Fiscal Note
No appropriation required.
Title
Honoring the life and legacy of United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Body
WHEREAS, Ruth Bader Ginsburg served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in 2020; and,
WHEREAS, she was nominated by President Bill Clinton and was the second woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, after Sandra Day O'Connor and was the first Jewish woman to serve on the court; and,
WHEREAS, during her tenure, Ginsburg wrote notable majority opinions, including United States v. Virginia (1996 - a landmark case in which the Supreme Court of the United States struck down the long-standing male-only admission policy of the Virginia Military Institute), Olmstead v. L.C. (1999 - a case that held that under the Americans with Disabilities Act, individuals with mental disabilities have the right to live in the community rather than in institution), and Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services, Inc. (2000 - case that held that the plaintiff residents in the area of South Carolina's North Tyger River had standing to sue an industrial polluter); and,
WHEREAS, Ginsburg spent a majority of her legal career as an advocate for gender equality and women's rights, winning many arguments before the Supreme Court, served as a volunteer attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, was a member of its board of directors and one of its general counsel in the 1970s; and,
WHEREAS, also during her time on the court, she became more forceful with her dissents, notably in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (2007) and her dissenting opinion in that case was credited with inspiring the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act which was signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2009, making it easier for employees to win pay discrimination claims; and,
WHEREAS, Justice Ginsburg was dubbed "The Notorious R.B.G." by a law student, a reference to the late Brookl...
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