Summary Of My Own Words Ginsburg

My Own Words, written by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, is an autobiography presented through a series of collected written works and lectures. Co-Authors Hartnett and Williams provide context to Justice Ginsburg’s works, ranging from an editorial written by a young middle schooler Ginsburg to several of her Supreme Court arguments and rulings. Ginsburg, the daughter of a middle-class Brooklyn Jewish family, rose far beyond her humble upbringing to become only the second female Supreme Court Justice. Justice Ginsburg uses her background as a template throughout the book to discuss not only her views of Constitutional jurisprudence, but also her views on feminism, society, and beyond. There are several prevalent themes throughout
“One is that we were betraying our most fundamental values, and, two, that legal skills could help make things better, could help to challenge what was going on.”” (21) The then student Ginsburg would take that advice to heart, especially later in her academic career as she began arguing cases in front of the Court and promoting feminist causes writ large. It would be at Cornell that she made her first foray into Constitutional law in a letter to the Cornell Daily Sun wherein she questioned the use of wiretapping against suspected communists by the federal government: “In the first place, what is the purpose of the criminal sanction? Is it just to put a man behind bars, or is it to attach the moral condemnation of the community to certain forms of behavior? Unless moral judgment is involved, the cost of enforcing the criminal code might well be employed in other areas.” (22) Her later jurisprudence would reflect this attitude. Of Justice Ginsburg, it is said: “Always, she pays careful attention to the history and purpose, fairness and effectiveness, of the rules that shape and direct our justice system. Throughout her speeches and writings, she includes “sideglances” at the justice systems of sister democracies for the light they shine on our own and offers homage to the waypavers and the pathmarkers who have improved our world through law.” (193) These “sideglances” are seen in sections such as one discussing Brown vs. Board of Education and another from a speech discussing the value of diversity. The book also includes several of her own Court opinions and dissents in which this principle is illustrated – namely, her dissents in Shelby vs. Holder and Gonzales vs.