Notorious RBG

by Irin Carmon

  Her grandson, Paul, wishes Marty had been there to get a kick out of one recent scene. A couple of years ago, Paul, an actor, went to visit RBG in Washington. She’d given him his pick of plays that were supposed to be good. They were in the car, on their way back from somewhere, and as usual, there were two marshals—one driving, one in the passenger seat “looking stoic.”

  Paul says, “She asked the marshal if she could call the theater to book us tickets and warn them we’d be coming, because they always have to do their marshal security check. The lady marshal asked, ‘What’s the name of the show?’” RBG had chosen Cock, a play by Mike Bartlett. “It’s called Cock,” she told the marshal. “She could have been saying, ‘The duke’s red horse,’” says Paul. The marshal dutifully picked up the phone to secure tickets on behalf of Justice Ginsburg to Cock. Throughout it all, RBG sat, unperturbed, in the backseat. She had been going to the theater for a long time.

  FREE TO BE . . . YOU AND ME

  * * *

  On April 28, 2015, thirty-seven-year-old Dan Canon had followed the rules. It was his first time taking a case to the Supreme Court, intimidating even if it weren’t one of the most important civil rights cases of our time, Obergefell v. Hodges. The shaved-headed former musician turned civil rights lawyer was there to represent people whose marriages didn’t count in Kentucky, because they were two men or two women. From the counsel’s table, where Dan was sitting, he could have reached up and grabbed Justice Samuel Alito. He didn’t.

  Outside the court, there were preprinted posters about abomination, but also rainbow flags and a GRANDPARENTS FOR JUSTICE sign. There was one MARRY ME, SCALIA placard. For months, there had been calls for RBG to recuse herself, because she had performed two same-sex weddings shortly after the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act. She ignored them. Inside, as oral argument was in full swing, she offered a rebuttal to the argument that same-sex couples could not be let into marriage because the institution was rooted in millennia of tradition. “There was a change in the institution of marriage to make it egalitarian when it wasn’t egalitarian,” RBG cut in. “And same-sex unions wouldn’t fit into what marriage was once.” She herself had helped remake marriage, freeing it from the laws circumscribing roles for men and women. A tradition that saw women as property would not have recognized RBG’s own marriage.

  RBG at NYU, 2010AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

  Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, who was arguing on behalf of the government that day, wore the traditional morning coat with tails. There is a dress code at the Supreme Court for people like Canon too. “Appropriate attire for counsel is conservative business dress in traditional dark colors (e. g., navy blue or charcoal gray),” reads the official guide for lawyers bringing cases to the Supreme Court. Canon complied, wearing a navy suit jacket and a sky-blue button-down shirt. Before he had come to Washington, D.C., Canon had received a present from a law school friend and her wife, a schoolteacher. They had married in New York, but only one mother’s name appeared on their son’s birth certificate, because Kentucky voters decided Lori and Cristal’s marriage shouldn’t count. Under his button-down, Canon had a secret: He wore his friend’s gift, a Notorious R.B.G. T-shirt.

  Kennedy would be the one to write the opinion striking down bans on same-sex marriage. But it was RBG’s image, rendered in rainbow and animation riding across the Supreme Court steps on a motorcycle, that dominated celebrations. RBG didn’t author the majority opinions that term that, to the great shock of liberals, left intact or even expanded major portions of progressive legislation like the Affordable Care Act, the Fair Housing Act, and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. But as the conservative justices turned on one another, RBG was credited with keeping the liberals together and finding a way to get to a fifth or even sixth vote. She put aside fiery dissents for the time being. After all, this time, her side had a shot at actually winning, and RBG wants to get things done, not just make some noise.

  The comity on the court may be short lived, the product of conservative overreach rather than a leftward drift. Ten years into the Roberts court, much of what RBG has fought for remains at risk, starting with reproductive freedom. The court is poised to consider restrictions on abortion clinics that affect tens of millions of women. “We will never see a day when women of means are not able to get a safe abortion in this country,” RBG told me. An abortion ban, she said, only “hurts women who lack the means to go someplace else.” Public sector unions and affirmative action are already in the court’s crosshairs.

  RBG continues to use her voice on her own terms, and all around her are the signs of the progress that she and her allies have won. Visiting Columbia Law School in 2012, where she had once had to lead the fight for women as the only tenured female law professor, RBG paused for a moment. “I passed a door this morning that said ‘Lactation room,’” she said. “How the world has changed.” RBG, as much as anyone, has done that work.

  Legacy is a topic RBG won’t linger on, because it has a note of finality. But she will take stock. “In my life, what I find most satisfying is that I was a part of a movement that made life better, not just for women,” RBG says. “I think gender discrimination is bad for everyone, it’s bad for men, it’s bad for children. Having the opportunity to be part of that change is tremendously satisfying. Think of how the Constitution begins. ‘We the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union.’ But we’re still striving for that more perfect union. And one of the perfections is for the ‘we the people’ to include an ever enlarged group.” This expansion has been RBG’s life’s work. And it’s not over yet.

  RBG in 2014Erik Madigan Heck/Trunk Archive

  APPENDIX

  How to Be Like RBG

  RBG at Winter Luncheon 1995Columbia Law School

  WORK FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN

  * * *

  RBG saw injustice in the world and she used her abilities to help change it. Although the forces of “apathy, selfishness, or anxiety that one is already overextended” are “not easy to surmount,” as she puts it, RBG urges us “to repair tears in [our] communities, nation, and world, and in the lives of the poor, the forgotten, the people held back because they are members of disadvantaged or distrusted minorities.”

  BUT PICK YOUR BATTLES

  * * *

  RBG survived the indignities of pre-feminist life mostly by deciding that anger was counterproductive. “This wonderful woman whose statue I have in my chambers, Eleanor Roosevelt, said, ‘Anger, resentment, envy. These are emotions that just sap your energy,” RBG says. “They’re not productive and don’t get you anyplace, so get over it.’” To be like RBG in dissent, save your public anger for when there’s lots at stake and when you’ve tried everything else.

  AND DON’T BURN YOUR BRIDGES

  * * *

  “Fight for the things that you care about,” RBG advised young women, “but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.” RBG always tells her clerks to paint the other side’s arguments in the best light, avoiding personal insults. She is painstaking in presenting facts, on the theory that the truth is weapon enough.

  DON’T BE AFRAID TO TAKE CHARGE

  * * *

  RBG believes that “women belong in all places where decisions are being made.” Back when many feminists were arguing that women spoke in a different voice, RBG observed the flaw in describing women as inherently different or even purer than men: “To stay uncorrupted, the argument goes, women must avoid internalizing ‘establishment’ values; they must not capitalize on opportunity presented by an illegitimate opportunity structure.” RBG has used her establishment positions to fight for structural change and on behalf of the oppressed. More recently, she has also united the court’s liberals under her leadership.

  THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT, THEN DO THE WORK

  * * *

  When a young RBG suddenly was faced with the prospect of starting law school with a toddler, her father-in-law told her, “If y
ou really want to study the law, you will find a way. You will do it.” RBG says, “I’ve approached everything since then that way. Do I want this or not? And if I do, I’ll do it.”

  BUT THEN ENJOY WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY

  * * *

  RBG gets out—a lot.

  BRING ALONG YOUR CREW

  * * *

  “RBG was never in it to be the only one, to be the superstar that nobody could match,” says fellow feminist attorney Marcia Greenberger. RBG mentored legions of feminist lawyers and happily welcomed Sotomayor and Kagan to the Supreme Court.

  HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR

  * * *

  A little goes a long way.

  Kristen Smith (from the collection of Drew Courtney)

  Shannon Downey

  APPENDIX

  RBG’s Favorite Marty Ginsburg Recipe

  From Chef Supreme

  PORK LOIN BRAISED IN MILK

  INGREDIENTS

  1 tbs. butter

  2 tbs. vegetable oil (not olive oil)

  2½ lbs. pork rib roast

  Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

  2½ cups (or more) whole milk

  PREPARATION

  Have the butcher detach the meat in one piece from the ribs into 2 or 3 or more parts. You will use both meat and bones. Do not trim the fat from the meat.

  You will need a heavy bottomed pot that can snuggly [sic] accommodate the pork and bones. Put in the butter and oil and turn heat to medium high. When the butter foam subsides, put in the meat, fat side down at first. As the meat browns, turn it so that the pork will brown evenly all around. Remove the meat to a plate, brown the bones, and return the meat to the pot.

  Add salt, pepper, and 1 cup of milk. Add the milk slowly over low heat. There is a great risk the milk will boil over. After the milk has come to the simmer, for about 30 seconds, turn the heat down to barest minimum, and cover the pot with the lid slightly ajar. Cook at a low simmer for approximately one hour, turning the meat from time-to-time, until the milk has thickened (through evaporation) into nut-brown clusters. This may take a good deal more than one hour.

  When the milk in the pot reaches that stage—not before—slowly and carefully add another cup of milk. Simmer for about 10 minutes and then cover the pot (lid on tight) and simmer on low heat 30 minutes.

  After 30 minutes, set the lid slightly ajar and continue to cook at medium heat, turning the meat from time to time. When you see there is no more liquid milk in the pot, carefully add the final ½ cup of milk. Continue cooking on low heat, turning the meat from time to time, until the meat feels tender when prodded with a fork and all the milk has coagulated into small nut-brown clusters. In total, cooking will likely take nearly three hours. In the unlikely event the liquid in the pot has evaporated before the meat is fully cooked, add another ½ cup of milk and evaporate the liquid.

  When the pork has become tender and all the milk in the pot has thickened into moderately dark clusters, remove and throw away the bones, transfer the meat to a cutting board, and after allowing it to set a bit, cut into slices between a ¼ inch and a ½ inch.

  Meanwhile, tip the pot and spoon off most but not all the fat. There may be a lot of it. Be careful to leave behind all the coagulated brown clusters. Now add 3 tbs. water and boil the water away over high heat while using a wooden spoon to scrape cooking residue loose from the bottom and sides of the pot. Spoon all the pot juices over the pork and serve immediately.

  NB: An alternative cut to pork loin is a 2 lb. piece of boneless pork butt, well tied. It’s easier to cook because you have no bones to cook and, frankly, much juicier than loin, but it does not slice as neatly.

  APPENDIX

  From “R. B. Juicy”

  By Kelly Cosby and Beth Gavin

  The Notorious R.B.G. Tatyana Fazlalizadeh

  [Introduction]

  Yeah—this song is dedicated to all the judges that told me I’d never amount to nothin’ because of my gender, to all the people that lived in their ivory towers that I was hustlin’ in front of, that tried to buy me off by putting Susan B. Anthony on the dollar, and all the women in the struggle, you know what I’m sayin’?

  [Verse]

  It was all a dream

  Back when I argued Reed v. Reed

  Then once they put Sandy D up in the Dub D.C.

  Janet Reno made the call

  When Slick Willie chose me to sit; and now that I’ve been installed

  I rock the black robe with my jabot

  Sippin’ tea while reading amici tales of woe

  Way back, when I caught a lot of flak I held back

  Now look where I’m at

  Remember Frankfurter, duh-ha, duh-ha

  He never thought a woman could go this far

  Now I’m in the limelight cause I decide right

  Court has moved right, but my dissents get cites

  Born sinner, but definitely a winner

  Defending women’s rights cause unlike them, I’d been “her”

  Peace to Willie, Jimmy C, and guess who?

  Erwin Griswold, the ACLU

  I’m blowing up the glass ceiling for good

  Call the chamber, same number same hood

  It’s all good

  Uh . . . and if you don’t know, now you know, Nino

  [Chorus]

  You’ve been fighting for equal rights

  From Kiki to RBG, you’ve reached those heights

  You always fight, for equal justice

  A diva in our eyes, originalists can’t touch this

  APPENDIX

  From “Scalia/Ginsburg: A (Gentle) Parody of Operatic Proportions”

  By Derrick Wang

  Brooke Rothshank, www.rothshank.com

  SCALIA:

  This court’s so changeable—

  As if it’s never, ever known the law!

  The Justices are blind!

  How can they possibly spout this—?

  The Constitution says absolutely nothing about this,

  This right that they’ve enshrined—

  When did the document sprout this?

  The Framers wrote and signed Words that endured without this;

  The Constitution says absolutely nothing about this!

  . . .

  GINSBURG:

  How many times must I tell you,

  Dear Mister Justice Scalia:

  You’d spare us such pain

  If you’d just entertain This idea . . .

  (Then you might relax your rigid posture.)

  You are searching in vain for a bright-line solution

  To a problem that isn’t so easy to solve—

  But the beautiful thing about our Constitution

  Is that, like our society, it can evolve.

  For our Founders, of course, were great men with a vision,

  But their culture restricted how far they could go,

  So, to us, I believe, they bequeath the decision

  To allow certain meanings to flourish—and grow.

  APPENDIX

  Tributes to the Notorious RBG

  Beyoncé Voters Tumblr, Steve Petteway/Collection of the United States Supreme Court

  All them fives need to listenBeyoncé Voters Tumblr, Nikki Kahn/Washington Post/Getty

  RBG bobbleheadThe Green Bag

  “Flawless” comicColleen Frakes

  RBG costume illustrationMady G

  RBG oil paintingEmily Hart

  SCOTUS Lego Legal LeagueMaia Weinstock

  RBG illustrated portraitAnne Muntges

  Fishs Eddy mug

  I’m a SurvivorBeyoncé Voters Tumblr, AP Photo/Charles Dharapak

  Halloween costume photograph collageAllyson Perleoni, Andrea Aurmanita, Annie Gonzalez Milliken, Ashley McHugh, Sophie Anna Lembeck, Sylvia Ch, Vanessa Buccella (photograph by Tom Vodick), Victoria Kwan, Lindsey Williams, Kelly Barrett, Kinjal Dave, Michelle Chronister, Molly Baltimore, Leah LeMoine, Katie Painter, and Lillie Fleshler and Sydney Friedman, Matthew Winters
Olivia

  Acknowledgments

  THIS BOOK WAS BORN through the heroic efforts of Julia Cheiffetz, our editor at Dey Street Books. We are indebted to her wisdom, perseverance, and patience. Also at Dey Street, we’re grateful to the indefatigable Sean Newcott, Joseph Papa, Dale Rohrbaugh, Suet Chong, Tanya Leet, Lucy Albanese, Shannon Plunkett, Katy Riegel, Lynn Grady, Adam Johnson, Owen Corrigan, Michael Barrs, Nyamekye Waliyaya, and Zakiya Jamal.

  Justice Ginsburg’s family members—Jane Ginsburg, James Ginsburg, Clara Spera, and Paul Spera—graciously opened up their lives to us, for which we are thankful. We also appreciate Justice Ginsburg’s friends, colleagues, and former clerks for their contributions. Our legal dream team, including Samuel Bagenstos, David S. Cohen, Janai Nelson, Margo Schlanger, Reva Siegel, and Neil Siegel, kept us on point. We cannot thank them enough. We were guided by the generous intellectual property advice of Ilana Broad, as well as by Jonathan A. Malki of Gottlieb, Rackman & Reisman, P.C.

  Many staff members at the Supreme Court provided invaluable resources and support, including Kimberly McKenzie in Justice Ginsburg’s chambers; Kathy Arberg, Patricia McCabe Estrada, Annie Stone, Tyler Lopez, and Sarah Woessner in the public information office; Steve Petteway, Daniel Sloan, Catherine Fitts, and Liza Liberman in the curator’s office; and Clare Cushman of the Supreme Court Historical Society. We thank them all in particular for their ready assistance on our tight deadlines.