Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Giant on the Court, Dies at 87
Giving Trump an opening, the loss to the cause of justice could prove incalculable
BY PAUL SCHINDLER
The September 18 death
of Supreme Court Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg,
who served on the
nation’s highest bench since her
appointment by President Bill Clinton
in 1993, is sending shudders
through progressive Americans
who lionized the uncompromising
jurist who earlier in her career had
founded the Women’s Rights Project
at the American Civil Liberties
Union (ACLU).
Ginsburg, who won the moniker
Notorious RBG for her staunch opposition
to the rightward tilt of the
high court in recent years, was 87
and had suffered since 2019 with
pancreatic cancer, an illness she
had survived an earlier bout of a
decade earlier.
LGBTQ rights advocates noted
Ginsburg’s consistent support for
equal rights advances achieved by
the community in decisions dating
back to 1996, when the high court
struck down a Colorado voter initiative
that barred the state or localities
from enacting gay and lesbian
rights protections. She would go
on to vote with the majority in the
2003 decision striking down sodomy
laws, the 2013 decision which
threw out the Defense of Marriage
Act, the 2015 decision guaranteeing
marriage equality nationwide,
and this year’s ruling fi nding that
employment discrimination based
on sexual orientation and gender
identity is barred by the sex discrimination
provisions of the 1964
Civil Rights Act’s Title VII.
Alphonso David, the president
of the Human Rights Campaign,
released a written statement saying,
“Today, we lost an unqualifi ed,
undisputed hero. She wasn’t just
an iconic jurist, Justice Ginsburg
was a force for good — a force for
bringing this country closer to delivering
on its promise of equality
for all. Her decades of work helped
create many of the foundational
arguments for gender equality in
the United States, and her decisions
from the bench demonstrated
her commitment to full LGBTQ
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a 2017 photograph at the Supreme Court.
equality. She was and will remain
an inspiration to young people everywhere,
a pop culture icon as the
Notorious RBG, and a giant in the
fi ght for a more just nation for all.
We extend our deepest condolences
to her family and loved ones. What
she represented — fairness, justice,
and equality for all — we must all
continue to fi ght for. Those principles
are not transactional, they are
fundamental to our democracy.”
The HRC release noted that
Ginsburg. only the second woman
to serve on the Supreme Court after
Sandra Day O’Connor, graduated
at the top of her class at Columbia
Law School, was appointed
to the Court of Appeals for the District
of Columbia Circuit in 1980
by President Jimmy Carter after
having co-founded the ACLU’s
Women’s Rights Project, where she
served as general counsel, eight
years earlier.
Rea Carey, the executive director
of the National LGBTQ Task Force,
also released a written statement,
saying, “Today we have lost a giant
of justice, a champion for equality
and progress. Justice Ginsburg
was an American hero and
pioneer, a voice for so many marginalized
REUTERS/ JONATHAN ERNST
people, leaving behind
a legacy of courage, tenacity, and
historic impact in creating a better
country and a better world for
all of us. We are all so grateful for
all Justice Ginsburg has done for
LGBTQ people, for women, for our
ability to control our own bodies,
for all that seek to move freedom
forward in this country.”
Unspoken in either David or
Carey’s comments was the terror
gripping many people that Ginsburg’s
passing may offer President
Donald Trump the opportunity to
appoint a third justice to the high
court, after having already won
confi rmation for Neil Gorsuch and
Brett Kavanaugh. Progressives
on the court were already a fourmember
minority with severe constraints
facing them in winning
an ally or two from the conservative
bloc on critical issues. In that
context, the votes of Gorsuch and
Chief Justice Roberts in support
of this summer’s Title VII employment
nondiscrimination victory
for the LGBTQ community were
pleasant surprises.
The Roberts court, however,
has more often handed down signifi
cant conservative decisions,
CIVIL RIGHTS
including the 2010 Citizens United
decision that opened the door for
corporations, special interests,
and wealthy individuals to spend
unlimited amounts of money in
elections and the 2014 Hobby Lobby
ruling that came to the extraordinary
conclusion that certain
closely held corporations could assert
the right to a religious exemption
from laws generally applicable
to the public.. The Hobby Lobby
decision, on which Ginsburg wrote
a stinging dissent, is seen as particularly
alarming in the context of
LGBTQ rights, where a wide array
of right-wing groups have claimed
the right to a religious opt-out from
compliance.
In her dissent, Ginsburg wrote,
“The court’s expansive notion of
corporate personhood invites forprofi
t entities to seek religion-based
exemptions from regulations they
deem offensive to their faiths.”
Gorsuch’s majority opinion in
the LGBTQ community’s Title VII
employment nondiscrimination
victory this summer noted that the
issue of religious exemptions from
such protections had not been
raised or settled by the ruling. And
though the Title VII majority was
6-3, with one extra vote to spare,
it’s unclear how a new conservative
jurist on the court might infl uence
its willingness to embrace more
comprehensive applications of the
ruling toward discrimination in
areas such as housing and public
accommodations.
Reproductive rights are also undoubtedly
one of the key areas of
law suddenly plunged into even
greater uncertainty with Ginsburg’s
death.
Kevin Jennings, the CEO of
Lambda Legal, that won its share
of the LGBTQ high court victories
that Ginsburg voted for, came closest
to expressing the despair felt
among LGBTQ people and their
progressive allies upon hearing the
news of her death.
In a written statement, Jennings
said, “Today, the United States lost
an irreplaceable giant. Justice
➤ RBG RIP, continued on p.19
GayCityNews.com | September 24 - October 7, 2020 3
/GayCityNews.com
