Ruth Bader Ginsburg mourned by women, girls nationwide for legacy
Time froze for girls and women across the nation Friday night as millions learned that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg–the second woman in U.S. history to sit on the high court – died of complications from pancreatic cancer.
For many, it was the loss of a hero, an icon and a champion.
Vanessa Cantley was at her son' s first high school football game in Louisville, Kentucky, on Friday night when she got an alert on her phone.
“My heart just stopped, and I started to cry, which was notable for me because I'm 43 years old, and I've never cried over the death of a public figure or a famous person – somebody I didn't know personally,” Cantley said. “I guess I always sort of had in the back of my mind that she might live forever because if anybody could do it, she could.”
Cant ley organized a small vigil for Ginsburg on Saturday morning, where about 20 people t al ked about what Ginsburg's life meant to them. “I'm a practicing attorney and also a mother of two, so she's truly a trailblazer for me,” Cantley said.
USA TODAY spoke with girls and women across the nation about the impact of Ginsburg's life and work on their lives, and how her grit, intellect and compassion inspired them.
`A leader of all humanity, not just women'
Once one of nine women in a law school class of 500, the nation's preeminent litigator for women's rights founded the Women' s Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union and argued six cases before the court on which she would one day sit, winning five. Ginsburg pursued a new legal strategy in gender discrimination cases, finding male plaintiffs to challenge laws that discriminated “on the basis of sex.”
As an associate justice, Ginsburg authored t he 7-1 ruling that opened the doors of the Virginia Military Institute to women. She voted with the majority to strike down state laws banning same- sex marriage and saved President Barack O ba ma' s Affordable Care Act for the second time. And she became the first justice in history to preside at a same-sex wedding ceremony.
Me linda Oj er mark, a recently retired global health expert in Washington, D.C., went to the Supreme Court building Saturday morning to pay her respects. She said Ginsburg' s “brilliance, hu milit ya nd tenacity were unparalleled.”
“She was a role model for women, but more important also men have taken note and learned from her life and leadership ,” Ojermark said. “This morning, as I watched people paying their respect, there were many men among those through. She was a leader of all humanity, not just women.”
Yvonne Joyner, 58, who lives outside Philadelphia and runs an art group in Brooklyn, New York, said she had been thinking about Ginsburg this week, keeping up with news of her receiving the Liberty Medal from the National Constitution Center the night before her death. Joyner was coming from the grocery store with a bottle of wine for a night in when she saw the report on TV.
“I just sat there and, some tears kind of f ell, and I sat there in shock, thinking – what's going to happen now? Not just politically, but all the things she stood for that were so important. Who is going to embrace everybody now?” Joyner said. “It was too much. To be honest, I was kind of in shock.”
Joyner said she immediately started a group chat with her daughters and stepson and planned a time for them all to talk.
“Oddly enough, it was my steps on who proclaimed the loudest pain,” Joyner said. “I think that she was standing up in that way goes to show the spectrum of people she's impacted. As a Black woman, it makes me say, no, we deserve equal rights across the board. We deserve the same rights white men get with the Constitution.”
`Notorious RBG': The pop culture icon
For many, the diminutive woman was more than a judge on the nation' s highest court; she was a pop culture icon.
Ginsburg took the stage at operas, was embodied in many a Saturday Night Live skit, was portrayed in the feature film “On the Basis of Sex” and featured in an Oscar-nominated 2018 documentary, “RBG,” which included a scene of the justice lifting weights while wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned with the words“super diva!”
That do cumen ta ry helped 25- year-old Nebraska native Ki shah ni ca Rajendran express to her mother why she wants to pursue law.
“My mom is from India, so she didn't really understand the law school process here ,” said Rajendran, who was studying for the bar when she heard of Ginsburg's death. “When she saw the documentary, how RBG did it, and what she went through in her life, it was a way my mom saw me. She was like, you can do that, too. She was smiling the biggest smile, and she was so proud that I was going into this profession. That's one moment I will always remember.”
Ginsburg' s face also adorns candles, clothing, mugs, pillows, totes, face masks and more. There are Ginsburg-inspired tattoos, jewelry lines, action figures and bobbleheads. In the wake of her death ,“Notorious R.B.G.” memes – a play on the late rapper Notorious B. I. G.–and photos of Ginsburg Halloween costumes, complete with “dissenting collar,” robe, glasses, earrings and gavel, began to recirculate online.
Novelist Donna Dechen Bird well, who lives in Austin, Texas, joked she' s“never been into hero worship,” but that “growing up inaner a where t here were very few women of high character and achievement whom I'd want to emulate, Justice Ginsburg was there. She was an anchor of hope for my daughter's future.”
Fighting through pain, standing up for health care access
Several women said they would remember Ginsburg as someone who stood up for access to healthcare, fought through her own health struggle sand inspired them to care for others.
Barbara Wood, a clinical psychologist who practices in Bethesda, Maryland, said Ginsburg's life work and grit makes her want to give back.
“To me, she is someone who battled everyday to fulfill the highest ideals of our founders that we are all created equal and deserve equal treatment under the law ,” Wood said. “Her example will always inspire me to remember that each day, regardless of physical or emotional pain, I have the opportunity and obligation to contribute to the welfare of others.”
New York City resident Tati Chin, 26, who works in finance, said Ginsburg's rulings on women's reproductive rights were most important to her. In 2014, Ginsburg dissented in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, which determined t hat family-owned and other closely held com panies cannot be forced to offer insurance coverage for certain birth control methods.
“For me, it was just powerful because I have an IUD and am strongly propelled for reproductive rights for women, so her dissenting meant a lot to me at the time,” Chin said.
San Diego resident Sue Eng Ly ,29, said Ginsburg' s example is what gave her the strength to file a Title XI suit against t he man who assaulted her in graduate school, and to persevere through the process when she had doubts about“ruffling people's feathers.”
“You know how people pray to the Rosary when terrible things happen? I' d try to channel her strength ,” Ly said .“In a lot of ways, Justice Ginsburg, her fierce advocacy showed me, particularly as a woman of color, that I was worthy.”
Driving women into law
Kaitlin Welborn, 3 4, who works for the ACLU of Alabama, said Ginsburg is the reason she went to law school and advocates for women's reproductive rights. Her cat's name is Ginsburg.
“I think she has made me a better lawyer. I aim to always emulate everything that she has done,” said Welborn, who was wearing a“Notorious RBG” T-shirt. “I admire the adversity that she went through and how she was able to keep her integrity, and her values, and still succeed. And that she was able to find a partner in life, Marty Ginsburg, who was an equal partner.”