2020 -- S 2932 | |
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LC005655 | |
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND | |
IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY | |
JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2020 | |
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S E N A T E R E S O L U T I O N | |
EXPRESSING DEEPEST CONDOLENCES ON THE PASSING OF UNITED STATES | |
SUPREME COURT JUSTICE, RUTH BADER GINSBURG | |
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Introduced By: Senators Coyne, Euer, Ruggerio, McCaffrey, and Goodwin | |
Date Introduced: December 17, 2020 | |
Referred To: Placed on the Senate Consent Calendar | |
1 | WHEREAS, It is with deep sadness and regret that this nation has learned of the passing |
2 | of the Honorable Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, an iconic and beloved figure, and the second |
3 | woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court. She was the wife of the late Martin |
4 | Ginsburg and the mother of Jane Ginsburg and James Ginsburg; and |
5 | WHEREAS, Justice Ginsburg was born Joan Ruth Bader on March 15, 1933, in |
6 | Brooklyn, New York. She was the second daughter of Nathan Bader, an emigrant from Odessa, |
7 | Russian Empire, and Celia Bader, the daughter of immigrants from Krakow, Poland. As a baby, |
8 | she had lost her older sister Marilyn to meningitis; and |
9 | WHEREAS, As a young girl, Justice Ginsburg was an excellent student and a voracious |
10 | reader. She attended James Madison High School where she excelled in her studies. Her mother |
11 | was very involved in her education, frequently taking her to the library, and always encouraging |
12 | her to pursue knowledge. Tragically, she lost her mother to cancer shortly before graduating from |
13 | High School; and |
14 | WHEREAS, Justice Ginsburg attended Cornell University, graduating in 1954 with the |
15 | highest ranking of any female student in her class. While attending Cornell, she met her future |
16 | husband and life partner, and upon graduation, married Martin Ginsburg. Together they moved |
17 | to Fort Still Oklahoma, where he was serving on active duty with the United States Army. She |
18 | took a position with the Social Security Administration, but was later demoted after becoming |
19 | pregnant with her daughter, Jane; and |
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1 | WHEREAS, In 1956, Justice Ginsburg enrolled at Harvard Law School, one of only nine |
2 | women in a class of 500. While at Harvard, the Dean of Students invited the female law students |
3 | to dinner and asked them why they were “taking the place of a man?” Justice Ginsburg later |
4 | transferred to Columbia Law School, where she tied for first in her class upon graduation; and |
5 | WHEREAS, Despite her superlative credentials, Justice Ginsburg had a very difficult |
6 | time securing a position after graduation due to continuing gender discrimination. Eventually, she |
7 | began a clerkship with Judge Edmund Palmieri, a Justice of the United States District Court for |
8 | the Southern District of New York. After finishing the two-year clerkship, she served as a |
9 | Research Associate and later as Associate Director of the Columbia Law School Project on |
10 | International Procedure, where her studies on gender equality in Sweden, a nation far more |
11 | advanced than the United States on those issues, greatly influenced her thoughts on how to |
12 | accomplish gender equality in the United States; and |
13 | WHEREAS, In 1963, Justice Ginsburg accepted a law position at Rutgers University, |
14 | where she was paid less than her male colleagues and was one of less than twenty female law |
15 | professors in the United States. In 1970, she co-founded the Women’s Rights Law Reporter, the |
16 | first law journal in the United States to focus exclusively on women’s rights. In 1972, she co- |
17 | founded the Women’s Rights Project at the ACLU and in 1973, became the General Counsel. |
18 | Under her direction and leadership, the Women’s Rights Project participated in more than 300 |
19 | gender discrimination cases between 1973 and 1976, during which time she argued six cases |
20 | before the United States Supreme Court, winning five; and |
21 | WHEREAS, Justice Ginsburg was subsequently appointed by President Carter to serve |
22 | on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, a position she held |
23 | until 1993 when she was appointed by President Clinton to the United States Supreme Court. She |
24 | was approved by the United States Senate with an overwhelmingly majority vote of 96 to 3. |
25 | While serving on the Supreme Court, she continued her fight for gender equality, and notably |
26 | wrote the 1996 majority opinion striking down the Virginia Military Institute’s male-only |
27 | admissions policy; and |
28 | WHEREAS, While Justice Ginsburg was seen as the leader of the so-called “liberal bloc” |
29 | on the United States Supreme Court, her collegial and friendly persona proved to be a vital |
30 | component that allowed an ideologically divided Supreme Court to continue to function in a |
31 | responsible manner. Many observers were often bemused to discover her close and congenial |
32 | friendship with Justice Scalia, a member of the conservative wing of the Supreme Court; and |
33 | WHEREAS, In her later years on the Supreme Court, Justice Ginsberg became a national |
34 | and international icon, as the very embodiment of progress and equality for women and |
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1 | minorities across the globe. The nation was enthralled with her enormous intellect and her |
2 | humble and charming demeanor. She was also deeply respected for her courageous and tenacious |
3 | battles with both colon and pancreatic cancer. Mournfully, on September 18, 2020, Justice Ruth |
4 | Bader Ginsburg passed away due to complications from cancer and America lost one of its |
5 | greatest citizens and sagacious Justices; now, therefore be it |
6 | RESOLVED, That this Senate of the State of Rhode Island hereby expresses its deepest |
7 | condolences to the Ginsburg Family on the passing of the Honorable Supreme Court Justice Ruth |
8 | Bader Ginsburg; and be it further |
9 | RESOLVED That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to |
10 | transmit duly certified copies of this resolution to Jane Ginsburg and James Ginsburg. |
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