Following is my third post on the topic of Justice for the spring MLS Collaborative Digital Archives Assignment.
Here are my first and second posts for background.
This artifact is a recording of Justice Ginsburg’s swearing in ceremony – which took place on August 10, 1993. It is published on YouTube and is courtesy of the William J. Clinton Presidential Library. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was sworn in as the first Jewish woman to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States and only the second women to serve, behind Sandra Day O’Conner.
We learn much from this recording. One, from Justice Ginsburg’s speech, being that Margaret Brent was the first woman acknowledged as a lawyer in British America in the 1600s, and was often referred to as “gentleman Margaret Brent” in court records because as a woman possessing power, her male contemporaries apparently became confused as to Ms. Brent’s gender.
Further in Justice Ginsburg’s speech, she makes poignant remarks about the importance of diversity on the bench because “a system of justice will be the richer for diversity of background and experience; it will be the poorer in terms of appreciating what is at stake and the impact of its judgements if all of its members are cast from the same mold.”
Additionally, President Clinton noted that Ginsburg’s “nearly unanimous confirmation by the United States Senate was the swiftest in nearly two decades.” She was confirmed 96-3. Other comments from Democratic President Clinton that I feel are of note are his acknowledgments of Republican Senators Strom Thurmond and Orrin Hatch – both conservatives. Hatch recommend Ginsburg to Clinton, even as he supported conservative judges and Thurmond had opposed her Carter nomination to the D.C. Circuit Court but voted for her SCOTUS appointment. I point these facts out as an appreciation for a Congress that appears to have been more bipartisan that we have seen for the last several decades. Justice Ginsburg was quoted in this Georgetown Law articleLinks to an external site. that in 1993 and 1994 “there was ‘a true bipartisan spirit in our Congress…’ she said. The late Senators Ted Kennedy and Strom Thurmond, for example, had a very good working relationship, she noted. ‘I hope that I will live to see that spirit of collegiality restored in our legislature.’” It is deeply unfortunate that she did not live to see that.
Overall, this artifact is uplifting for its historical significance of placing a Jewish woman on the bench of the highest court in the U.S. It is also noteworthy for its acknowledgment of the importance of gender and race diversity in law and the impact of having diversity on the bench to create a more equitable society. I also appreciate this artifact for President Clinton referring to the gender discrimination that Justice Ginsburg faced as a law student, simply because she was a woman and a mother. It is also galvanizing to hear the President describe the impact of Ginsburg’s work: “virtually every significant case brought before the Supreme Court in the decade of the 70s on behalf of woman bore her mark. Today, virtually no segment of our society has been untouched by her efforts.”
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