Sisters in Law

by Linda Hirshman

  250 flared up again: Drew Halfmann and Michael P. Young, “War Pictures: The Grotesque as a Mobilizing Tactic,” Mobilization 15 (2010): 1–24, http://sociology.ucdavis.edu/people/halfmann/grotesque.

  250 Clinton vetoed the federal laws: “Bill Clinton on Abortion,” OnTheIssues.org, http://www.ontheissues.org/celeb/Bill_Clinton_Abortion.htm (accessed November 18, 2014).

  250 agreed to review the case: Stenberg v. Carhart, 530 U.S. 914 (2000).

  251 Casey afforded women: Stenberg v. Carhart, Kennedy dissenting, http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/99-830.ZD2.html.

  251 health of the mother: Stenberg v. Carhart, O’Connor concurring, http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/99-830.ZC1.html.

  252 undue-burden test: “Defending the Innocent,” Washington Times, November 8, 2003, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2003/nov/8/20031108-111532-9290r/.

  252 modern approach to the Constitution: Jan Crawford Greenburg, Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court (New York: Penguin, 2007), location 830 of 5283 in Kindle edition.

  252 one prominent critic put it: Jason DeParle, “In Battle to Pick Next Justice, Right Says, Avoid a Kennedy,” New York Times, June 27, 2005, http://www.nytimes.com/20050627/politics/27kennedy.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.

  253 found colon cancer: Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Ginsburg Leaves Hospital; Prognosis on Cancer Is Good,” New York Times, September 29, 1999, http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/29/us/ginsburg-leaves-hospital-prognosis-on-cancer-is-good.html.

  254 Court’s session on Monday: Jon Craig, “Ruth Bader Ginsburg Reminisces About Her Time on the Hill,” Cornell Chronicle, September 22 and November 16, 2014, http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/2014/09/ruthbader-ginsburg-reminisces-about-her-time-hill.

  254 “say no to any ‘extras’”: Ginsburg, letter to Stephen Wiesenfeld, December 6 1999.

  254 “shut downs”: Ginsburg, letter to Stephen Wiesenfeld, February 27, 2001.

  254 “tough it out”: Ginsburg, letter to Stephen Wiesenfeld, September 24, 2001.

  254 the doctors said: Ginsburg, letter to Stephen Wiesenfeld, September 22, 2000.

  CHAPTER 17: JUSTICE O’CONNOR’S SELF-INFLICTED WOUND

  255 legendary diplomat Walter Stoessel: The story was apparently first reported by Christopher Hitchens, “Now There Is No Referee Left,” Evening Standard (London), December 13, 2000, 13, but gained widespread currency when it appeared in Evan Thomas and Michael Isikoff, “The Truth Behind the Pillars,” Newsweek, December 25, 2000, 46.

  255 Bush v. Gore: 531 U.S. 98 (2000).

  256 cast into doubt: Jeffrey Toobin, The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court (New York: Doubleday, 2007), 187.

  256 George Bush in the White House: Ibid., 200.

  256 legal commentator Jeffrey Rosen: Jeffrey Rosen, “Disgrace,” The New Republic, December 24, 2000, http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/disgrace.

  256 described her work in 1993: David M. O’Brien, “Holding the Center: As Thomas and Scalia Stake Out the Far Right, O’Connor Takes the Moral High Ground,” Los Angeles Times, March 8, 1992, http://articles.latimes.com/1992-03-08/opinion/op-5987_1_justice-clarence-thomas; David O. Stewart, “Holding the Center—Sandra O’Connor Evolves into Major Force on Supreme Court,” ABA Journal 79 (1993): 48, http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/abaj79&div=61&id=&page=.

  256 “addled and uncertain”: Rosen, “Disgrace.”

  256 women’s rights—was loaded: Toobin, The Nine, 166.

  256 such a fine family: David Margolick, “Meet the Supremes,” New York Times, September 23, 2007.

  257 “good for the Court and for the nation”: O’Connor, letter to Barry Goldwater, 1988, Personal and Political Papers of Senator Barry M. Goldwater, Arizona State University Libraries Arizona Collection.

  257 avid observer of electoral politics: Lewis F. Powell, Jr. Archives, Washington and Lee University School of Law, letter from O’Connor with calculation of election predictions, undated; O’Connor, letter to Goldwater, November 1, 1988, Personal and Political Papers of Senator Barry M. Goldwater, Arizona State University Libraries Arizona Collection; Jeffrey Toobin, Too Close to Call: The Thirty-Six-Day Battle to Decide the 2000 Election (New York: Random House, 2001), 248.

  257 protect the life of a mother: “George W. Bush on Abortion” and “George W. Bush on the Constitution,” OnTheIssues, http://www.ontheissues.org/Celeb/George_W__Bush_Abortion.htm#Supreme_Court_+_Constitution (accessed November 18, 2014).

  257 “partial birth abortion” law: Ibid., citing Sandra Sobieraj, AP article in Washington Post, June 28, 2000.

  257 “judicial philosophy he defends”: Fred Barnes, “Bush Scalia,” Weekly Standard July 5, 1999, http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Protected/Articles/000/000/010/268gdffq.asp.

  257 “more to the point the Republican Party”: Toobin, The Nine, 165.

  257 betting pools on the elections: Ibid., 165.

  257 and to the Court: O’Connor, letter to Barry Goldwater, 1988.

  257 “It was just outrageous”: Toobin, Too Close to Call, 248.

  258 O’Connor’s tidy standards: Dahleen Glanton, “O’Connor Questions Court’s Decision to Take On Bush v. Gore,” Chicago Tribune, April 27, 2013, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-04-27/news/ct-met-sandra-day-oconnor-edit-board-20130427_1_o-connor-bush-v-high-court.

  259 performed or “promoted” abortion: “George W. Bush on Abortion” and “George W. Bush on the Constitution,” OnTheIssues, http://www.ontheissues .org/Celeb/George_W__Bush_Abortion.htm#Supreme_Court_+_Constitution (accessed November 18, 2014).

  259 budget went down by 20 percent: Alison Motluk, “US Abortion Policy: A Healthy Strategy for Whom?” New Scientist, October 6, 2004 (retrieved September 29, 2007).

  259 across all the chambers: Michelle Friedland, interview with the author, June 20, 2014.

  260 support a black representative: Easley v. Cromartie, 532 U.S. 234 (2001), http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2000/2000_99_1864.

  260 execution of the retarded: Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002), http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2001/2001_00_8452/.

  260 sodomy laws unconstitutional: Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003).

  260 affirmative action in college admissions: Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 (2003), http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2002/2002_02_241/.

  260 toward the liberal bloc: David Cole, “The Liberal Legacy of Bush v. Gore,” Georgetown Law Journal 94 (2006): 1427, 1443, http://www.scotusblog.com/archives/bushvgore-cole.pdf.

  260 partisan redistricting: Vieth v. Jubelirer, 541 U.S. 267 (2004).

  260 right of eminent domain: Kelo v. City of New London, 125 S. Ct. 2655 (2005).

  260 reining in the death penalty: Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304, 321 (2002); Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584, 609 (2002).

  261 Ferguson v. Charleston: 532 U.S. 67 (2001).

  261 called special needs: Ibid., at 70.

  261 drug users for child abuse: Philip J. Hilts, “Hospital Sought Out Prenatal Drug Abuse,” New York Times, January 21, 1994, http://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/21/us/hospital-sought-out-prenatal-drug-abuse.html.

  261 hospital for race discrimination: Dorothy E. Roberts, Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty (New York: Vintage, 1998), 174–75, citing the plaintiffs’ filings in the trial court.

  263 Nguyen v. INS: Tuan Anh Nguyen v. INS, 533 U.S. 53 (2001), http://supreme .justia.com/cases/federal/us/533/53/case.html.

  264 the task of answering Kennedy: Ibid., at 74.

  265 federal family-leave law: This was very contentious, four—Stevens, Souter, Breyer, Ginsburg—didn’t agree with the premise, but all agreed that FMLA abrogated the immunity. For our purposes, Rehnquist/Kennedy is the interesting view. Nevada Department of Human Resources v. Hibbs, 538 U.S. 721 (2003).

  265 Jackson v. Birmingham Board of Education: Jackson v. Birmingham Board of Education, 544 U.S. 167 (2005), http://www.law.
cornell.edu/supctpdf02-1672P.ZO.

  266 Well, goodness!: Toobin, The Nine, 198. O’Connor was asking Gore’s lawyer David Boies why the Florida court didn’t set a uniform standard for whether a ballot should be included in the count. “For goodness’ sake!” she exclaimed impatiently.

  266 “It’s not always positive”: Rebecca Lowe, “Supremely Confident: The Legacy of Sandra Day O’Connor,” Guardian Legal Network, August 30, 2011, http://www.theguardian.com/law/2011/aug/30/us-supreme-court-george-bush.

  267 as she saw it, trapped: Jan Crawford Greenburg, Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court (New York: Penguin, 2007), location 300 of 5283 in Kindle version.

  267 two of them went out: Joan Biskupic, Sandra Day O’Connor: How the First Woman on the Supreme Court Became Its Most Influential Justice (New York: Harper Perennial, 2006), 324–25.

  267 drove O’Connor to retirement: Greenburg, Supreme Conflict, location 302 of 5283 in Kindle version.

  267 “he’s not a woman”: Elisabeth Bumiller, “An Interview by, Not with, the President,” New York Times, July 21, 2005, http://www.nytimes.com/20050721/politics/21bush.html?pagewanted=all.

  268 “Sam” Alito: Greenburg calls him “Sam,” Supreme Conflict, location 724.

  268 law would now stand: Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. 124 (2007), http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/05-380.ZO.html.

  269 “principles of stare decisis”: Ibid., emphasis added.

  269 “once created and sustained”: Ibid., at page 29 of the draft.

  270 “long since discredited”: Ibid., Ginsburg dissenting, at page 18 of the dissent draft.

  270 “this would happen again”: Joan Biskupic, “Ginsburg ‘Lonely’ without O’Connor,” USA Today, January 25, 2007, http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-01-25-ginsburg-court_x.htm.

  270 “our male colleagues lack”: “Ginsburg Feels Isolated on Court,” Washington Post (Associated Press), January 28, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/27/AR2007012701065.html.

  270 “until she was gone”: Biskupic, “Ginsburg ‘Lonely’ without O’Connor.”

  CHAPTER 18: THE GREAT DISSENTER

  273 a living legend: Michael Li-Ming Wong, interview with the author, July 17, 2014.

  273 Louis D. Brandeis: Richard A. Primus, “Canon, Anti-Canon, and Judicial Dissent,” Duke Law Journal 48 (1998): 243, http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1040&context=dlj.

  273 Jim Crow south: Linda Greenhouse, “A Justice Champions a Witness to History,” New York Times, August 5, 2001, http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/05/us/a-justice-champions-a-witness-to-history.html.

  274 gleefully put it to Wiesenfeld: Ginsburg, letter to Stephen Wiesenfeld, March 2, 1977.

  274 “grievously misguided”: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, “The Role of Dissenting Opinions,” Minnesota Law Review 95 (2010): 1, http://www.minnesotalawreview .org/wp-content/uploads/201107Ginsburg_MLR.pdf.

  274 Goodyear Tire and Rubber: Lilly Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber, 550 U.S. 618 (2007).

  275 “Gadsden, Alabama”: Jill Duffy and Elizabeth Lambert, “Dissents from the Bench: A Compilation of Oral Dissents by U.S. Supreme Court Justices,” Law Library Journal 102 (2010): 1, note 6, http://www.aallnet.org/main-menu/Publications/llj/LLJ-Archives/Vol-102/pub_llj_v102n01/2010-01.pdf.

  276 Fair Pay Act, into law: “Ruth’s Greatest Hit’s [sic]: Ledbetter v. Goodyear,” Ruth Bader GinsBlog, August 15, 2012, http://ruthbaderginsblog.blogspot.com201208/ruths-greatest-hits-ledbetter-v_15.html.

  276 solitary female’s questioning: Dahlia Lithwick, “Search Me,” Slate, April 21, 2009, http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/supreme_court_dispatches/2009/04/search_me.html.

  276 sensitive thirteen-year-old: Joan Biskupic, “Ginsburg: Court Needs Another Woman,” USAToday, October 5, 2009, http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/2009-05-05-ruthginsburg_N.htm.

  277 “to have her company”: Ginsburg, letter to Stephen Wiesenfeld, December 9, 2009.

  277 she wrote to Wiesenfeld: Ginsburg, letter to Stephen Wiesenfeld, February 18, 2009.

  277 “health problems”: Ginsburg, letter to Stephen Wiesenfeld, December 29, 2009.

  277 raise his spirits: Ginsburg, letter to Stephen Wiesenfeld, March 9, 2010.

  277 “the good job Marty helped” her get: Ginsburg, letter to Stephen Wiesenfeld, June 13, 2011.

  277 “all the difference for me”: Elahe Izadi, “Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Advice on Love and Leaning In,” Washington Post, July 31, 2014, http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/20140731/ruthbader-ginsburgs-advice-on-love-and-leaning-in/.

  278 ranging up to $45 million: “Supreme Court Runs Financial Gamut,” New York Times, June 11, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/20100612/us/12scotus .html?_r=0.

  278 went shopping with her: travel diary from 1988 trip to Paris, Ginsburg Archive, Library of Congress, Box 39.

  278 “they will be here all night!”: Michael Li-Ming Wong, interview with the author, July 17, 2014.

  278 a curmudgeonly: “Symposium Honors and Roasts Professor Monaghan,” Columbia Law School Magazine, Winter 2010, http://www.law.columbia .edu/magazine/153298/symposium-honors-and-roasts-professor-monaghan.

  278 “brought into another dimension!”: Henry Paul Monaghan, interview with the author, October 14, 2013.

  279 more good, young Obama appointees: Randall Kennedy, “The Case for Early Retirement,” New Republic, April 28, 2011, http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/87543/ginsburg-breyer-resign-supereme-court.

  279 “equipped to do the job?”: Joan Biskupic, “Ruth Bader Ginsburg Resists Retirement Pressure,” Reuters, July 4, 2013.

  279 ten close cases: Veronika Polakova, “Predicting Anthony Kennedy,” The Monkey Cage, American Enterprise Institute blog, July 13, 2012, http://www.aei.org/article/politics-and-public-opinion/judicial/predicting-anthony-kennedy/.

  279 from the electric chair: Connick v. Thompson, 131 S.Ct. 1350, 563 (2011), http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=16887528200611439212&hl =en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholar.

  279 scrap metal machine: J. Mcintyre Machinery v. Robert Nicastro, 131 S.Ct. 2780, 564 (2011).

  280 against police misconduct: Lisa Kern Griffin, “Barriers to Entry and Justice Ginsburg’s Criminal Procedure Jurisprudence,” in The Legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, edited by Scott Dodson (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015).

  280 her most passionate concern: Ibid.

  281 civil rights trial: Connick v. Thompson, at 1370.

  281 “sink any lower”: Mike Appleton, “Connick v. Thompson and Prosecutorial Impunity,” Jonathan Turley (blog), April 10, 2011, http://jonathanturley .org/2011/04/10/connick-v-thompson-and-prosecutorial-impunity/.

  281 “Justice Thomas’s meanest opinion”: Dahlia Lithwick, “Cruel but Not Unusual: Clarence Thomas Writes One of the Meanest Supreme Court Decisions Ever,” Slate, April 1, 2011, http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2011/04/cruel_but_not_unusual.html.

  282 not without its consolations: Ginsburg, letter to Stephen Wiesenfeld, June 13, 2011.

  282 Supreme Court Historical Society: Martin Ginsburg: Chef Supreme (Washington, D.C.: Supreme Court Historical Society, 2011), http://supremecourt gifts.org/chefsupreme.aspx.

  282 Coleman v. Maryland Court of Appeals: 566 U.S. 12 (2012).

  283 Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal: Laurence Tribe, “The Roberts Court: New Frontiers in Constitutional Doctrine,” Washington Post, June 6, 2014, http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/20140606/by-prof-laurence-tribe-the-roberts-court-new-frontiers-in-constitutional-doctrine/.

  284 record for oral disagreement: Stephen Wermiel, “Dissenting from the Bench,” SCOTUS for Law Students, SCOTUSblog, July 2, 2013, http://www.scotusblog.com/201307scotus-for-law-students-sponsored-by-bloomberg-law-dissenting-from-the-bench/.

  284 Vance v. Ball State: 133 S. Ct. 2434 (2013).

  284
University of Texas Southwestern Hospital v. Nassar: 570 (2012), http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/12-484_o759.pdf

  285 Fisher v. University of Texas: 133 S.Ct. 2411, 570 (2013).

  286 “cold feet”: Paul M. Barrett, “A Fascinating Supreme Court Punt on Affirmative Action,” BloombergBusinessWeek, June 24, 2013, http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-06-24/a-fascinating-supremecourt-punt-on-affirmative-action.

  287 “‘law-sanctioned inequality’”: “Realizing the Equality Principle,” at note 123 in present draft, Ginsburg Archive, Library of Congress, Box 12.

  287 “preclearance”—was unconstitutional: Shelby County Alabama v. Holder, 133 S.Ct. 2612 (2013).

  CHAPTER 19: NOTORIOUS R.B.G.

  289 marginalized and excluded: Shana Knizhnik, interview with the author, August 11, 2014.

  289 he became Notorious: “The Notorious B.I.G.,” Wikipedia, http://en .wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Notorious_B.I.G. (accessed November 19, 2014).

  289 thousands of followers: Texts from Hillary, April 11, 2012, http://textsfrom hillaryclinton.tumblr.com.

  289 Notorious R.B.G.: Notorious R.B.G.: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in All Her Glory (blog), http://notoriousrbg.tumblr.com (accessed November 19, 2014).

  290 an Internet phenom: Allison P. Davis, “NYU Law Student Is Making Ruth Bader Ginsburg a Meme,” New York, June 27, 2013,http://nymag.com/thecut/201306nyu-law-student-is-making-bader-ginsburg-a-meme.html.

  290 “Plain and simple”: Jamison Doran, “19 Reasons Ruth Bader Ginsburg Is Your Favorite Supreme Court Justice: R.B.G. is a complete and total boss. Plain and simple,” BuzzFeed Community, July 30, 2013, http://www.buzzfeed.com/jamisond/19-reasons-why-ruth-baderginsburg-is-your-favorit-7fxd.

  290 Female Force: Bill Mulligan and Tsubasa Yozora, Preview: Female Force: Ruth Bader Ginsburg #1, Blue Water Comics, June 24, 2013, http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=preview&id=17037.

  290 clerks took it to the Justice: Josh Johnson, interview with the author, August 11, 2014.

  290 send it to the justice: Akila Radhakrishnan, interview with the author, August 13, 2014.