Oral history interview with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 2004

Biographical Note

Associate Justice, United States Supreme Court

Scope and Contents

Born Brooklyn, New York; family: father-fur manufacturer, immigration to U.S. at thirteen, mother-homemaker, first generation citizen; youth in Brooklyn: relationship between ethnic groups, entertainment and love for opera; Cornell University (1950-1954): McCarthyism and budding interest in law, party reputation of school vs. quest for academic excellence, Christian-Jewish segregation, meeting husband and his love of her intellect, B.A. Government; marriage (1954): influence on law school life, honeymoon, life at Fort Sill, Oklahoma and treatment of indigenous people, birth of children, generosity of in-laws; Harvard Law School (1956-1958): women and inequalities, husband's cancer, work on Harvard Law Review, honorary societies, social life, memorable professors; Columbia University Law School (1958-1959): reasons for transfer, women and employment prospects; civil rights in 1950s-1960s: Brown v. Board of Education, feminism; clerkship (1959-1961): relationship with Edmund L. Palmieri, nature of federal courts, interesting cases, nature of clerkships; Columbia Law School Project on International Procedure: Research Associate (1961-1962), Assistant Director (1963), value of comparative perspective in legal decision-making, Sweden and feminism; Civil Procedure in Sweden (1965); Rutgers University School of Law Professor (1963-1972): first on faculty to have interest in comparative law, internal conflicts, traditional vs. empirical research, tenure, work for New Jersey Civil Liberties Union: teachers, faculty workers, students; American Civil Liberties Union [ACLU]: Women’s Rights Project Founder and Counsel (1972-1980), General Counsel (1973-1980), first cases, human rights vs. women's rights; Columbia Law School Professor (1972-1980): differences from Rutgers, women’s rights work on campus, differentiation of "man" and "woman" harmful to "humans"; United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia (1980-1993): appointment, complications of administrative law, friendships across party lines, comparisons to teaching, court operations, comparisons to Supreme Court, woman’s perspective, adjustment from New York to D.C.; United States Supreme Court, starting in 1993: announcement of nomination, Rose Garden speech, confirmation preparation and hearings; Susan Struck v. Secretary of Defense as more complete understanding of argument for woman’s right to choose than Roe v. Wade

Subjects

• American Civil Liberties Union.
• Columbia University. School of Law--Alumni and alumnae.
• Ginsburg, Ruth Bader--Interviews.
• Grele, Ronald J., interviewer.
• Interviews.
• Judicial process.
• Law--Study and teaching--United States.
• Law clerks--United States.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• United States. Court of Appeals (District of Columbia Circuit)
• United States. Supreme Court.
• Women's rights.
• Women--Legal status, laws, etc.--United States.
• Women judges--Interviews.

Access Conditions

Copyright by the heirs of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York hold a non-exclusive license to enable library activities