FLOOD OF LOVE
● Tributes pour in for New York’s legal legend ● Trump itching to replace RBG before election
Poet Garry Glazner, eyeing the modest Brooklyn home where Ruth Bader Ginsburg grew up, marveled at her ascent from a neighborhood stoop to revered Supreme Court justice.
“You see this humble little house, and yet this towering legal mind that you know changed the world came down from those steps,” said the 63-year-old Ginsburg fan. “It’s quite an amazing journey.”
Trailblazing jurist Ginsburg, who carried her Brooklyn moxie from the two-story Midwood residence to a seat on the nation’s highest court, was mourned across her hometown Saturday as a local hero, a national icon — and a soon-to-be statue in her native borough.
New Yorkers offered fond remembrances of the legal superstar and role model who attended James Madison High School in Brooklyn and earned her law degree across the East River at Columbia University.
“I think her legacy is so connected to this city and to this school,” said Madison Marlow, 26, one of several mourners visiting a makeshift memorial at the Alma Mater statue outside the Columbia Library. “She represented so many marginalized communities, and she got to speak for [them] and write these really important Supreme Court decisions.”
Flowers left by admirers surrounded the statue, while visitors wrote messages in notebooks placed at the site. A copy of the Daily News, with its front-page “Supreme Loss” headline, rested near the floral tributes.
Ginsburg was the younger of two daughters, raised by a Brooklyn merchant and his wife. And though the brilliant young student left her home borough long ago, she was never far from the hearts of local residents.
“She was born and raised here, and she’s just done so much for us,” said Diana Brenneisen, who has proudly lived with her husband, William, in Ginsburg’s childhood home for the past 47 years. “Nothing stopped her. She just kept going up that ladder.”
Brenneisen, 77, took note of Ginsburg’s ties to the old neighborhood: “She’s a great woman, and she went to school right down the block.” And she added that her 9year-old granddaughter was thrilled to learn Grandma and Grandpa lived in the justice’s old house, where an American flag rose from the front porch.
“She’s missed as a person,” said Brenneisen. “She was a good human being, just a
down-to-earth woman.”
Even Ginsburg’s nickname, “The Notorious RBG,” referenced her home borough — a play on the nom de rap of fellow Brooklynite Christopher Wallace, aka the Notorious B.I.G.
Brooklynite Leroy McCarthy, 53, made the connection with a homemade street sign linking the white, Jewish judge and the Black rap superstar.
“Brooklyn, Brooklyn, all day,” said McCarthy. “It’s showing Brooklyn respect. Both are phenomenal, one in music and one in law. I just wanted to show respect to Ruth Bader Ginsburg.”
McCarthy offered more love for Ginsburg’s 27 years as the liberal voice of the people during her long run on the nation’s highest court.
“Very proud of her,” he said. “She was ahead of her time in terms of law and rights. And with that, I definitely appreciated the work she did for woman and mankind.”
Thought just 5-feet-1 and barely 100 pounds, the strength of her politics and charismatic public persona drew fans separated by generations but united in their admiration of Ginsburg.
Law school student Marlow, originally from Denver, was among the many young Ginsburg fans who claimed the late justice as one of their own.
Why?
“Her ability, no matter what, to stand on the right side of history,” said Marlow. “And I think, in general, she always stuck to her position. … She inspires me as a woman.”
Ginsburg will soon have a statue of her own, with Gov. Cuomo announcing the state would erect the tribute in the borough of her birth.
“She was a monumental figure of equality, and we can all agree that she deserves a monument in her honor,” said Cuomo.
Ginsburg will be buried alongside her husband, Marty, in a private ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, the final resting spot for many of her fellow Supreme Court justices. No details were made public Saturday about funeral plans.
The announcement from President Trump that he planned to nominate a replacement for Ginsburg before the Nov. 3 election ignited a firestorm of outrage among her supporters. But Columbia student Katy Brennan, 19, said RBG’s unbending commitment to the rights of all would endure no matter her successor.
“For some people, it feels like a partisan loss,” said the human rights major. “But at the end of the day, I don’t think it really is. If you look at what she has done for birth control access, or people with disabilities. … So many of these issues which are just basic human rights issues.”