Showing posts with label U.S. Supreme Court. Show all posts
Showing posts with label U.S. Supreme Court. Show all posts

March 15 - Happy Birthday, Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Posted on March 15, 2020

The Supreme Court Justices have a highly respected job that they generally get to hold their whole life! (Of course, many choose to retire at some point.)

And their names become famous, ranging from Wikipedia- famous to every-U.S.-history-book-famous to household-name-famous. (Or infamous!)

But I think that only one Supreme Court Justice has risen to the level of rock-star famous. Only one inspires jewelry and is enshrined on T-shirts!




Ruth Bader Ginsburg, born in Brooklyn, NY, on this date in 1933, has become a pop culture icon because her opinions and dissents have been stated so forcefully - people sometimes use the word "fiery" - and because she fights for "we the people."

Before being appointed to the Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton, Ginsburg was a volunteer lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, and the ACLU has been hugely important in winning and defending civil rights.

If you want to eventually be featured on T-shirts and mugs, praised and thanked on SO many signs, and have your face inspire tattoos, Halloween costumes, a bobblehead doll, and so much more - 


Can you tell which of these no-sew costumes is RBG?
Of course you can!





- Well, you probably shouldn't become a lawyer and hope for the best, because trajectory of "the Notorious R.B.G." is probably never going to happen again!

(Ruth Bader Ginsburg's pop culture nickname is
"The Notorious R.B.G., in the likeness of American
rapper "The Nortorious B.I.G.") 

I mean..."Dissent Jewelry"? 



A LEGO mini-fig?

When asked, "When will there be enough women
on the Supreme Court," Ginsburg has shocked them
with the answer, "When there are nine."

But, she points out, most of the history of the Supreme
Court there have been ALL MEN on the bench...
so why not at least one time in the future when it's
all women??? 
Appearing as someone under consideration for the X-Force?
Scene from Deadpool

Wow! 






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January 28 - Anniversary of a Just Appointment


Posted on January 28, 2017


Louis Brandeis was brilliant. He was passionate about the law and about the betterment of individuals and American society. He was incorruptible.
(Incorruptible means that nobody could influence him with power, money, or other bribes.)
Of course he would make a great justice of the Supreme Court, right?
Then why-oh-why did so many conservative Republicans fight against Brandeis's 1916 nomination to the Supreme Court?
Was it because the president who nominated him, Woodrow Wilson, was a Democrat?
A big part of the problem many had with Brandeis was because he was a crusader for social justice – and that often pitted him against monopolies, big corporations, the wealthy and the powerful. Brandeis devoted so much time to public causes and social justice he was called “the People's Lawyer,” and he was even described as “a Robin Hood of the law.”
Of course, we know that standing up against unfair practices is a good thing – even if, actually ESPECIALLY if, the people being unfair are wealthy and powerful.
Still, a lot of politicians are themselves wealthy and powerful, and almost all politicians are influenced by the wealthy and powerful, so Republicans as a group fought against Brandeis because he made a habit of standing up to the wealthy and powerful.
Another big part of the problem many people had with Brandeis was that he was a Jew. Antisemitism (bigotry toward Jewish people) had been a problem in America for centuries, although thankfully it has decreased since World War II and the Civil Rights Movement, in the middle of the 1900s. (I will point out, however, that so far there has never been a Jewish president or vice-president in the United States. There has never even been a Jewish major party candidate for president, and the only candidate for VP was Joe Lieberman in 2000.)
Thank goodness, Brandeis did end up getting confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice. He weighed in on many free-speech issues and right-to-privacy issues. His written opinions on those two topics, in particular, are considered some of the greatest defenses ever written by a member of the Supreme Court.

Here are a few interesting facts about Louis Brandeis:
  • His parents immigrated from Bohemia (now in the Czech Republic.
  • Brandeis graduated from Harvard Law School at age 20 – with the highest grade average in the law school's history.
  • The law firm he founded in Boston still practices today. Its name is now Nutter McClennen & Fish – Nutter for short – which is a bit surprising to me. If I wanted a lawyer, I think I would not want to choose Mr. Nutter, would you? Maybe not even Mr. Fish... But the law firm has one of the highest reputations in the state and nation.
  • Although Brandeis was the first Jewish Supreme Court Justice, he was far from the last. Starting with the 1932 appointment of Benjamin Cardozo, there have been seven other Jewish justices on SCOTUS, including three current justices! (All but one of these were nominated by Democrats.)
  • Brandeis is widely considered a pioneer in pro bono work, helping to create the concept that is now prevalent in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world. Pro bono means “for the public good,” and it is used to refer to professional work done without payment. The American Bar Association has an ethics rule that suggests that every lawyer in the U.S. contribute at least fifty hours of pro bono service every year.
Here are a few wonderful quotes from Louis Brandeis:






Also on this date:
Chinese New Year -- Year of the Rooster:
here and here and here and here and here 



















Anniversary of first ski tow in the U.S.







Anniversary of the coining of the word serendipity
















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September 21 – First Female Supreme Court Justice

Posted on September 21, 2016

With the craziness of politics these days, it's hard to believe that, on this date in 1981, Sandra Day O'Connor was UNANIMOUSLY approved by the United States Senate to be a Supreme Court Justice.

Unanimously? I wouldn't have thought that the Senate could be unanimous on agreeing that oranges are fruits, even! I've become so used to everything being divisive, no compromise, and precious little “reaching across the aisle,” I've forgotten that there could be such a thing as a president nominating a judge to be justice and the entire Senate coming together to say, “Yes! Good choice! Let's do this!”

But that is pretty much what happened when President Ronald Reagan nominated O'Connor.


Apparently Reagan had promised to nominate the first female Supreme Court Justice. He chose a woman who had served as a deputy county attorney, Assistant Attorney General of Arizona, an Arizona State Senator and Majority Leader, and judge in a county superior court and the Arizona State Court of Appeals.

And, although Sandra Day O'Connor was a Republican when she served as State Senator and Majority Leader, she was deemed qualified for the position on the Supreme Court, smart and informed and fair, and all of the Democrats joined all of the Republicans to approve her!

I am not saying that such votes should be unanimous, always, but I like the fact that politics did use to be a bit more two-parties-working-together, back in the day. Because that means that there is hope it can be that way again!



Here is a super short timeline of women in the judiciary:

  • 1869 – Arabella Mansfield becomes the first licensed female lawyer in the U.S.
  • 1884 – Marilla Ricker becomes the first female U.S. Commissioner
  • 1907 – Catherine Waugh McCullock becomes the first female elected to serve as justice of the peace
  • 1914 – Georgia Bullock becomes a “woman judge” in charge of a court segregated by sex
  • 1920 – Florence Allen becomes the first female elected to position of general jurisdiction court
  • 1922 – Florence Allen becomes the first female state appellate judge
  • 1928 – Genevieve Rose Cline becomes the first female named to a federal bench of any sort (a U.S. Customs Court)
  • 1933 – Florence Allen becomes the first female federal appellate judge
  • 1949 – Burnita Shelton Matthews becomes the first female judge serving on a federal district court
  • 1981 – Sandra Day O'Connor becomes the first female U.S. Supreme Court Justice


It's neat to realize that, although it took 132 years for women to be able to vote in the U.S. (counting from the first U.S. election in 1788 until 1920, the first election after the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified), it only took 112 years for women to move from first being allowed to be a lawyer to becoming a Supreme Court Justice, and only 61 years from becoming any sort of judge in the U.S. to becoming a Supreme Court Justice! 

Today, women make up about a third of all judges and justices in the U.S., and about a third of the Supreme Court. 

Actually, the Supreme Court bench was precisely one-third female, not “about a third female,” until Justice Antonin Scalia died in February of 2016. Out of nine spots on the bench (Scalia's spot remains vacant), three are women: Ruth Baden Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor. 



O'Connor retired from SCOTUS in 2006. She retired in order to spend time with her husband, who suffered from Alzheimer's Disease and ended up dying in 2009. Since his death she has acted as a substitute judge, and she has worked to educate people about the separation of powers and the role of the judiciary and the Supreme Court in the Constitution and the U.S. government. She is writing a book and serves on the boards of several institutes. She even started her own non-profit organization that encourages people to make policy decisions through a process of informed discussion and critical analysis of evidence. 


Also on this date:
























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