movie “On the Basis of Sex” came out years later, a friend and I saw it in theaters wearing matching RBG T-shirts. We split a bottle of wine and cried through the ending of her inspiring story about beating back sexism, cynicism, and tragedy to become an amazing lawyer. On Sept. 18, 2020, we lost an icon, a champion of Justice, and a wonderful soul. It was heartbreaking for me, and even more so when I realized that her legacy might be at risk. Today, though, I’ve realized that nothing can take away RBG’s accomplishments. They live on in legal history, in me, and in all of the other lawyers and women who have been inspired by her work.
I ordered a judicial robe and some silver paint for my hair, then added big fake glasses to match hers, along with chunky stud earrings and a collar like the one that she wore. As a final touch, I slipped on a pair of Converse dyed in neon rainbow tie-dye. Looking in the mirror made me want to cry a little, but I also felt proud. RBG may be gone from the Supreme Court, but she’s still with me, and she always will be.
When it came time for me to pick a Halloween costume this year, there was no question who I would dress up as.
–Ashley Washington
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