SHE STRUCK A CHORD WITH LATINAS

The loss of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has hit many of us in law at a visceral and personal level. We ache as if she had been a member of our family, our own abuelita (grandmother). What was it about this diminutive Jewish woman from Brooklyn and acknowledged legal giant that strikes such a chord in Latina lawyers and jurists, as well as other women, from later generations?

In responding to whether RBG’S passing impacts Latina jurists and lawyers, several of Justice Ginsburg’s enduring qualities echo strains of our lives. This explains how she gave many of us hope and inspiration we will sorely miss. “Pequeña pero picosa” (small but feisty), she would not take no for an answer. “There is no truth without Ruth.” She spoke truth to power.

The unabashed daughter of immigrants loved her country and its Constitution. Justice Ginsburg so believed in America’s promise that she toiled her entire life to make its promises realities. We relate with her acceptance of immigrants based on personal life experience, and we participate in America’s legal profession in the hopes of similarly achieving professional excellence despite absence of equal opportunity. We too fervently love our country and hold it as a work in progress. While few of us can match her brilliance, we nevertheless model her love of learning and push ourselves to be better advocates or

jurists.

Her incomparable work ethic also hits home, since many of us come from humble family backgrounds where we observed firsthand the necessity of hard work, essential work, in order to achieve the American Dream. We know hard work, and it does not deter us in the least. We accept the challenge.

Justice Ginsburg’s enduring love of family also meshes with our Latina values. She raised two children while juggling a demanding professional career, assisted by the love of her life husband Marty. We can wish to be as fortunate as her to find a capable and supportive life partner. We know she sacrificed sleep during law school to complete not only her studies, but also those of her husband while he battled aggressive testicular cancer. It is completely consistent with our culture to sacrifice self in the extreme for family.

Most Americans may now know she was an early female student (1956-58) at Harvard Law School. Harvard was one of the last universities in the United States to change its policies to admit women to its law school, beginning in the fall of 1950.

Survival of all students in that era required handling intense academic pressure and public humiliation by professors intent on teaching one “how to think like a lawyer.”

For the few women of her era, it also entailed surviving a predominantly male environment — one a fellow male student found harder than Marine Corps boot camp and officer candidate school.

If as women lawyers or jurists of color we still find ourselves in predominantly male environments, we can find strength in her example to simply persevere. She endured more severe circumstances with grace and serenity; surely, we too can persevere when facing insurmountable obstacles.

Despite graduating at the top of her class at Columbia Law School (where she transferred from Harvard to follow her husband to his job in New York City), Justice Ginsburg found no employment as an attorney.

Whether because she was a woman, Jewish or a mother, she faced repeated discriminatory rejection, yet was undeterred. She pursued whatever opportunities were available to her. She never became bitter when less accomplished men were hired in her place. Her tenacity and grit will inspire us as we continue integrating our profession, handling professional slights or simply trying to find our way in a notoriously demanding, adversarial and combative profession.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor called her “the essence of grace, civility and dignity.” Justice Sotomayor recognized that Justice Ginsburg “spent her life fighting for the equality of all people, and she was a path-breaking champion of women’s rights.” She further remarked that Justice Ginsburg “served our court and country with consummate dedication, tirelessness and passion for justice … leaving a legacy few could rival.”

As we continue our lives without her, we can remember her advice: “It helps sometimes to be a little deaf.” This advice she followed not only in her wonderful marriage but also throughout her storied career, including at the Supreme Court. She wrote in 2016, “[w]hen a thoughtless or unkind word is spoken, best tune out. Reacting in anger or annoyance will not advance one’s ability to persuade.”

We should all aspire to heed her words, tune out discord and strive to find common ground like she did with her ideological opposite, the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Vaya con dios, RBG. You left it all on the legal field, and we are deeply grateful for your legacy.