When news of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing broke late Friday night, the reaction was wider than is typical for the death of a Supreme Court Justice. The reasons for this are many, from the sad timing of the first Jewish woman to sit on the bench to die on the Jewish high holiday of Rosh Hashanah, to the near-immediate announcement by Senator Mitch McConnell of his eagerness to replace her seat so close to the election, despite blocking consideration of Merrick Garland after President Barack Obama nominated him with over seven months before the 2016 vote.
Ginsburg’s career triumphs, valiant life story, and personal style hallmarks led to her become a late-in-life pop culture icon. There are, for example, multiple RBG action figures. It’s not a knock against her colleagues and predecessors to suggest she touched people in ways they did not. (Find me a Salmon P. Chase coloring book.)
Following Sandra Day O’Connor’s retirement in 2006, Ginsburg was the sole woman out of nine in the Supreme Court until Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed in 2009. Kate McKinnon first impersonated her on Saturday Night Live in 2012. A Tumblr account, Notorious R.B.G., began highlighting her precise wit and fashion sense. It led to a book in 2015 from Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik, which mixed excerpts from her dissents with playful photos and illustrations. New York Times critic Jennifer Senior called it “a cheery curio, as if a scrapbook and the Talmud decided to have a baby.”
There followed a small industry in collectables: mugs, shirts, candles. Reproductions of her striking bib necklace, called her “dissent collar,” were found in many places, including Banana Republic. (Proceeds from a 2019 reissue went, in part, to the ACLU Women’s Rights Fund.)
At the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, directors Betsy West and Julie Cohen debuted the warm and thorough biographical documentary RBG. It was nominated for both the best documentary Oscar and also best song for “I’ll Fight“, written by Diane Warren and performed by Jennifer Hudson.
Later that same year Felicity Jones starred in the Mimi Leder-directed biopic On The Basis of Sex. Ginsburg gave her blessing to the film, and though she allowed for some creative license, she served as fact-checker during an early viewing, noting that a scene in which her fellow Harvard law students did the twist was impossible, as that dance had not been invented yet. (A correction was made in the editing.)
Well into her 80s Ginsburg was known for keeping physically fit, and also not having time for nonsense. When Stephen Colbert tried to work out with her while playing C+C Music Factory, the Supreme Court Justice informed him that she would “never, never exercise to that noise.”
Ruth Bader Ginsburg had a brilliant legal mind (see above for her argument about sandwiches) but for all her larger-than-life struggles and victories, she remained someone to whom we could still relate. On a personal note, I find great comfort in knowing that even she could sometimes have difficulty staying awake through a boring speech.
Kate McKinnon’s RBG popped up a lot over the years, but it was this rap with Pete Davidson and Chris Redd, in which she calls out “ya putz!”, that might be best.
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