1 00:00:00,130 --> 00:00:03,525 [slow poignant instrumental music] 2 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 3 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 4 00:00:24,676 --> 00:00:27,244 - I don't like to speak of my own personal experience, 5 00:00:27,375 --> 00:00:30,943 but I will cite one example because it is a general one. 6 00:00:31,074 --> 00:00:33,250 I did very well in law school. 7 00:00:33,337 --> 00:00:35,731 It was not possible to do much better. 8 00:00:35,861 --> 00:00:38,647 There was not a single law firm in the whole city 9 00:00:38,734 --> 00:00:42,172 of New York that would invite me 10 00:00:42,259 --> 00:00:44,914 to come even for an interview. 11 00:00:45,045 --> 00:00:48,657 I don't have two heads, so that wasn't the problem. 12 00:00:48,787 --> 00:00:52,965 I suspected that the door was closed because of my sex, 13 00:00:53,096 --> 00:00:55,533 so the barriers were there, 14 00:00:55,664 --> 00:00:58,841 and it isn't simply a question of changing ages of marriage. 15 00:01:01,496 --> 00:01:05,717 Institutions, gatekeepers shut the door to women, 16 00:01:07,110 --> 00:01:11,245 and those doors have been open very recently. 17 00:01:19,905 --> 00:01:21,255 - [Man] How are you holding up? 18 00:01:21,385 --> 00:01:23,039 [muffled speaking] 19 00:01:23,170 --> 00:01:25,955 [people applauding] 20 00:01:42,276 --> 00:01:44,539 [heels clacking] [muffled chatter] 21 00:01:44,669 --> 00:01:46,236 - There's remarkable little knowledge 22 00:01:46,367 --> 00:01:50,371 among college students about the Supreme Court. 23 00:01:50,458 --> 00:01:52,547 I've been teaching college students almost every year 24 00:01:52,677 --> 00:01:55,463 that I've been a law professor, and it's remarkable 25 00:01:55,593 --> 00:01:57,465 how few justices they could name 26 00:01:59,119 --> 00:02:00,729 or how little they know about the Constitution. 27 00:02:02,252 --> 00:02:04,298 I've seen opinion polls that more people 28 00:02:04,428 --> 00:02:07,257 can name the Seven Dwarfs than can name justices 29 00:02:07,388 --> 00:02:08,911 on the United States Supreme Court. 30 00:02:11,305 --> 00:02:13,176 I think it's because people don't appreciate 31 00:02:13,307 --> 00:02:16,788 how much what the Supreme Court does affects their lives. 32 00:02:27,103 --> 00:02:28,452 [muffled chatter] 33 00:02:28,583 --> 00:02:31,107 - All righty. Good evening, everybody. 34 00:02:31,238 --> 00:02:33,283 [people cheering] 35 00:02:33,414 --> 00:02:35,067 - Well, welcome to the White House. 36 00:02:35,198 --> 00:02:38,636 [people cheering and applauding] 37 00:02:38,767 --> 00:02:43,032 - There she is, also known as the Notorious RBG. 38 00:02:43,163 --> 00:02:47,210 [lively instrumental music] [audience applauds] 39 00:02:47,341 --> 00:02:49,125 - Please give a warm welcome 40 00:02:49,256 --> 00:02:51,040 to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. 41 00:03:00,354 --> 00:03:05,054 - So Notorious BIG and I had something in common. 42 00:03:06,969 --> 00:03:09,189 We were both born and bred in Brooklyn, New York. 43 00:03:09,319 --> 00:03:12,235 - How does it feel to become at this stage 44 00:03:12,366 --> 00:03:15,412 in your life this character? 45 00:03:15,499 --> 00:03:16,935 - It's awesome. 46 00:03:17,022 --> 00:03:19,460 [audience laughs and applauds] 47 00:03:19,590 --> 00:03:22,158 - "I'm not a rockstar"? Au contraire. 48 00:03:22,289 --> 00:03:23,812 [audience laughs] 49 00:03:23,942 --> 00:03:26,206 She is a rockstar. [laughs] 50 00:03:31,341 --> 00:03:35,998 [crowd cheering] [soft poignant music] 51 00:03:39,610 --> 00:03:42,396 [audience applauds] 52 00:03:47,705 --> 00:03:48,532 - Thank you. 53 00:03:50,055 --> 00:03:52,406 My assignment this morning is 54 00:03:52,493 --> 00:03:54,843 to describe the essential difference 55 00:03:56,061 --> 00:03:58,238 between the 14th Amendment 56 00:03:58,325 --> 00:04:01,328 and the proposed Equal Rights Amendment 57 00:04:01,458 --> 00:04:05,157 as a foundation for a constitutional sex equality principle. 58 00:04:07,421 --> 00:04:10,119 In a nutshell, the difference is this. 59 00:04:13,035 --> 00:04:17,474 The equal status and dignity of men and women under the law 60 00:04:19,259 --> 00:04:22,392 is the animating purpose of Equal Rights Amendment. 61 00:04:24,220 --> 00:04:28,050 By contrast, sex equality was not contemplated 62 00:04:30,357 --> 00:04:32,446 by the framers of the 14th Amendment. 63 00:04:35,753 --> 00:04:39,061 The law is a consuming love for me. 64 00:04:41,324 --> 00:04:44,936 It seemed to me an area in which women were not yet wanted. 65 00:04:47,156 --> 00:04:48,984 When you look at the Supreme Court 66 00:04:49,114 --> 00:04:53,728 and there isn't one woman, you don't aspire to something 67 00:04:55,164 --> 00:04:55,991 that is such a remote possibility. 68 00:04:59,211 --> 00:05:00,038 - [Woman] Were you surprised when you were appointed? 69 00:05:02,737 --> 00:05:05,435 - I don't think it's fair to say that I was surprised. 70 00:05:05,566 --> 00:05:09,178 I was elated that the Carter administration 71 00:05:09,309 --> 00:05:13,138 made a concerted effort to appoint women to the judiciary 72 00:05:14,879 --> 00:05:17,447 so then, at that point, I could aspire. 73 00:05:21,364 --> 00:05:23,323 - [Woman] Do you have any aspirations for the Supreme Court? 74 00:05:26,587 --> 00:05:30,025 - I'm entirely content with the job 75 00:05:30,155 --> 00:05:34,725 that I now have as I did not target the Court of Appeals 76 00:05:34,856 --> 00:05:37,902 for the DC circuit as my life's ambition. 77 00:05:37,989 --> 00:05:41,515 So I don't target any other job. 78 00:05:43,473 --> 00:05:46,520 [flash bulbs bursting] 79 00:05:49,566 --> 00:05:53,178 - She argued six landmark cases in behalf 80 00:05:53,309 --> 00:05:55,877 of women before the United States Supreme Court 81 00:05:56,007 --> 00:05:58,793 and happily won five out of six. 82 00:06:00,534 --> 00:06:03,275 I am proud to nominate this pathbreaking attorney, advocate, 83 00:06:03,406 --> 00:06:06,496 and judge to be the 107th justice 84 00:06:06,627 --> 00:06:09,673 to the United States Supreme Court. 85 00:06:09,804 --> 00:06:14,374 [audience applauds] [flash bulbs bursting] 86 00:06:17,333 --> 00:06:21,903 - Mr. President, I am grateful beyond measure 87 00:06:24,296 --> 00:06:27,648 for the confidence you have placed in me. 88 00:06:28,823 --> 00:06:29,127 I have a thank you. 89 00:06:31,521 --> 00:06:34,263 It is to my mother, Celia Amster Bader, 90 00:06:36,004 --> 00:06:40,182 the bravest and strongest person I have known, 91 00:06:41,749 --> 00:06:44,099 who was taken from me much too soon. 92 00:06:46,580 --> 00:06:51,149 I pray that I may be all that she would have been 93 00:06:53,151 --> 00:06:56,328 had she lived in an age when women could aspire and achieve 94 00:06:58,853 --> 00:07:03,205 and daughters are cherished as much as sons. 95 00:07:04,859 --> 00:07:06,338 Thank you. 96 00:07:06,426 --> 00:07:10,168 [audience applauds] [flash bulbs bursting] 97 00:07:14,172 --> 00:07:17,393 - This is only the day after my nomination was announced. 98 00:07:17,480 --> 00:07:22,006 I'm still sometimes thinking I'm walking in a dream. 99 00:07:23,225 --> 00:07:25,357 [flash bulbs bursting] 100 00:07:25,445 --> 00:07:28,143 - [Woman] Some reports from conservative interest group 101 00:07:28,273 --> 00:07:31,712 that they are concerned that Judge Ginsburg may legislate 102 00:07:31,842 --> 00:07:35,411 from the bench and not merely interpret the law. 103 00:07:35,542 --> 00:07:38,458 - I have never been as optimistic 104 00:07:38,588 --> 00:07:40,372 in naming Judge Ginsburg to move to the court. 105 00:07:43,158 --> 00:07:44,725 She probably 106 00:07:44,812 --> 00:07:46,553 will have had a more difficult time the first time 107 00:07:46,683 --> 00:07:47,858 in the circuit court than she will 108 00:07:47,989 --> 00:07:50,208 through the Supreme Court. 109 00:07:50,339 --> 00:07:52,602 - I intend to cooperate with the committee 110 00:07:52,733 --> 00:07:56,476 in every way I can to expedite the process, 111 00:07:56,563 --> 00:08:00,088 and for the rest, I am what I am, 112 00:08:00,218 --> 00:08:03,700 and I hope that they will be pleased. 113 00:08:03,831 --> 00:08:06,355 [heels clacking] [muffled chatter] 114 00:08:06,486 --> 00:08:08,270 - Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee 115 00:08:08,400 --> 00:08:11,708 welcomed Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 116 00:08:11,839 --> 00:08:13,884 the president's nominee to be associate justice 117 00:08:13,971 --> 00:08:16,496 of the United States Supreme Court. 118 00:08:16,583 --> 00:08:21,370 [muffled chatter] [gavel bangs] 119 00:08:22,850 --> 00:08:24,025 Would you be kind enough though, judge, 120 00:08:24,155 --> 00:08:25,461 to introduce your family to us? 121 00:08:27,376 --> 00:08:30,161 - My life's partner for 39 years, Martin Ginsburg. 122 00:08:30,292 --> 00:08:31,511 - [Joe] Welcome, welcome. 123 00:08:33,425 --> 00:08:35,515 - [Ruth] And my son from the great state of Chicago, 124 00:08:35,645 --> 00:08:38,474 James Ginsburg. - All right. [laughs] 125 00:08:38,605 --> 00:08:42,217 - And my incredible daughter, Jane Ginsberg 126 00:08:42,347 --> 00:08:45,655 and Clara and Paul Spera. 127 00:08:47,483 --> 00:08:51,531 - Well, you have quite a family, and we welcome you all. 128 00:08:52,357 --> 00:08:52,619 Senator Metzenbaum. 129 00:08:54,142 --> 00:08:56,187 - Happy to see you here, Judge Ginsburg. 130 00:08:56,318 --> 00:08:58,102 In your view is the right 131 00:08:58,189 --> 00:09:00,975 to choose a fundamental constitutional right? 132 00:09:01,105 --> 00:09:04,500 [tense contemplative music] 133 00:09:06,415 --> 00:09:09,984 - Majority of the court has said that this is a right 134 00:09:10,114 --> 00:09:14,075 of a woman guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. 135 00:09:15,511 --> 00:09:19,602 It's a decision that she must make for herself. 136 00:09:20,690 --> 00:09:23,127 The case poses the question, who decides? 137 00:09:24,825 --> 00:09:27,567 Is it the state or the individual? 138 00:09:27,654 --> 00:09:30,744 I think that the most recent decision 139 00:09:30,874 --> 00:09:34,399 says the woman decides. 140 00:09:35,836 --> 00:09:37,794 - I think you ought to tell us where you really come down 141 00:09:37,925 --> 00:09:39,796 on this thing because I'm not asking you 142 00:09:39,883 --> 00:09:41,102 to decide a future case. 143 00:09:42,843 --> 00:09:44,366 I'm just asking you to is it in the Constitution? 144 00:09:44,496 --> 00:09:46,455 Is it constitutional? 145 00:09:46,586 --> 00:09:48,326 - It's certainly a question that is going 146 00:09:48,457 --> 00:09:53,027 to be before this court, so this is the kind of question 147 00:09:54,724 --> 00:09:56,770 that it would be injudicious for me to address. 148 00:09:59,207 --> 00:10:00,730 - Our next panel is comprised of representatives 149 00:10:00,861 --> 00:10:03,559 of a number of groups wishing to testify 150 00:10:03,646 --> 00:10:06,040 in opposition to the nomination of Judge Ginsburg. 151 00:10:07,607 --> 00:10:09,696 - Consistent with her warped perspective, 152 00:10:09,826 --> 00:10:11,959 Mrs. Ginsburg, as a litigator, 153 00:10:12,089 --> 00:10:13,787 argued that pregnancy should be treated 154 00:10:13,917 --> 00:10:16,746 as a disability rather than as a gift from God. 155 00:10:18,139 --> 00:10:20,576 - Because Judge Ginsburg holds this view, 156 00:10:20,707 --> 00:10:23,013 I oppose her nomination and urge you 157 00:10:23,144 --> 00:10:24,711 to vote against the confirmation. 158 00:10:26,495 --> 00:10:29,019 - Personally, I disagree with her on this issue, 159 00:10:29,150 --> 00:10:33,633 but she's an excellent person and a fine judicial scholar. 160 00:10:36,200 --> 00:10:37,811 - [Joe] The next panel is comprised 161 00:10:37,941 --> 00:10:39,595 of a former ACLU colleague. 162 00:10:41,031 --> 00:10:42,511 - When she was teaching at Columbia 163 00:10:42,642 --> 00:10:45,209 and running the ACLU Women's Rights Project, 164 00:10:45,340 --> 00:10:48,648 her vision of social justice was instructive to all of us. 165 00:10:50,780 --> 00:10:53,348 Her nomination to the Supreme Court, 166 00:10:53,478 --> 00:10:55,480 I think, fulfills her destiny. 167 00:10:59,223 --> 00:11:02,836 - I was just wondering what it was in your own experience 168 00:11:02,966 --> 00:11:05,577 that really led you to take this path 169 00:11:05,708 --> 00:11:06,970 and devote so much of your career 170 00:11:07,057 --> 00:11:08,885 to breaking down the legal barriers, 171 00:11:09,016 --> 00:11:11,671 the advancement of the women in our society. 172 00:11:13,063 --> 00:11:17,328 - Senator Kennedy, I'm very sensitized to discrimination. 173 00:11:22,029 --> 00:11:26,468 I grew up at the time of World War II in a Jewish family. 174 00:11:29,166 --> 00:11:33,954 [slow somber instrumental music] 175 00:11:34,041 --> 00:11:37,609 I have memories as a child, even before the war, 176 00:11:39,699 --> 00:11:43,659 of being in a car with my parents and driving places, 177 00:11:45,226 --> 00:11:46,923 and there was a sign in front of a resort, 178 00:11:47,054 --> 00:11:49,926 and it said, "No dogs or Jews allowed." 179 00:11:51,406 --> 00:11:55,497 That in this country during my childhood. 180 00:11:58,152 --> 00:12:00,415 People who have known discrimination 181 00:12:02,852 --> 00:12:06,247 are bound to be sympathetic to understand. 182 00:12:09,337 --> 00:12:11,687 I want to thank Judge Ginsburg for revealing 183 00:12:11,818 --> 00:12:13,428 not only the brilliant of her mind 184 00:12:13,558 --> 00:12:15,735 but I think of her soul and heart as well. 185 00:12:17,562 --> 00:12:20,565 - Now I know just how really fitting and proper 186 00:12:20,696 --> 00:12:23,655 and how significant this vote is going to be for me. 187 00:12:26,310 --> 00:12:29,313 - Whatever you've been doing has worked pretty well, 188 00:12:29,400 --> 00:12:31,620 so keep doing it. 189 00:12:31,751 --> 00:12:35,493 [poignant instrumental music] [muffled chatter] 190 00:12:43,675 --> 00:12:46,504 [audience applauds] 191 00:12:51,596 --> 00:12:55,035 - I, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, do solemnly swear. 192 00:12:55,165 --> 00:12:59,996 - I, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, do solemnly swear. 193 00:13:00,083 --> 00:13:02,433 - That I will support and defend the Constitution 194 00:13:02,564 --> 00:13:04,348 of the United States. 195 00:13:04,435 --> 00:13:08,439 - That I will support and defend the Constitution 196 00:13:08,570 --> 00:13:09,876 of the United States. 197 00:13:10,006 --> 00:13:12,139 - So help me God. - So help me God. 198 00:13:13,749 --> 00:13:17,492 [flash bulbs bursting] [audience applauds] 199 00:13:24,368 --> 00:13:25,717 - [Bill] Her story already is a part of our history. 200 00:13:28,024 --> 00:13:30,418 Now her words and her judgments will help 201 00:13:30,548 --> 00:13:33,987 to shape our nation today and well into the 21st century. 202 00:13:39,079 --> 00:13:43,692 - It's by far the best place I have ever worked. 203 00:13:43,823 --> 00:13:47,609 The relationship among the justices is very close 204 00:13:49,959 --> 00:13:52,875 because no matter how great our differences 205 00:13:53,006 --> 00:13:55,051 on what the law is or ought to be, 206 00:13:56,661 --> 00:14:00,622 we know it will suffer if we can't get on well 207 00:14:03,973 --> 00:14:07,803 Having Justice O'Connor here for 12 years 208 00:14:07,934 --> 00:14:11,851 before I came made it infinitely easier for me. 209 00:14:13,765 --> 00:14:17,726 She is an exceptionally fine and well-respected judge, 210 00:14:20,076 --> 00:14:24,602 and she has been such a warm and wonderful friend to me. 211 00:14:26,430 --> 00:14:28,476 Although we come from very different areas of the country, 212 00:14:28,563 --> 00:14:31,740 I would say there's much more bonding between the two of us 213 00:14:31,871 --> 00:14:33,698 than there is between any two men on that court. 214 00:14:33,829 --> 00:14:35,787 [audience laughs] 215 00:14:39,966 --> 00:14:44,231 I wish student groups would come and visit the court. 216 00:14:50,106 --> 00:14:53,501 A very hearty welcome to the Supreme Court to all of you. 217 00:14:55,155 --> 00:14:58,898 Please sit down, and perhaps one of the teachers 218 00:14:59,028 --> 00:15:00,812 can tell me a little bit about you. 219 00:15:03,206 --> 00:15:06,253 - You have two classes of 5th grade students, 220 00:15:06,383 --> 00:15:08,995 ages ranging between 10 and 12 years old, 221 00:15:09,125 --> 00:15:11,606 and we're from Indianapolis. 222 00:15:11,693 --> 00:15:12,433 - [Ruth] Very good. 223 00:15:14,826 --> 00:15:16,785 - Was it hard to be on the Supreme Court justice 224 00:15:16,916 --> 00:15:18,743 because you're a woman? 225 00:15:18,874 --> 00:15:20,615 - It's becoming less and less hard. 226 00:15:24,488 --> 00:15:25,620 When I graduated from law school, 227 00:15:28,318 --> 00:15:32,322 no woman in the history of the country had ever been 228 00:15:32,409 --> 00:15:36,239 on the Supreme Court, but times have changed. 229 00:15:36,370 --> 00:15:38,763 [upbeat lively 50s music] 230 00:15:43,681 --> 00:15:46,728 My mother wanted me to be a school teacher 231 00:15:46,858 --> 00:15:49,122 because that would afford me a nice steady income 232 00:15:49,252 --> 00:15:53,169 and leave time for a husband and a family. 233 00:15:55,215 --> 00:15:57,434 Doors were totally shut to most women. 234 00:15:58,914 --> 00:15:59,784 Women simply could not be prosecutors. 235 00:16:04,789 --> 00:16:06,661 The law was not the way to independence. 236 00:16:09,272 --> 00:16:13,581 When I graduated from law school with high grades, 237 00:16:15,365 --> 00:16:18,673 there was not a single law firm in the entire city 238 00:16:18,803 --> 00:16:20,892 of New York that offered me employment. 239 00:16:23,417 --> 00:16:25,593 In those days, I had three strikes against me. 240 00:16:26,986 --> 00:16:30,598 One is I was Jewish, and many firms were just beginning 241 00:16:30,728 --> 00:16:35,298 to let down racial, religious, national origin barriers. 242 00:16:37,344 --> 00:16:41,348 Another, I was a woman, and then the one 243 00:16:41,478 --> 00:16:43,263 that I think really did me in 244 00:16:43,393 --> 00:16:44,873 was I had a four-year-old daughter. 245 00:16:47,354 --> 00:16:49,965 It was enough of a risk to take a chance on a woman, 246 00:16:51,575 --> 00:16:53,708 but taking a chance on a mother was too much. 247 00:16:53,838 --> 00:16:57,103 [tense contemplative music] 248 00:16:58,539 --> 00:16:59,670 - Justice Ginsburg, first of all, 249 00:16:59,801 --> 00:17:03,500 I'd like to say that you don't look anything 250 00:17:03,631 --> 00:17:04,980 near 60 years of age. 251 00:17:05,067 --> 00:17:06,503 [laughs] 252 00:17:06,590 --> 00:17:08,418 And secondly, could you tell us a little bit 253 00:17:08,549 --> 00:17:09,898 about your family history? 254 00:17:11,987 --> 00:17:13,336 [light jaunty music] 255 00:17:13,467 --> 00:17:17,471 - My husband was my classmate in college. 256 00:17:17,601 --> 00:17:19,908 We met when he was 18 and I was 17. 257 00:17:22,563 --> 00:17:26,654 - The truth is, it was a blind date only on Ruth's side. 258 00:17:26,784 --> 00:17:28,612 [audience laughs] 259 00:17:28,743 --> 00:17:30,223 I cheated. 260 00:17:30,310 --> 00:17:32,268 [audience laughs] 261 00:17:32,399 --> 00:17:36,577 - We were best friends during our college days. 262 00:17:36,707 --> 00:17:40,668 - "Oh, she's really cute," I perceptively noticed. 263 00:17:40,798 --> 00:17:42,713 [audience laughs] 264 00:17:42,844 --> 00:17:44,933 And then after a couple of evenings out, 265 00:17:45,064 --> 00:17:49,590 I, "and boy she's really, really smart." 266 00:17:51,374 --> 00:17:55,422 - And when I graduated from college, we got married. 267 00:17:57,293 --> 00:18:00,166 I have a daughter and a son. 268 00:18:03,082 --> 00:18:05,823 My daughter has two wonderful children. 269 00:18:08,174 --> 00:18:09,784 - It's quite simple. 270 00:18:09,914 --> 00:18:13,048 Your wife has a job, which, deep in your heart, 271 00:18:13,179 --> 00:18:14,049 you wish you had. 272 00:18:14,180 --> 00:18:16,878 [audience laughs] 273 00:18:19,098 --> 00:18:21,839 - It wasn't easy to get that first job. 274 00:18:24,581 --> 00:18:26,757 I had a great professor. 275 00:18:26,844 --> 00:18:29,064 He recommended me to a judge 276 00:18:29,195 --> 00:18:30,979 who always hired his law clerks from Columbia. 277 00:18:33,808 --> 00:18:36,202 The judge said, "Well, I've looked at her resume. 278 00:18:36,332 --> 00:18:40,031 She has a four-year-old daughter. How can I rely on her?" 279 00:18:43,122 --> 00:18:48,083 And the professor said, "If you don't give her a chance, 280 00:18:48,170 --> 00:18:52,261 I will never recommend another Columbia clerk to you." 281 00:18:52,392 --> 00:18:53,958 [audience laughs] 282 00:18:54,089 --> 00:18:55,656 And that's how I got my first job [muffled speaking]. 283 00:18:58,354 --> 00:18:59,921 There was an offer from Rutgers Law School 284 00:19:00,051 --> 00:19:02,184 to teach procedure. 285 00:19:02,315 --> 00:19:05,840 If I didn't take it, an offer my never come again. 286 00:19:08,016 --> 00:19:10,888 My students, they wanted a course in women in the law. 287 00:19:12,890 --> 00:19:16,720 In the space of one month, I read every federal decision 288 00:19:16,851 --> 00:19:19,854 that had ever been written in the area of gender in the law. 289 00:19:21,551 --> 00:19:22,944 There was barely anything. 290 00:19:24,859 --> 00:19:28,036 [women chanting faintly] [up-tempo uplifting music] 291 00:19:30,647 --> 00:19:32,258 - [Irin] The country was experiencing upheavals inspired 292 00:19:32,345 --> 00:19:35,652 by activists who were no longer willing 293 00:19:35,783 --> 00:19:37,176 to accept the status quo. 294 00:19:42,529 --> 00:19:45,445 - [Ruth] Women came into the American Civil Liberties Union 295 00:19:45,575 --> 00:19:47,882 and complained that they had to go on maternity leave. 296 00:19:50,580 --> 00:19:52,713 You didn't get paid for that leave, 297 00:19:52,800 --> 00:19:54,280 and you didn't have any right of return 298 00:19:54,410 --> 00:19:56,282 unless the school wanted you back. 299 00:19:58,327 --> 00:19:59,894 - [Woman] There were still laws on the books 300 00:20:00,024 --> 00:20:02,549 that said women can't work more than certain hours. 301 00:20:02,679 --> 00:20:03,811 They can't work at night. 302 00:20:03,941 --> 00:20:06,596 They can't lift more than 15 pounds. 303 00:20:06,727 --> 00:20:08,207 And basically, those laws were used 304 00:20:08,337 --> 00:20:10,252 to keep women out of high-paying jobs. 305 00:20:12,646 --> 00:20:14,387 - [Ruth] The American Civil Liberties Union 306 00:20:14,517 --> 00:20:15,562 in New Jersey turned to me, 307 00:20:15,692 --> 00:20:17,912 so those are the cases we started with. 308 00:20:21,394 --> 00:20:24,614 - The ACLU was at the beginning of doing women's rights work 309 00:20:24,745 --> 00:20:26,790 and was really in the forefront 310 00:20:26,921 --> 00:20:30,141 of big-time gender discrimination litigation, 311 00:20:31,404 --> 00:20:32,883 and Ruth was the head of it. 312 00:20:35,190 --> 00:20:38,193 - [Ruth] Our lead case was Reed V Reed 313 00:20:38,324 --> 00:20:41,892 [soft melancholy instrumental music] 314 00:20:42,023 --> 00:20:46,114 Sally Reed, whose son died tragically 315 00:20:46,245 --> 00:20:48,116 and killed himself with his father's rifle. 316 00:20:50,597 --> 00:20:53,991 She wanted to be appointed administrator of his estate. 317 00:20:55,906 --> 00:21:00,259 The statute read, "As between persons equally entitled 318 00:21:01,782 --> 00:21:04,263 to administer a decedent's estate, 319 00:21:04,393 --> 00:21:07,091 males must be preferred to females," 320 00:21:08,441 --> 00:21:10,051 and it was the turning point case. 321 00:21:13,620 --> 00:21:15,926 - It was the first time the Supreme Court found 322 00:21:16,057 --> 00:21:19,713 that gender discrimination was unconstitutional. 323 00:21:19,843 --> 00:21:23,282 The decision in that case was revolutionary. 324 00:21:30,289 --> 00:21:33,335 Ruth spent the next 10 years just blasting the door open. 325 00:21:37,078 --> 00:21:39,646 - [Girl] Of the six women's right cases you've argued 326 00:21:39,733 --> 00:21:41,169 before the Supreme Court, 327 00:21:41,256 --> 00:21:42,475 which do you think has made the biggest change? 328 00:21:42,605 --> 00:21:47,741 - One of my favorites involved a father, 329 00:21:49,656 --> 00:21:54,487 a man whose wife was the dominant earner in the family, 330 00:21:54,617 --> 00:21:56,532 and she died tragically in childbirth. 331 00:21:58,360 --> 00:22:02,451 He wanted to work only part time and tend to his child. 332 00:22:03,931 --> 00:22:05,672 He sought social security benefits 333 00:22:05,802 --> 00:22:08,805 to assist him in that effort and was told, 334 00:22:08,936 --> 00:22:11,199 "Well, those benefits aren't available to you. 335 00:22:11,330 --> 00:22:13,157 Those are mother's benefits." 336 00:22:15,943 --> 00:22:17,379 - The judges actually disbelieved that this 337 00:22:17,510 --> 00:22:20,251 could be a real case because they 338 00:22:20,382 --> 00:22:21,557 couldn't imagine a man wanting 339 00:22:21,688 --> 00:22:24,821 to be the primary caregiver to his son. 340 00:22:27,955 --> 00:22:30,174 - [Ruth] That judgment declares the gender line 341 00:22:30,305 --> 00:22:33,569 at issue unconstitutional because it discriminates 342 00:22:33,700 --> 00:22:36,267 in violation of the 5th Amendment 343 00:22:36,398 --> 00:22:39,140 against gainfully employed women, such as Paula Wiesenfeld, 344 00:22:40,620 --> 00:22:43,187 as well as against men and children 345 00:22:43,318 --> 00:22:44,188 who have lost their wives and mothers. 346 00:22:48,889 --> 00:22:52,022 - [Warren] A three-judge district court in New Jersey held 347 00:22:52,153 --> 00:22:56,592 that this sex-based discrimination was unconstitutional. 348 00:22:58,812 --> 00:23:00,683 We agree, and we affirm. 349 00:23:02,206 --> 00:23:05,993 [poignant instrumental music] 350 00:23:09,344 --> 00:23:13,304 - [Ruth] The Supreme Court unanimously held in favor 351 00:23:13,392 --> 00:23:17,221 of that father because the baby who had lost a mother 352 00:23:20,224 --> 00:23:24,228 rather than a father did not have the opportunity 353 00:23:24,359 --> 00:23:26,187 to be cared for by the sole surviving parent. 354 00:23:28,494 --> 00:23:32,628 The strategy was to go after gender stereotypes 355 00:23:32,759 --> 00:23:37,416 and to rid the law books of these arbitrary lines 356 00:23:38,982 --> 00:23:42,290 that separated the world into two spheres, 357 00:23:42,421 --> 00:23:44,684 the world outside the home, which belonged the man, 358 00:23:44,771 --> 00:23:49,123 and the world within the home that was women's province. 359 00:23:51,430 --> 00:23:56,043 - [ME] She came up with the idea of using men as plaintiffs. 360 00:23:57,784 --> 00:24:01,962 - These were men who is the male survivor of a wife, 361 00:24:03,006 --> 00:24:04,181 they didn't get the benefit. 362 00:24:04,312 --> 00:24:06,662 It was discrimination against the widower, 363 00:24:06,793 --> 00:24:09,056 but it was also discrimination against the woman. 364 00:24:12,189 --> 00:24:14,540 - We were given various tasks relating to the briefs, 365 00:24:14,670 --> 00:24:16,106 and she discussed the case with us, 366 00:24:16,237 --> 00:24:19,588 and we saw the evolution of the briefs. 367 00:24:21,764 --> 00:24:24,463 We would do drafts, and then Ruth would rewrite them. 368 00:24:24,593 --> 00:24:28,771 [laughs] She was an amazing writer, and the expression was, 369 00:24:28,902 --> 00:24:31,382 "If you could get the briefs to sing," and hers sang. 370 00:24:34,168 --> 00:24:34,908 They were powerful. 371 00:24:36,692 --> 00:24:40,087 It's like people said when Tiger Woods was at his peak, 372 00:24:40,217 --> 00:24:43,090 Tiger was playing golf up here, 373 00:24:43,220 --> 00:24:45,309 and everybody else was playing golf down there. 374 00:24:45,396 --> 00:24:49,879 He was at another level, and Ruth was like that. 375 00:24:55,363 --> 00:24:58,801 - Craig Versus Boren and sometimes called the Beer Case. 376 00:24:58,932 --> 00:24:59,759 [audience laughs] 377 00:24:59,889 --> 00:25:02,283 Oklahoma had a very silly law. 378 00:25:02,413 --> 00:25:06,461 Girls could buy beer at age 18, 379 00:25:06,592 --> 00:25:11,118 but the boys had to wait until age 21. 380 00:25:11,248 --> 00:25:13,990 So the thirsty boys at a fraternity 381 00:25:14,121 --> 00:25:15,426 [audience laughs] 382 00:25:15,557 --> 00:25:19,692 in Stillwater, Oklahoma brought this case. 383 00:25:19,822 --> 00:25:22,303 [bluesy rock guitar music] 384 00:25:24,914 --> 00:25:26,568 - [Man] It says that all females, even those that 385 00:25:26,655 --> 00:25:30,050 are the most drunk, most alcoholic, most immature, 386 00:25:30,180 --> 00:25:33,749 and most irresponsible may purchase 3.2% beer 387 00:25:33,836 --> 00:25:36,665 at age 18 in absolutely unlimited quantities. 388 00:25:36,796 --> 00:25:37,623 - [Warren] The law doesn't say it 389 00:25:37,753 --> 00:25:39,320 in quite those words, does it? 390 00:25:39,450 --> 00:25:42,541 [audience laughs] 391 00:25:42,671 --> 00:25:43,716 - [Man] No, your honor, and the law doesn't say it 392 00:25:43,846 --> 00:25:48,285 in quite the words that all males 18 to 21, 393 00:25:48,372 --> 00:25:50,549 even though they are the most mature, most sober, 394 00:25:50,679 --> 00:25:53,552 or most self restrained can't purchase a drop of it. 395 00:25:53,682 --> 00:25:56,032 - Trying to hear [laughs] the Oklahoma, 396 00:25:56,163 --> 00:25:57,991 I think it was the Oklahoma attorney general, 397 00:25:58,121 --> 00:26:00,950 argue this case seriously was just hysterical. 398 00:26:03,562 --> 00:26:05,955 That case in some ways it's so stupid that it was easier, 399 00:26:07,740 --> 00:26:09,306 but it was a good precedent 400 00:26:09,437 --> 00:26:11,439 because it got people thinking about stereotypes. 401 00:26:14,660 --> 00:26:17,619 - I can tell you a case that made a big difference. 402 00:26:19,882 --> 00:26:24,408 It was a case involving service of women on juries. 403 00:26:26,672 --> 00:26:31,328 Women were not called for jury duty unless they volunteered, 404 00:26:31,459 --> 00:26:34,767 and that was regarded as fine, 405 00:26:34,897 --> 00:26:38,945 not as any kind of discrimination against women 406 00:26:39,075 --> 00:26:42,165 but, in fact, discrimination in their favor. 407 00:26:44,037 --> 00:26:47,475 But some women had the sense that the state was making them 408 00:26:49,912 --> 00:26:53,437 or regarded them as dispensable, not really needed. 409 00:26:56,440 --> 00:26:57,311 - [Warren] We'll hear arguments next 410 00:26:57,441 --> 00:27:01,402 in 6067, Duren against Missouri. 411 00:27:03,317 --> 00:27:05,319 - [Man] Mr. Chief Justice, may it please the court. 412 00:27:07,713 --> 00:27:11,586 In March of 1976, petitioner Billy Duren appeared for trial 413 00:27:11,717 --> 00:27:14,371 in the Jackson County Circuit Court. 414 00:27:14,502 --> 00:27:17,505 Appearing with Mr. Duren was a jury panel. 415 00:27:17,592 --> 00:27:21,291 That panel of 53 people included only five women. 416 00:27:22,989 --> 00:27:25,861 If women are not on juries in sufficient numbers, 417 00:27:25,992 --> 00:27:28,995 Billy Duren's right to a fair cross-sectional jury panel 418 00:27:29,125 --> 00:27:30,605 has been defeated. 419 00:27:30,736 --> 00:27:33,347 [melancholy contemplative instrumental music] 420 00:27:33,477 --> 00:27:35,697 - I divided the argument with the public defender 421 00:27:35,828 --> 00:27:39,527 from Kansas City, so I had a precious 15 minutes. 422 00:27:41,921 --> 00:27:43,836 - [Warren] Mrs. Ginsburg, if you may lower the lectern 423 00:27:43,966 --> 00:27:45,011 if you would like. 424 00:27:45,141 --> 00:27:47,622 [courtroom chuckles] 425 00:27:47,753 --> 00:27:50,886 - Mr. Chief justice, and may it please the court 426 00:27:51,017 --> 00:27:54,977 hear Billy Duren's right to a fair chance 427 00:27:55,108 --> 00:27:58,285 for a jury genuinely representative 428 00:27:58,415 --> 00:28:01,549 of the communities complexion, and second, 429 00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:04,508 the vaunted woman's privilege. 430 00:28:04,639 --> 00:28:07,729 Women traditionally were deemed lesser citizens. 431 00:28:07,860 --> 00:28:11,602 - [Warren] That wouldn't concern Mr. Duren, would it? 432 00:28:13,996 --> 00:28:17,696 - [Ruth] Mr. Duren has a right to a jury drawn 433 00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:22,483 from a panel reasonably representative of the community. 434 00:28:25,225 --> 00:28:28,576 - I actually sat with her at council table. 435 00:28:28,707 --> 00:28:32,580 Now, very few, I think, other people or professors 436 00:28:32,711 --> 00:28:34,364 would have been that gracious and allowed that, 437 00:28:34,495 --> 00:28:36,279 but that was the kind of person Ruth was. 438 00:28:36,410 --> 00:28:39,587 What was interesting was watching the oral argument 439 00:28:39,718 --> 00:28:43,373 because Ruth, she clearly had the respect of the court. 440 00:28:44,766 --> 00:28:49,379 She did very well in her quiet and direct way 441 00:28:49,510 --> 00:28:50,424 with the court. 442 00:28:53,122 --> 00:28:55,516 Thurgood Marshall, he was very interesting in oral argument, 443 00:28:55,646 --> 00:28:58,780 and I got the sense that he got it, 444 00:28:58,911 --> 00:29:02,697 totally got it because he had been there 445 00:29:05,482 --> 00:29:09,443 and he understood a world judging you by something 446 00:29:09,573 --> 00:29:13,142 like race or gender that you had no control over, 447 00:29:13,273 --> 00:29:17,146 and that essentially had really not much to do with anything 448 00:29:17,277 --> 00:29:19,540 except in the eyes of people who were stereotyping. 449 00:29:21,194 --> 00:29:23,196 - [Byron] Under the Missouri law, 450 00:29:23,326 --> 00:29:25,764 women are eligible for jury duty, 451 00:29:25,894 --> 00:29:28,592 but they are entitled to an automatic exemption. 452 00:29:28,723 --> 00:29:31,944 No similar excuse is available to men. 453 00:29:33,728 --> 00:29:38,167 Duren claims that his a 6th and 14th amendment right 454 00:29:38,298 --> 00:29:41,910 to a trial by a jury representing a fair cross section 455 00:29:42,041 --> 00:29:45,435 of the community is violated by this scheme. 456 00:29:46,610 --> 00:29:50,789 [pleasant uplifting piano music] 457 00:29:50,919 --> 00:29:54,618 - As this court said in the 1960s, 458 00:29:54,749 --> 00:29:59,145 women are the center of home and family life. 459 00:30:01,843 --> 00:30:04,063 One of my answers to that question 460 00:30:04,193 --> 00:30:07,718 was men ought to be there, too, 461 00:30:07,849 --> 00:30:11,548 sharing the work of caring for children and the home, 462 00:30:13,159 --> 00:30:15,639 and women should be regarded as citizens 463 00:30:15,770 --> 00:30:19,513 in the public arena of equal stature with men. 464 00:30:22,124 --> 00:30:23,822 That was the essential message that I endeavored 465 00:30:23,952 --> 00:30:28,087 to get across in all the cases that I argued. 466 00:30:31,568 --> 00:30:36,356 - Justice Ginsburg slowly convinced the Supreme Court that, 467 00:30:36,486 --> 00:30:39,794 under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment 468 00:30:39,881 --> 00:30:41,404 and also the 5th amendment, 469 00:30:42,841 --> 00:30:45,495 the government could not say that men and women 470 00:30:45,626 --> 00:30:46,888 were fundamentally different and needed 471 00:30:47,019 --> 00:30:49,456 to be treated as such under the law. 472 00:30:50,805 --> 00:30:54,156 The way that she approached it was 473 00:30:54,287 --> 00:30:57,725 to take these nine male justices by the hand 474 00:30:57,812 --> 00:30:58,639 and lead them very slowly on a path, 475 00:31:00,902 --> 00:31:04,036 and it wasn't until she had almost entirely 476 00:31:04,166 --> 00:31:06,690 accomplished her goals did they realize how far they'd come. 477 00:31:09,650 --> 00:31:12,479 - In retrospect and what we accomplished 478 00:31:12,609 --> 00:31:14,350 and looking back on those two years, 479 00:31:14,481 --> 00:31:17,223 I always say there was a brief and shining moment 480 00:31:18,964 --> 00:31:21,749 in my life when I helped change the world. [chuckles] 481 00:31:25,666 --> 00:31:29,017 [camera clicks] 482 00:31:29,148 --> 00:31:30,932 - I would like to present to you this gift bag 483 00:31:31,063 --> 00:31:33,152 from the city of Indianapolis. 484 00:31:33,282 --> 00:31:36,590 We are known for our winning Indiana Pacers basketball team 485 00:31:36,720 --> 00:31:38,853 and, of course, the Indy 500 race. 486 00:31:38,940 --> 00:31:41,508 I sincerely hope you enjoy our gifts to you. 487 00:31:41,595 --> 00:31:43,466 - Miss, thank you so much. 488 00:31:46,295 --> 00:31:48,167 Oh, let's see this. 489 00:31:48,297 --> 00:31:52,606 - These are flags from the- 490 00:31:52,736 --> 00:31:53,868 - These are flags from- 491 00:31:53,999 --> 00:31:56,784 - Indianapolis for the Indy 500 race. 492 00:31:56,871 --> 00:32:01,397 - Ah. These I may share with my grandson. 493 00:32:02,572 --> 00:32:04,096 I think he would appreciate that. 494 00:32:05,836 --> 00:32:07,316 [audience applauds] 495 00:32:07,447 --> 00:32:09,144 Well thank you so much. 496 00:32:10,711 --> 00:32:12,800 [audience applauds] 497 00:32:18,414 --> 00:32:20,939 ME Freedman was one of my wonderful students 498 00:32:21,026 --> 00:32:25,769 who made it possible for dreams to come true. 499 00:32:27,815 --> 00:32:28,990 I remember our first meeting. 500 00:32:29,121 --> 00:32:33,821 ME came to my office a little angry and said, 501 00:32:33,952 --> 00:32:36,824 "The way women are treated by the law is dreadful, 502 00:32:36,911 --> 00:32:41,089 and I want to take courses that will help me do things 503 00:32:42,786 --> 00:32:44,136 to aid women." 504 00:32:44,223 --> 00:32:49,619 And I said, "If you want to aid women and men 505 00:32:49,750 --> 00:32:53,101 and make a better society, become a damn good lawyer," 506 00:32:53,232 --> 00:32:55,886 and that's exactly what she has done. 507 00:32:58,715 --> 00:33:01,588 - She was clearly the intellectual equal, 508 00:33:01,718 --> 00:33:05,984 if not the superior, of the nine men she was arguing before. 509 00:33:06,071 --> 00:33:08,943 She was light years ahead of us and of the justice 510 00:33:09,030 --> 00:33:13,382 who asked the question and taught her students to be aware 511 00:33:13,513 --> 00:33:16,995 of the need to judge individuals on their merits, 512 00:33:17,125 --> 00:33:20,302 not on the basis of stereotype and qualities 513 00:33:20,433 --> 00:33:22,478 like gender that have nothing to do 514 00:33:22,609 --> 00:33:25,220 with merit and ability to do the job. 515 00:33:26,743 --> 00:33:27,701 Thank you. 516 00:33:27,788 --> 00:33:30,660 [audience applauds] 517 00:33:33,054 --> 00:33:36,318 - If any of you have the opportunity to do that kind 518 00:33:36,405 --> 00:33:39,365 of not-for-profit public interest work, you should grab it. 519 00:33:39,495 --> 00:33:40,801 It was an amazing experience. 520 00:33:42,672 --> 00:33:46,981 - I'd like to tell you the happy ending to one of the cases. 521 00:33:48,852 --> 00:33:53,466 The baby in that story is today in his last year of college 522 00:33:56,034 --> 00:34:00,690 and has recently applied to Columbia Law School. 523 00:34:01,778 --> 00:34:04,433 [audience applauds and exclaims] 524 00:34:04,564 --> 00:34:07,871 [uplifting poignant music] 525 00:34:16,228 --> 00:34:21,102 [cameras clicking] [muffled chatter] 526 00:34:21,233 --> 00:34:25,802 [muffled chatter] [group applauds] 527 00:34:25,933 --> 00:34:28,979 This was my first grade class, too, 528 00:34:29,067 --> 00:34:32,722 and I learned to read and to write in this room. 529 00:34:32,853 --> 00:34:35,986 [cameras clicking] 530 00:34:36,117 --> 00:34:37,814 To all my friends in this room, 531 00:34:37,945 --> 00:34:40,861 my heart is just brimming over. 532 00:34:40,991 --> 00:34:43,951 There isn't a place that I would rather have dedicated 533 00:34:44,082 --> 00:34:47,607 to me in this building than the library. 534 00:34:47,737 --> 00:34:50,305 This is where I learned to read. 535 00:34:50,436 --> 00:34:53,221 This is where I learned to love learning. 536 00:34:54,353 --> 00:34:57,007 [muffled chatter] 537 00:34:59,575 --> 00:35:02,100 - [Winston] Justice Ginsburg, who a role model 538 00:35:02,187 --> 00:35:04,102 when you were growing up? 539 00:35:05,668 --> 00:35:09,150 - Winston, they didn't have a term role model 540 00:35:09,281 --> 00:35:13,023 when I was growing up, but I can think about someone 541 00:35:14,155 --> 00:35:17,506 who was in a book and not real. 542 00:35:17,637 --> 00:35:20,118 But I guess she was a role model for a lot of us. 543 00:35:20,248 --> 00:35:21,728 She was Nancy Drew. 544 00:35:21,858 --> 00:35:23,817 [audience laughs] 545 00:35:23,947 --> 00:35:25,906 And then there was Amelia Earhart. 546 00:35:30,040 --> 00:35:33,870 Not too many women in the lawyering or judging line 547 00:35:36,134 --> 00:35:36,917 because mostly, they didn't exist. 548 00:35:38,614 --> 00:35:42,618 [audience applauds] [cameras clicking] 549 00:35:42,705 --> 00:35:44,098 - [Woman] We are proud of this room. 550 00:35:44,229 --> 00:35:45,752 We dedicate it to you, 551 00:35:45,839 --> 00:35:47,928 the Ruth Bade Ginsburg courtroom, 552 00:35:48,058 --> 00:35:50,017 and we hope you will visit many times. 553 00:35:54,848 --> 00:35:57,459 - I've judged moot courts all around the country, 554 00:35:57,546 --> 00:36:00,158 but I never dreamed that a courtroom 555 00:36:00,245 --> 00:36:03,030 would be named after me, and this is remarkable. 556 00:36:03,117 --> 00:36:04,771 How did you do this? 557 00:36:04,901 --> 00:36:05,728 - [Woman] Well, let's have for students come up 558 00:36:05,859 --> 00:36:08,035 and make that presentation. 559 00:36:08,166 --> 00:36:10,037 - Here, your portrait will hang in this courtroom 560 00:36:10,168 --> 00:36:12,866 as an inspiration to us all because you represent the level 561 00:36:12,953 --> 00:36:15,521 of excellence that all of us hope to achieve. 562 00:36:15,608 --> 00:36:16,261 Thank you. 563 00:36:18,176 --> 00:36:22,615 - The first time a port was done of me, it was a huge woman. 564 00:36:24,182 --> 00:36:27,010 And I looked and it, I said to the artist, 565 00:36:27,097 --> 00:36:28,360 I showed her my hand. 566 00:36:28,490 --> 00:36:30,753 I said, "Well, my wrist is very small." 567 00:36:30,884 --> 00:36:34,975 She put a dab of black paint, but her notion was a woman 568 00:36:35,105 --> 00:36:38,413 to be in power must be large. 569 00:36:38,544 --> 00:36:42,025 She must be at least five foot 10 and not five foot two. 570 00:36:43,201 --> 00:36:45,464 That looks like me. That's... 571 00:36:45,594 --> 00:36:49,207 [audience laughs and applauds] 572 00:36:50,338 --> 00:36:53,646 [melancholy piano music] 573 00:37:00,957 --> 00:37:03,569 The children seem genuinely happy. 574 00:37:03,699 --> 00:37:06,876 I was happy most of the time in PS 238, 575 00:37:07,007 --> 00:37:09,314 but I was still there in the day when, 576 00:37:09,444 --> 00:37:11,359 if you were left-handed as I was, 577 00:37:11,490 --> 00:37:15,668 the teacher tried to make you change. 578 00:37:15,798 --> 00:37:18,279 So I remember crying in the first grade 579 00:37:18,410 --> 00:37:21,413 because I did my penmanship, and it was simply awful, 580 00:37:21,543 --> 00:37:25,591 but I did it with my right hand, and I got a D, 581 00:37:25,721 --> 00:37:30,248 and I said, "I will never again write with my right hand." 582 00:37:35,340 --> 00:37:39,779 The story that was told about the girls having cooking 583 00:37:39,909 --> 00:37:42,042 and sewing while the boys had shop, 584 00:37:45,175 --> 00:37:47,177 I remember envying the boys long 585 00:37:47,308 --> 00:37:49,223 before I even knew the word feminist 586 00:37:51,094 --> 00:37:54,620 'cause I liked shop better than cooking or sewing. 587 00:37:59,233 --> 00:38:03,803 Our neighborhood was predominantly Irish, 588 00:38:05,239 --> 00:38:08,721 Italian, Polish, Catholic, and Jewish. 589 00:38:18,165 --> 00:38:20,950 My mother told me two things. 590 00:38:21,037 --> 00:38:25,607 One was to be a lady and the other was to be independent, 591 00:38:27,957 --> 00:38:31,221 but most girls growing up in the 40s 592 00:38:31,352 --> 00:38:34,834 were to find Prince Charming and live happily ever after. 593 00:38:36,879 --> 00:38:38,707 She said it was most important 594 00:38:38,838 --> 00:38:40,970 to get a job and support myself. 595 00:38:42,798 --> 00:38:45,758 Sadly, she died when I was 17. 596 00:38:45,845 --> 00:38:49,239 She died the day before my high school graduation. 597 00:38:54,636 --> 00:38:57,160 - She really doesn't talk much about how that felt. 598 00:39:00,294 --> 00:39:04,777 She internalizes it. She's quite stoic. 599 00:39:04,864 --> 00:39:09,129 Whether it's her sister dying young as a child, 600 00:39:09,259 --> 00:39:10,826 whether it's her mother dying the day 601 00:39:10,957 --> 00:39:12,654 before her high school graduation, 602 00:39:14,047 --> 00:39:16,005 without that kind of skillset, 603 00:39:16,136 --> 00:39:17,398 everything that life threw at her, 604 00:39:17,529 --> 00:39:19,792 we might not have her on the Supreme Court today. 605 00:39:24,927 --> 00:39:29,410 - I think my daughter is following much the same career path 606 00:39:30,106 --> 00:39:30,933 as I did. 607 00:39:36,025 --> 00:39:37,505 Jane will speak for herself, 608 00:39:37,636 --> 00:39:40,639 but she might have preferred something more venturesome 609 00:39:40,726 --> 00:39:43,903 than law because it wasn't a daring thing to do anymore. 610 00:39:45,557 --> 00:39:46,993 - [Woman] Speak for yourself, Jane. 611 00:39:47,123 --> 00:39:49,909 [audience laughs] 612 00:39:52,520 --> 00:39:54,566 - I don't know whether I wanna characterize things 613 00:39:54,696 --> 00:39:56,872 in terms of daring or not, 614 00:39:56,959 --> 00:40:00,267 but I guess I certainly got the feeling that a law 615 00:40:00,398 --> 00:40:03,357 was a profession which gave you a fair amount of autonomy. 616 00:40:03,488 --> 00:40:07,230 [bright uplifting poignant music] 617 00:40:07,361 --> 00:40:11,583 - [Ruth] We are the first mother daughter who have taught 618 00:40:11,713 --> 00:40:14,368 at a law school in the United States. 619 00:40:16,152 --> 00:40:17,240 - My daughter is three years old, 620 00:40:17,371 --> 00:40:19,199 so it's a little premature. 621 00:40:19,329 --> 00:40:21,549 It'd be nice if she would be a concert pianist. 622 00:40:21,680 --> 00:40:24,030 She's a pretty feisty little kid. 623 00:40:24,117 --> 00:40:27,990 There will be legal examples of bounding since her mother 624 00:40:28,121 --> 00:40:29,557 and her father and her grandmother 625 00:40:29,688 --> 00:40:32,995 and her grandfather are all lawyers, 626 00:40:33,126 --> 00:40:35,955 which might persuade her after all to be a concert pianist 627 00:40:36,085 --> 00:40:37,043 if the talent is there. 628 00:40:37,173 --> 00:40:39,698 [audience laughs] 629 00:40:50,230 --> 00:40:51,666 - Enter the robing room. 630 00:40:53,581 --> 00:40:56,671 The first thing we do is go around the room, 631 00:40:56,802 --> 00:41:01,154 each justice shaking hands with every other. 632 00:41:01,284 --> 00:41:04,418 And that's a symbol of the work 633 00:41:04,505 --> 00:41:06,246 that we do as a collegial body. 634 00:41:10,380 --> 00:41:13,166 We go around the room in seniority 635 00:41:13,253 --> 00:41:15,429 so the chief will summarize the case. 636 00:41:17,562 --> 00:41:21,391 No one can enter the room who is not a justice, 637 00:41:22,436 --> 00:41:24,351 no secretary, no law clerk. 638 00:41:25,787 --> 00:41:28,181 You will not see a laptop. 639 00:41:28,268 --> 00:41:31,271 Notes are taken by each justice by hand. 640 00:41:32,925 --> 00:41:34,579 They're just a private conversation 641 00:41:34,709 --> 00:41:38,452 among the justices about the case. 642 00:41:41,455 --> 00:41:44,284 - When Justice Ginsburg first became a judge, 643 00:41:44,414 --> 00:41:46,155 she left some of the work she had hoped 644 00:41:46,286 --> 00:41:48,114 to accomplish unfinished. 645 00:41:49,855 --> 00:41:51,204 Now she got close, but she didn't go all the way. 646 00:41:53,772 --> 00:41:58,646 With the US versus Virginia, the VMI case, 647 00:41:58,777 --> 00:42:00,387 she came even closer. 648 00:42:01,475 --> 00:42:03,303 - The Virginia Military Institute case 649 00:42:03,433 --> 00:42:08,351 is one of a line of decisions saying 650 00:42:08,482 --> 00:42:11,964 that no doors should be closed to people 651 00:42:12,094 --> 00:42:16,621 who have the talent and the will to enter and do the job. 652 00:42:18,536 --> 00:42:19,798 [men shouting in distance] [soft pleasant music] 653 00:42:19,928 --> 00:42:23,236 It was a school maintained by the state in Virginia 654 00:42:23,366 --> 00:42:25,934 that gave a good education. 655 00:42:26,021 --> 00:42:27,196 [footsteps marching in unison] 656 00:42:27,283 --> 00:42:29,851 It was a grant opportunity, 657 00:42:29,982 --> 00:42:32,332 but the state afforded it only to members of one sex. 658 00:42:35,596 --> 00:42:38,033 - [Man] What we have here is a single sex institution 659 00:42:38,164 --> 00:42:42,255 for men as designed as a place to teach manly values 660 00:42:42,385 --> 00:42:44,866 that only men can learn to show 661 00:42:44,997 --> 00:42:46,433 that men can suffer adversity and succeed. 662 00:42:48,740 --> 00:42:50,568 - [Ruth] If women are to be leaders 663 00:42:50,698 --> 00:42:53,788 in life and in the military, then men have got 664 00:42:53,919 --> 00:42:58,271 to become accustomed to taking commands from women, 665 00:42:58,358 --> 00:42:59,577 and men won't become accustomed to that 666 00:42:59,707 --> 00:43:01,143 if women aren't let in. 667 00:43:02,754 --> 00:43:04,756 - [Man] This court is called upon to decide 668 00:43:04,843 --> 00:43:08,455 as whether a state institution can model its program 669 00:43:08,586 --> 00:43:11,327 on the assumption that there are certain things 670 00:43:11,458 --> 00:43:13,634 that women can't do in general. 671 00:43:13,765 --> 00:43:16,245 There are certain things that men will not do with women 672 00:43:16,332 --> 00:43:18,857 because those men think that women are not capable of that. 673 00:43:22,251 --> 00:43:24,427 [guns cocking] 674 00:43:24,558 --> 00:43:27,039 - Here, the administration has total control over us. 675 00:43:27,169 --> 00:43:28,606 They can come in our rooms anytime they want, 676 00:43:28,736 --> 00:43:31,043 and I don't think that a female student 677 00:43:31,173 --> 00:43:33,523 would like it very much if somebody 678 00:43:33,611 --> 00:43:35,351 from administration came in and kicked in her door, 679 00:43:35,482 --> 00:43:36,657 no matter what she was doing. 680 00:43:38,006 --> 00:43:39,355 - They don't belong there. 681 00:43:39,486 --> 00:43:40,748 It's been an all-male school, 682 00:43:40,835 --> 00:43:42,489 just like some of the black students 683 00:43:42,576 --> 00:43:44,970 in Alabama and Mississippi are all male black schools. 684 00:43:45,100 --> 00:43:47,102 They don't want whites. They don't want females. 685 00:43:47,233 --> 00:43:47,886 Leave 'em alone. 686 00:43:49,191 --> 00:43:50,671 - If you don't let women in, 687 00:43:50,802 --> 00:43:53,761 you're gonna always have that question as to is it fair? 688 00:43:53,892 --> 00:43:55,850 And you always want to be fair to everybody, 689 00:43:55,981 --> 00:43:57,199 and everybody should have the same opportunities 690 00:43:57,330 --> 00:43:58,636 as everybody else. 691 00:43:58,766 --> 00:44:02,552 [men shouting indistinctly] [cannon booms] 692 00:44:02,683 --> 00:44:04,859 - [Ruth] On behalf of women capable 693 00:44:04,946 --> 00:44:08,036 of all the activities required of VMI cadets, 694 00:44:09,298 --> 00:44:12,519 instituted this lawsuit in 1990, 695 00:44:12,606 --> 00:44:15,870 maintaining that under the Equal Protection Clause 696 00:44:16,001 --> 00:44:19,569 of the 14th amendment to the United States Constitution, 697 00:44:19,657 --> 00:44:24,183 Virginia may not reserve exclusively for men. 698 00:44:25,358 --> 00:44:29,057 [pleasant uplifting music] 699 00:44:29,188 --> 00:44:31,364 [upbeat marching music] 700 00:44:35,847 --> 00:44:39,677 - No one expects you to be able to run this marathon today. 701 00:44:41,374 --> 00:44:43,942 VMI will provide you the training 702 00:44:44,072 --> 00:44:47,728 and the conditioning necessary in such a way 703 00:44:47,815 --> 00:44:49,425 that you will grow over time. 704 00:44:51,776 --> 00:44:54,126 - I remember being in high school 705 00:44:54,256 --> 00:44:58,043 and watching the VMI decision when I was in GROTC class, 706 00:45:00,132 --> 00:45:04,049 and I remember hearing and watching Justice Ginsburg. 707 00:45:04,136 --> 00:45:06,138 And in essence, what she said is that women 708 00:45:06,268 --> 00:45:09,881 are not inferior to men, and we can do all things. 709 00:45:10,011 --> 00:45:13,145 My best friend at the time said, "Women don't belong there." 710 00:45:16,714 --> 00:45:18,890 I told him, "I'm committed." 711 00:45:19,020 --> 00:45:21,936 I said, "Not only will I go, but I'll graduate." 712 00:45:22,067 --> 00:45:25,984 And so he bet me $1 in that moment 713 00:45:26,114 --> 00:45:27,028 that I wouldn't make it out my first year 714 00:45:27,159 --> 00:45:29,204 at the Virginia Military Institute. 715 00:45:30,902 --> 00:45:33,731 We actually went along with another fellow cadet, 716 00:45:35,254 --> 00:45:37,169 and I was the only one to graduate. 717 00:45:39,127 --> 00:45:40,694 My first year was a little bit of a blur. 718 00:45:40,781 --> 00:45:42,043 There wasn't that many women. 719 00:45:42,174 --> 00:45:43,349 I can't remember the exact numbers, 720 00:45:43,479 --> 00:45:45,830 but it was a handful of us. 721 00:45:45,960 --> 00:45:46,961 [helicopter blades whirring] 722 00:45:47,092 --> 00:45:48,441 I think everyone at some point 723 00:45:48,571 --> 00:45:51,096 in time thinks about quitting. 724 00:45:51,226 --> 00:45:53,925 It's hundreds of pushups, thousands of sit ups, 725 00:45:54,055 --> 00:45:57,624 multiple mal runs with 50-pound back sacks. 726 00:45:59,539 --> 00:46:00,714 There's a lot of yelling. There's a lot of screaming. 727 00:46:00,801 --> 00:46:02,629 There's no locks on any doors, 728 00:46:02,716 --> 00:46:04,457 and you're roaming right beside hundreds 729 00:46:04,544 --> 00:46:06,372 of males on either side. 730 00:46:06,502 --> 00:46:07,765 [cadets shouting indistinctly] 731 00:46:07,895 --> 00:46:10,332 I don't think anything can prepare you 732 00:46:10,463 --> 00:46:11,899 to that type of experience. 733 00:46:19,646 --> 00:46:23,955 Well, now I am a proud mom of twin boys, Alex and Xander. 734 00:46:25,173 --> 00:46:25,478 They're 10 months now. 735 00:46:26,871 --> 00:46:29,830 I'm a public defender in Arlington, 736 00:46:29,961 --> 00:46:32,050 and I'm also the delegate for the 2nd District 737 00:46:32,180 --> 00:46:32,659 of Prince William and Stafford. 738 00:46:35,053 --> 00:46:37,751 My grandmother always told me to be the change 739 00:46:37,882 --> 00:46:40,710 that you want to see, so I decided to throw my hat 740 00:46:40,841 --> 00:46:42,451 in the race and make that change. 741 00:46:42,582 --> 00:46:44,932 [bright uplifting music] 742 00:46:45,063 --> 00:46:47,630 VMI instilled principles in me that I know I 743 00:46:47,761 --> 00:46:49,763 wouldn't have received any other place. 744 00:46:52,592 --> 00:46:54,812 Well, it teaches you a fortitude and integrity 745 00:46:54,942 --> 00:46:56,291 and a gogetitness. 746 00:46:58,424 --> 00:46:59,773 Some people would say to me afterward, 747 00:46:59,860 --> 00:47:02,558 "Well, you were pregnant," and I'm like, 748 00:47:02,689 --> 00:47:06,606 "Well, that's never an excuse to not do anything." 749 00:47:06,736 --> 00:47:09,217 We wanna put a qualified teacher in every classroom. 750 00:47:09,304 --> 00:47:11,698 [group cheering and clapping] [muffled speaking] 751 00:47:11,785 --> 00:47:14,005 My husband and I met on the second day 752 00:47:14,135 --> 00:47:14,570 at Virginia Military Institute. 753 00:47:16,964 --> 00:47:19,837 It's no problem for him to stay home and to be 754 00:47:19,967 --> 00:47:23,057 with the babies while I'm out knocking doors 755 00:47:23,188 --> 00:47:25,581 or going to functions or speaking at political events. 756 00:47:28,715 --> 00:47:31,849 It is very difficult to know where I would be right now 757 00:47:31,979 --> 00:47:34,590 if it wasn't for Justice Ginsburg and her opinion. 758 00:47:36,027 --> 00:47:39,552 She laid the foundation for all of us, 759 00:47:39,682 --> 00:47:41,510 especially me as a woman to be able 760 00:47:41,641 --> 00:47:43,425 to attend Virginia Military Institute, 761 00:47:43,556 --> 00:47:47,473 and I think it helped me reach the place where I am today. 762 00:47:50,693 --> 00:47:55,394 [footsteps marching in distance] 763 00:47:55,524 --> 00:47:58,832 - On behalf of VMI corps cadets, faculty, and staff, 764 00:47:58,963 --> 00:48:01,574 as well as Washington and Lee and School of Law, 765 00:48:01,704 --> 00:48:02,749 we'd like to present with you 766 00:48:02,880 --> 00:48:04,751 with these tokens of our appreciation. 767 00:48:04,882 --> 00:48:08,668 [audience applauds] 768 00:48:08,798 --> 00:48:11,758 - Who would've imagined that this woman 769 00:48:11,845 --> 00:48:14,021 who nobody would give a job when she graduated 770 00:48:14,108 --> 00:48:17,590 from law school would now not only be one 771 00:48:17,720 --> 00:48:18,983 of the nine on the Supreme Court 772 00:48:19,113 --> 00:48:22,029 but also calling upon the groundbreaking work 773 00:48:22,116 --> 00:48:24,640 that she had done as an advocate. 774 00:48:24,727 --> 00:48:27,426 It really came full circle with US Versus Virginia. 775 00:48:28,557 --> 00:48:30,559 - Oh, isn't that beautiful? 776 00:48:32,910 --> 00:48:33,867 - [Woman] Thank you so much. 777 00:48:33,998 --> 00:48:35,695 [audience applauds] 778 00:48:35,782 --> 00:48:36,826 - Thank you. - Thank you. 779 00:48:41,919 --> 00:48:45,661 - This will be placed on a shelf just behind my desk, 780 00:48:48,316 --> 00:48:52,930 and I am very proud to put it there. 781 00:49:00,894 --> 00:49:03,810 - There was only one dissenter in the case 782 00:49:03,941 --> 00:49:07,118 that allowed women into the Virginia Military Institute. 783 00:49:08,641 --> 00:49:11,296 Justice Scalia dissented. 784 00:49:11,426 --> 00:49:13,733 - [Antonin] It's not that women can't do it. 785 00:49:13,863 --> 00:49:17,998 It was that it would interfere with the kind of relationship 786 00:49:18,129 --> 00:49:22,350 among the students that produces the adversative method. 787 00:49:24,048 --> 00:49:27,877 - So I took this dissent, this very spicy dissent, 788 00:49:30,141 --> 00:49:32,534 and it absolutely ruined my weekend 789 00:49:32,665 --> 00:49:34,232 at the second service. 790 00:49:34,362 --> 00:49:37,322 [audience laughs and claps] [light pleasant music] 791 00:49:37,452 --> 00:49:40,325 How we could be friends given our disagreement 792 00:49:40,412 --> 00:49:44,633 on lots of things, Justice Scalia answered, 793 00:49:44,764 --> 00:49:49,160 "I attack ideas, I don't attack people. 794 00:49:49,290 --> 00:49:52,685 Some very good people have some very bad ideas." 795 00:49:52,815 --> 00:49:56,819 [audience laughs and claps] 796 00:49:56,950 --> 00:49:58,865 Our friendship should not have been surprising 797 00:49:58,952 --> 00:50:00,519 to people who watched the court. 798 00:50:02,216 --> 00:50:05,698 He has an extraordinary ability to make you smile. 799 00:50:07,395 --> 00:50:08,918 When we were on the DC circuit together, 800 00:50:11,138 --> 00:50:13,793 Justice Scalia would whisper something to me. 801 00:50:15,316 --> 00:50:18,841 All I could do to avoid laughing out loud, 802 00:50:18,972 --> 00:50:21,192 so I would sometimes pinch myself. 803 00:50:21,279 --> 00:50:22,497 [audience chuckles] 804 00:50:22,628 --> 00:50:23,933 People sometimes ask me, 805 00:50:24,021 --> 00:50:25,848 "Well, what was your favorite Scalia joke?" 806 00:50:25,979 --> 00:50:28,373 And I said, "I know what it is, but I can't tell you." 807 00:50:28,503 --> 00:50:31,811 [audience laughs] 808 00:50:31,941 --> 00:50:34,640 - To justify the position of, well, 809 00:50:34,770 --> 00:50:37,034 you can have some slop over. 810 00:50:37,164 --> 00:50:38,557 You don't have to be too precise about it. 811 00:50:38,687 --> 00:50:39,819 It doesn't matter. 812 00:50:39,949 --> 00:50:42,256 - [Man] He's called an originalist, 813 00:50:42,387 --> 00:50:44,824 meaning he believes that the Constitution 814 00:50:44,954 --> 00:50:47,609 ought to be interpreted more or less 815 00:50:47,740 --> 00:50:50,960 as the founding fathers meant for it to be interpreted. 816 00:50:52,614 --> 00:50:54,964 - Contemplating what the forefathers 817 00:50:55,095 --> 00:50:58,751 would have envisioned had they foreseen modern conditions. 818 00:51:00,318 --> 00:51:02,189 - [Man] Her view is that the Constitution 819 00:51:02,320 --> 00:51:05,062 is what has been called a living document, 820 00:51:05,192 --> 00:51:09,066 meaning it changes as society changes. 821 00:51:10,850 --> 00:51:11,720 - I'm sorry, please. - I was going to. 822 00:51:11,851 --> 00:51:13,244 [muffled speaking] 823 00:51:13,374 --> 00:51:15,246 You wouldn't wanna live in most of the countries 824 00:51:15,333 --> 00:51:17,726 of the world that have a bill of rights 825 00:51:17,813 --> 00:51:19,859 which guarantees freedom of speech and of the press. 826 00:51:19,989 --> 00:51:21,948 You wouldn't wanna live there. 827 00:51:22,079 --> 00:51:25,256 - I have to disagree with my colleagues in that respect. 828 00:51:25,343 --> 00:51:27,649 - [Marvin] I'm glad that you can do it. 829 00:51:27,780 --> 00:51:28,607 First, 830 00:51:28,737 --> 00:51:29,956 [audience laughs] 831 00:51:30,087 --> 00:51:32,654 I don't think that the rest of the world 832 00:51:32,785 --> 00:51:37,398 is regarding our legislature at the current moment 833 00:51:38,443 --> 00:51:40,445 as a model to be followed. 834 00:51:40,575 --> 00:51:43,404 [audience laughs and claps] [soft pleasant music] 835 00:51:43,535 --> 00:51:45,711 - She disagreed with everything that he said, 836 00:51:45,841 --> 00:51:46,842 but she loved how he said it. 837 00:51:48,931 --> 00:51:51,630 I don't think that they ever changed each other's minds. 838 00:51:54,763 --> 00:51:56,069 - Now what's not to like 839 00:51:56,200 --> 00:51:57,940 [audience laughs] 840 00:51:58,071 --> 00:51:59,464 except her views of the law, of course? 841 00:51:59,594 --> 00:52:02,597 [everyone laughs] 842 00:52:02,684 --> 00:52:05,731 - It was about mutual respect. There was a warmth there. 843 00:52:05,861 --> 00:52:07,254 Their families were friends. 844 00:52:07,385 --> 00:52:08,821 They would spend New Year's together. 845 00:52:10,866 --> 00:52:15,480 - And Ruth, honest to goodness, went up behind a motor boat 846 00:52:16,611 --> 00:52:19,745 in a sail- - Parasail. 847 00:52:19,875 --> 00:52:20,615 - Yeah. 848 00:52:20,746 --> 00:52:24,315 [audience laughs] 849 00:52:24,445 --> 00:52:26,795 - She's so light, you would think she would never come down. 850 00:52:26,926 --> 00:52:28,536 [audience laughs] 851 00:52:28,667 --> 00:52:31,931 - There's no greater lover of opera than Justice Ginsburg. 852 00:52:32,061 --> 00:52:35,326 - If I could have any talent God could give me, 853 00:52:35,413 --> 00:52:38,938 I would be a great diva because I simply love opera. 854 00:52:39,068 --> 00:52:40,983 - So to bring together her famous friendship 855 00:52:41,114 --> 00:52:44,857 with Scalia in opera form in many ways was her life's dream. 856 00:52:46,293 --> 00:52:48,556 [bright pleasant music] [set banging] 857 00:52:48,687 --> 00:52:50,210 - [Woman] We're here at the Castleton Opera Festival 858 00:52:50,341 --> 00:52:52,169 for "Scalia/Ginsburg." 859 00:52:52,299 --> 00:52:55,215 It's an opera about two Supreme Court justices, 860 00:52:55,346 --> 00:52:57,652 how they are on opposite sides of the ideological spectrum, 861 00:52:57,783 --> 00:52:58,871 but they're best friends. 862 00:52:59,959 --> 00:53:03,702 ♪ Ruth Bader Ginsburg ♪ 863 00:53:03,832 --> 00:53:05,704 [audience laughs] 864 00:53:05,878 --> 00:53:08,446 ♪ It's not the first time I've had to break ♪ 865 00:53:08,533 --> 00:53:09,925 ♪ Through a ceiling ♪ 866 00:53:10,012 --> 00:53:10,752 [audience laughs and cheers] 867 00:53:10,839 --> 00:53:12,798 ♪ Flexible ♪ 868 00:53:12,972 --> 00:53:15,148 ♪ Just another word for liberal ♪ 869 00:53:15,279 --> 00:53:16,889 [audience laughs] 870 00:53:17,019 --> 00:53:18,412 - [Irin] She did not get to sing the arias herself. 871 00:53:18,543 --> 00:53:21,023 She always says, "I'd have the voice of a sparrow." 872 00:53:21,154 --> 00:53:24,288 - I had a wonderful time. I loved every minute of it. 873 00:53:24,375 --> 00:53:26,420 The song that they sang tonight, 874 00:53:26,551 --> 00:53:27,856 "We are different, we are one," 875 00:53:27,987 --> 00:53:29,554 I think that captures it. 876 00:53:29,728 --> 00:53:31,382 ♪ We are different ♪ 877 00:53:31,512 --> 00:53:33,819 - [Ruth] We each understand the way the other thinks. 878 00:53:33,993 --> 00:53:35,995 ♪ We are one ♪ 879 00:53:39,259 --> 00:53:43,263 [soft poignant instrumental music] 880 00:53:56,537 --> 00:53:59,453 - He was indeed a magnificent performer. 881 00:54:00,976 --> 00:54:04,153 How blessed I was to have a working colleague 882 00:54:04,241 --> 00:54:07,809 and dear friend of such captivating brilliance, 883 00:54:07,940 --> 00:54:10,203 high spirits, and quick wit. 884 00:54:11,639 --> 00:54:16,383 In the words of a duet for tenor Scalia 885 00:54:16,514 --> 00:54:20,779 and soprano Ginsburg, "We were different." 886 00:54:20,866 --> 00:54:24,391 Yes, in our interpretation of written text, 887 00:54:26,219 --> 00:54:29,788 yet one in our reverence for the court 888 00:54:32,225 --> 00:54:33,705 and its place in the US. 889 00:54:43,889 --> 00:54:46,674 [audience applauds] 890 00:54:48,023 --> 00:54:52,767 ♪ Ruth Bader Ginsburg ♪ 891 00:54:52,941 --> 00:54:57,685 ♪ Doctor of law ♪ 892 00:54:58,860 --> 00:55:02,168 ♪ Come to hear us at the opera ♪ 893 00:55:02,342 --> 00:55:06,520 ♪ Direct from the Supreme Court ♪ 894 00:55:06,651 --> 00:55:10,350 [audience cheers and applauds] 895 00:55:21,709 --> 00:55:25,887 - A lot of law students go straight into the world of work, 896 00:55:26,018 --> 00:55:28,107 but one of the transition points to get 897 00:55:28,237 --> 00:55:29,717 into the world of work is clerking. 898 00:55:31,502 --> 00:55:33,852 Clerking is an opportunity to get behind the scenes 899 00:55:33,982 --> 00:55:36,942 and see a little bit of how judges make decisions, 900 00:55:37,029 --> 00:55:38,857 which is an invaluable experience. 901 00:55:38,987 --> 00:55:41,338 [melancholy contemplative instrumental music] 902 00:55:41,468 --> 00:55:44,471 I got very lucky. Yes, I did. 903 00:55:44,602 --> 00:55:46,517 I got very lucky, yes. 904 00:55:46,647 --> 00:55:49,084 Working for Justice Ginsburg was, 905 00:55:49,215 --> 00:55:50,564 in addition to a great honor, 906 00:55:50,651 --> 00:55:52,827 just a tremendous learning experience. 907 00:55:52,958 --> 00:55:57,310 She's a meticulous editor. She's a very independent writer. 908 00:55:57,441 --> 00:55:58,224 She's a very independent thinker. 909 00:56:00,487 --> 00:56:01,967 It was a somewhat unusual year because 910 00:56:02,054 --> 00:56:03,925 of the Bush versus Gore case. 911 00:56:05,666 --> 00:56:07,233 - [Man] The Supreme Court has, for the first time 912 00:56:07,364 --> 00:56:10,149 in American history, decided to step into a legal dispute 913 00:56:10,279 --> 00:56:12,194 in the midst of a presidential election. 914 00:56:12,281 --> 00:56:14,066 [crowd chanting indistinctly] 915 00:56:14,196 --> 00:56:16,285 - That's not every term that you get something like that. 916 00:56:18,853 --> 00:56:20,551 - [Ted] This is something that is unprecedented 917 00:56:20,681 --> 00:56:22,030 in the state of Florida. 918 00:56:22,161 --> 00:56:23,858 That's another change that took place. 919 00:56:23,945 --> 00:56:25,991 - [Ruth] Mr. Olson, you have said the intent 920 00:56:26,121 --> 00:56:27,427 of the voters simply won't do. 921 00:56:27,514 --> 00:56:29,211 It's too vague. It's too subjective. 922 00:56:29,342 --> 00:56:31,388 But at least, at least those words, 923 00:56:31,518 --> 00:56:34,695 intent of the voter, are for the legislature. 924 00:56:36,349 --> 00:56:39,439 - One of the most remarkable things, I felt, 925 00:56:39,570 --> 00:56:42,399 in watching her up close during that time 926 00:56:42,486 --> 00:56:45,402 was that she never lost her cool. 927 00:56:47,229 --> 00:56:50,058 But in the main, you get to see a little bit 928 00:56:50,189 --> 00:56:52,757 of how the court functions as an institution 929 00:56:52,887 --> 00:56:55,586 and how the nine justices decide cases. 930 00:56:57,022 --> 00:56:59,111 I've asked her about how she thinks 931 00:56:59,198 --> 00:57:01,069 about all the work she's done as a judge, 932 00:57:01,200 --> 00:57:03,898 and one of the things she told me is, 933 00:57:04,029 --> 00:57:05,857 "Do your best work on every case, 934 00:57:05,987 --> 00:57:08,425 decide it, and then let it go." 935 00:57:08,555 --> 00:57:10,775 You cast your vote or your write your opinion, 936 00:57:10,905 --> 00:57:13,865 and there's the next case and the next case. 937 00:57:13,995 --> 00:57:16,389 That's true, but your brief contains not a single example 938 00:57:16,520 --> 00:57:18,260 of anything else you think is exempt 939 00:57:18,347 --> 00:57:21,002 from this prohibition other than a law license. 940 00:57:21,133 --> 00:57:22,351 She's been an incredible mentor 941 00:57:22,482 --> 00:57:24,528 to me well past that single year. 942 00:57:24,615 --> 00:57:27,052 I've had the great privilege of remaining 943 00:57:27,139 --> 00:57:28,270 in contact with her. 944 00:57:28,357 --> 00:57:32,100 She's every bit the person she was. [laughs] 945 00:57:32,231 --> 00:57:33,624 And the current current challenges? 946 00:57:35,277 --> 00:57:37,279 - The statute books that were once riddled 947 00:57:37,366 --> 00:57:40,674 with overt sex-based classification, 948 00:57:40,805 --> 00:57:44,548 in the decade of the 70s, almost all of them were gone. 949 00:57:44,678 --> 00:57:48,160 What's left and is harder to get at 950 00:57:48,290 --> 00:57:50,684 is what I call unconscious bias. 951 00:57:54,383 --> 00:57:57,082 Sometimes, it's a device that works 952 00:57:57,212 --> 00:57:59,258 to overcome unconscious bias, 953 00:57:59,388 --> 00:58:03,697 and my example of that is the symphony orchestra. 954 00:58:04,872 --> 00:58:06,874 When I was growing up, you never saw a woman 955 00:58:07,005 --> 00:58:08,180 except playing the harp. 956 00:58:10,095 --> 00:58:12,576 Someone had the bright idea of dropping a curtain 957 00:58:13,707 --> 00:58:15,840 so the people who were conducting the audition 958 00:58:15,927 --> 00:58:18,582 didn't know if it was a woman or a man. 959 00:58:20,453 --> 00:58:23,369 And with that simple change, the dropped curtain, 960 00:58:23,500 --> 00:58:26,241 almost overnight, women started to show up 961 00:58:26,328 --> 00:58:28,461 in symphony orchestras. 962 00:58:28,592 --> 00:58:31,638 Not only do we audition behind a curtain, 963 00:58:31,769 --> 00:58:33,553 but we audition shoeless. 964 00:58:35,512 --> 00:58:38,427 [soft contemplative instrumental music] 965 00:58:38,515 --> 00:58:42,344 - So you now sit on a court that has three women on it. 966 00:58:42,475 --> 00:58:45,304 I actually sit on a court that has the majority 967 00:58:45,434 --> 00:58:48,525 of women on it, including a woman as chief justice. 968 00:58:50,439 --> 00:58:52,180 Do you think that the law would be much different 969 00:58:52,311 --> 00:58:55,053 if there were, say, four or five women 970 00:58:55,183 --> 00:58:56,184 on the US Supreme Court? 971 00:58:57,925 --> 00:58:59,405 - I think it's pretty good that we have three now. 972 00:59:01,233 --> 00:59:02,756 Three makes the big difference 973 00:59:02,887 --> 00:59:04,192 because we're all over the bench, 974 00:59:04,279 --> 00:59:05,585 and I sit toward the middle 975 00:59:05,716 --> 00:59:07,500 because I've been around so long. 976 00:59:07,631 --> 00:59:09,807 [audience laughs] 977 00:59:09,937 --> 00:59:12,592 And if any of you have come to watch the show at the court, 978 00:59:12,723 --> 00:59:15,290 you know that my newest colleagues 979 00:59:15,421 --> 00:59:17,162 are not shrinking violets. 980 00:59:17,292 --> 00:59:19,991 [audience laughs] 981 00:59:21,732 --> 00:59:25,300 And yet there are some cases that at least I think 982 00:59:25,431 --> 00:59:28,565 would have come out the other way 983 00:59:28,695 --> 00:59:32,786 if there were five women or more, 984 00:59:32,917 --> 00:59:35,267 and one of them is Lilly Ledbetter's case. 985 00:59:35,397 --> 00:59:38,400 Every woman understood Lilly's problem. 986 00:59:38,531 --> 00:59:42,579 [contemplative music] [car whooshing past] 987 00:59:42,709 --> 00:59:47,235 Lilly was a woman who worked in a Goodyear tire plant. 988 00:59:47,366 --> 00:59:49,324 She was an area manager. 989 00:59:49,455 --> 00:59:52,284 She was hired in the 1970s 990 00:59:52,414 --> 00:59:53,459 when only men were doing that job. 991 00:59:55,679 --> 00:59:56,984 She was the first woman. 992 01:00:00,988 --> 01:00:04,775 - There was a huge writeup in the "Business Week" magazine 993 01:00:04,905 --> 01:00:06,385 about Goodyear Gadsden. 994 01:00:07,908 --> 01:00:09,910 They were going to start hiring women 995 01:00:10,041 --> 01:00:12,739 and minorities into management positions. 996 01:00:14,262 --> 01:00:16,874 They offered me a job, but I was told, 997 01:00:18,440 --> 01:00:19,354 "You will never discuss your pay." 998 01:00:23,184 --> 01:00:26,797 And no one would ever say anything about their pay. 999 01:00:28,886 --> 01:00:33,586 It was a good job for a woman. Goodyear was hard work. 1000 01:00:33,717 --> 01:00:36,545 I knew it was hot in the factory. 1001 01:00:36,676 --> 01:00:41,115 I knew it was dirty, but I continued to work extremely hard, 1002 01:00:42,856 --> 01:00:45,554 extremely cautious, because I knew, being a woman, 1003 01:00:45,642 --> 01:00:46,338 I could not make a mistake. 1004 01:00:50,559 --> 01:00:51,952 [traffic whooshing past] 1005 01:00:52,039 --> 01:00:53,432 I'd gone in to do my 12-hour shift, 1006 01:00:55,608 --> 01:00:58,176 pulled out all my paperwork, and this whole piece 1007 01:00:58,306 --> 01:01:02,049 of paper had first names, base pay. 1008 01:01:02,180 --> 01:01:03,355 I knew when I saw mine. 1009 01:01:03,485 --> 01:01:05,400 It was exactly to the dollar, 1010 01:01:05,531 --> 01:01:09,840 which was an odd amount, 3,727. 1011 01:01:09,970 --> 01:01:12,451 The other three on that piece of paper 1012 01:01:12,538 --> 01:01:15,976 was almost $6,000 a month base pay. 1013 01:01:18,109 --> 01:01:20,459 - She was at rock bottom. 1014 01:01:20,589 --> 01:01:22,809 The young man that she had trained 1015 01:01:22,940 --> 01:01:24,724 was getting more money than she was. 1016 01:01:26,813 --> 01:01:28,815 - I was embarrassed. I was humiliated. 1017 01:01:28,946 --> 01:01:31,557 I tried to figure out where did this come from? 1018 01:01:31,688 --> 01:01:36,475 Who knew this? I've still got two kids in college. 1019 01:01:36,605 --> 01:01:38,129 I've still got a house mortgage. 1020 01:01:38,259 --> 01:01:39,739 I've still got car payments. 1021 01:01:40,871 --> 01:01:42,786 I can't quit. I can't quit. 1022 01:01:42,916 --> 01:01:44,439 I can't go home. I've got to do this shift. 1023 01:01:49,836 --> 01:01:52,970 I told my husband when I got home that morning, 1024 01:01:53,057 --> 01:01:56,538 "This is not right what's been done to me and my family." 1025 01:01:59,324 --> 01:02:01,761 So I started searching for an attorney 1026 01:02:01,892 --> 01:02:05,112 that could take my case on a contingence basis, 1027 01:02:06,244 --> 01:02:09,638 and we went all the way to the Supreme Court. 1028 01:02:09,769 --> 01:02:11,466 [dramatic music] 1029 01:02:13,947 --> 01:02:15,470 - [John] We'll hear argument next 1030 01:02:15,601 --> 01:02:17,516 in Ledbetter versus Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. 1031 01:02:19,866 --> 01:02:22,608 - Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the court. 1032 01:02:22,739 --> 01:02:24,828 A jury found that at the time petitioner filed her charge 1033 01:02:24,958 --> 01:02:27,569 of discrimination with the EEOC, 1034 01:02:27,700 --> 01:02:30,703 respondent was paying her less for each week's work 1035 01:02:30,790 --> 01:02:32,400 than it paid male employees and 1036 01:02:32,531 --> 01:02:34,011 that it did so because of her sex. 1037 01:02:35,882 --> 01:02:37,318 The question for the court is whether that treatment, 1038 01:02:37,449 --> 01:02:40,626 because of sex, constituted a violation of Title VII. 1039 01:02:42,541 --> 01:02:44,673 - I went to the Supreme Court, 1040 01:02:44,761 --> 01:02:46,414 and I looked up on the beach, 1041 01:02:46,545 --> 01:02:49,113 and there's that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 1042 01:02:50,941 --> 01:02:53,682 - Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 1043 01:02:55,206 --> 01:02:58,035 outlawed discrimination on the basis 1044 01:02:58,165 --> 01:03:01,473 of race, national origin, religion, and sex. 1045 01:03:03,867 --> 01:03:07,740 The employer knew that every woman 1046 01:03:07,871 --> 01:03:10,569 is being paid less than every man. 1047 01:03:10,699 --> 01:03:14,007 Why isn't that sufficient under Title VII? 1048 01:03:15,617 --> 01:03:19,099 - [Man] Justice Ginsburg, Title VII allows proof 1049 01:03:19,230 --> 01:03:22,059 of dissimilar treatment as evidence 1050 01:03:22,189 --> 01:03:24,322 of present intentional discrimination, 1051 01:03:24,452 --> 01:03:26,454 but it's not the elements of the client. 1052 01:03:28,108 --> 01:03:31,242 - I continued to believe and I continued to hope 1053 01:03:31,372 --> 01:03:33,548 that when that verdict came out, 1054 01:03:33,679 --> 01:03:34,549 that it would be in my favor. 1055 01:03:37,204 --> 01:03:39,076 - [John] Justice Alito has our opinion this morning 1056 01:03:39,206 --> 01:03:42,122 in case 05-1074. 1057 01:03:43,820 --> 01:03:45,647 - [Samuel] A jury returned a verdict in her favor 1058 01:03:45,778 --> 01:03:48,607 on the Title VII claim, but the 11th circuit, 1059 01:03:48,737 --> 01:03:50,827 applying our precedence, held that Ledbetter 1060 01:03:50,957 --> 01:03:52,698 had filed her EEOC charge too late. 1061 01:03:55,919 --> 01:03:58,704 We therefore affirm the judgment of the 11th circuit. 1062 01:03:58,835 --> 01:04:01,228 [somber music] 1063 01:04:08,583 --> 01:04:13,240 - Because of a procedural interpretation of employment law, 1064 01:04:14,938 --> 01:04:18,071 a majority of the Supreme Court said that Lilly Ledbetter 1065 01:04:18,202 --> 01:04:22,162 could not bring her case because her time had expired. 1066 01:04:23,903 --> 01:04:25,818 Now, Justice Ginsburg had had her own experiences 1067 01:04:25,949 --> 01:04:27,428 with pay discrimination. 1068 01:04:27,515 --> 01:04:28,995 When she was at Rutgers, she was told, 1069 01:04:29,126 --> 01:04:32,694 "We couldn't possibly pay you what we pay a man 1070 01:04:32,825 --> 01:04:35,828 because your husband makes a good salary." 1071 01:04:35,959 --> 01:04:38,918 - When Justice Ginsburg read that dissent, 1072 01:04:39,005 --> 01:04:40,615 that changed everything totally. 1073 01:04:43,009 --> 01:04:43,923 - [Ruth] Four members of this court, 1074 01:04:44,054 --> 01:04:46,708 Justices Stevens, Souter, Breyer, 1075 01:04:46,839 --> 01:04:50,016 and I dissent from today's decision. 1076 01:04:50,147 --> 01:04:54,499 In our view, the court does not comprehend 1077 01:04:54,629 --> 01:04:58,764 or is indifferent to the insidious way 1078 01:04:58,895 --> 01:05:03,073 in which women can be victims of pay discrimination. 1079 01:05:03,203 --> 01:05:05,727 This is not the first time this court 1080 01:05:05,858 --> 01:05:07,904 has ordered a cramped interpretation 1081 01:05:08,034 --> 01:05:11,168 of Title VII incompatible 1082 01:05:11,298 --> 01:05:13,822 with the statute's broad remedial purpose. 1083 01:05:15,346 --> 01:05:18,392 Today, the ball again lies in Congress's court 1084 01:05:18,479 --> 01:05:21,613 to correct this court's parsimonious reading of Title VII. 1085 01:05:25,922 --> 01:05:28,185 - Earlier this week, Lilly Ledbetter wrote 1086 01:05:28,315 --> 01:05:30,883 to the entire Congress, and I quote, 1087 01:05:31,014 --> 01:05:33,886 "I am still fighting for all the other women 1088 01:05:34,017 --> 01:05:37,194 and girls out there who deserve equal pay 1089 01:05:37,324 --> 01:05:40,501 and equal treatment under the law." 1090 01:05:40,632 --> 01:05:41,807 [audience applauds] 1091 01:05:41,938 --> 01:05:43,504 - [Man] Ladies and gentlemen, 1092 01:05:43,635 --> 01:05:45,767 the president of the United States, 1093 01:05:45,898 --> 01:05:48,857 accompanied by Mrs. Lilly Ledbetter. 1094 01:05:48,988 --> 01:05:52,687 [audience cheers and applauds] 1095 01:05:56,865 --> 01:05:58,389 - I knew walking down that hall 1096 01:05:58,519 --> 01:06:01,174 that that was going to change the country, 1097 01:06:01,305 --> 01:06:04,003 and it was going to change the life of a lot of people. 1098 01:06:06,092 --> 01:06:08,834 - Making our economy work means making sure it works 1099 01:06:08,921 --> 01:06:12,620 for everybody, that there are no second class citizens 1100 01:06:12,751 --> 01:06:16,015 in our workplaces, and that it's not just unfair 1101 01:06:16,146 --> 01:06:19,888 and illegal, it's bad for business to pay somebody less 1102 01:06:19,976 --> 01:06:22,804 because of their gender or their age or their race 1103 01:06:22,935 --> 01:06:25,590 or their ethnicity, religion, or disability. 1104 01:06:25,677 --> 01:06:30,203 [audience cheers and claps] [moving instrumental music] 1105 01:06:33,467 --> 01:06:35,339 - Justice Ginsburg loves this example 1106 01:06:35,469 --> 01:06:37,776 because it's a dialogue between the branches of government. 1107 01:06:39,865 --> 01:06:42,607 Her goal was to build consensus. 1108 01:06:42,694 --> 01:06:46,089 Her famous friendship with Justice Scalia, 1109 01:06:46,219 --> 01:06:50,223 I believe, is also a measure of her commitment to reaching 1110 01:06:50,354 --> 01:06:53,139 across the aisle and working with people out of a belief 1111 01:06:53,270 --> 01:06:56,882 that the court is a sacred institution 1112 01:06:57,013 --> 01:06:58,927 and it works better when there's a sort of collegiality. 1113 01:07:01,626 --> 01:07:05,282 You can agree or disagree without being disagreeable. 1114 01:07:10,809 --> 01:07:12,289 - If you've ever met Justice Ginsburg, 1115 01:07:12,419 --> 01:07:16,902 you would know that she's an incredibly soft-spoken person. 1116 01:07:17,033 --> 01:07:20,819 She's very savvy, but Marty is the more ebullient half 1117 01:07:22,647 --> 01:07:24,649 of that pairing. 1118 01:07:24,779 --> 01:07:26,825 Whenever there was a birthday in chambers, 1119 01:07:26,955 --> 01:07:30,307 Marty would make some out of this world dessert 1120 01:07:30,394 --> 01:07:32,700 of some sort, and we would have tea 1121 01:07:32,831 --> 01:07:34,180 and dessert in the justices' chambers. 1122 01:07:34,311 --> 01:07:35,225 It was very nice. 1123 01:07:36,791 --> 01:07:38,097 And then we also had dinner at her apartment, 1124 01:07:38,228 --> 01:07:41,579 and Marty cooked, which was a real treat. 1125 01:07:41,709 --> 01:07:43,972 [bright lilting instrumental music] 1126 01:07:44,103 --> 01:07:47,802 He was a wise cracker, a chronic, incorrigible wise cracker, 1127 01:07:50,544 --> 01:07:51,850 and that was their shtick was he was the funny one, 1128 01:07:51,980 --> 01:07:54,548 she was the straight one, and that's how they behaved. 1129 01:07:54,679 --> 01:07:55,897 [somber piano music] 1130 01:07:56,028 --> 01:07:58,944 - Marty was my biggest supporter. 1131 01:07:59,075 --> 01:08:03,601 He gave me the courage to believe I could do things 1132 01:08:05,037 --> 01:08:07,083 that I wasn't sure I was able to do. 1133 01:08:09,563 --> 01:08:13,132 - Marty Ginsburg made sure that the president knew 1134 01:08:13,219 --> 01:08:17,005 about just one judge on the DC circuit at that time 1135 01:08:19,573 --> 01:08:21,445 who had made enormous contributions to the law, 1136 01:08:21,575 --> 01:08:23,403 particularly for women. 1137 01:08:23,534 --> 01:08:24,970 - She wouldn't be on the Supreme Court 1138 01:08:25,101 --> 01:08:26,363 if it weren't for Marty. 1139 01:08:26,493 --> 01:08:28,756 He was her campaign manager. 1140 01:08:28,887 --> 01:08:31,237 He really managed a war room, and I was part 1141 01:08:31,368 --> 01:08:34,632 of the war team trying to get people to weigh in 1142 01:08:34,762 --> 01:08:37,939 and write letters to make sure that those people 1143 01:08:38,026 --> 01:08:41,726 were run down and gathered up. 1144 01:08:41,813 --> 01:08:44,598 - I think that having another woman in the Supreme Court 1145 01:08:44,729 --> 01:08:48,254 is central to the importance of what's going on today, 1146 01:08:48,385 --> 01:08:51,736 and I think that Judge Ginsburg's sex is not irrelevant. 1147 01:08:53,085 --> 01:08:55,609 - Weinberger versus Wiesenfeld was a landmark decision 1148 01:08:55,696 --> 01:08:58,699 in the quest for equal rights for men and women. 1149 01:08:58,830 --> 01:09:00,397 I wish to see this committee 1150 01:09:00,484 --> 01:09:01,441 confirm Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg 1151 01:09:01,572 --> 01:09:02,877 to the United States Supreme Court. 1152 01:09:12,235 --> 01:09:16,021 [slow poignant music] 1153 01:09:16,152 --> 01:09:19,372 - I have a feeling probably the last thing Marty said 1154 01:09:19,503 --> 01:09:20,852 to Ruth was, "Hang in there. 1155 01:09:20,982 --> 01:09:22,854 Keep going. Just keep going. 1156 01:09:22,984 --> 01:09:23,681 I'll be watching." 1157 01:09:29,774 --> 01:09:31,689 - [Kathleen] They were devoted to each other. 1158 01:09:34,474 --> 01:09:37,477 She had what people have when their partner's gone, 1159 01:09:38,609 --> 01:09:39,958 figuring out who I am. 1160 01:09:44,832 --> 01:09:48,271 - He will be present in my life as long as I live. 1161 01:09:50,925 --> 01:09:53,667 I have his portrait in my bedroom, 1162 01:09:57,018 --> 01:09:58,455 and I look at it and say, 1163 01:09:58,585 --> 01:10:00,935 "You would probably like what I'm doing now." 1164 01:10:21,173 --> 01:10:23,784 Look at the preamble to our Constitution. 1165 01:10:25,786 --> 01:10:27,353 It says, "We, the people of the United States, 1166 01:10:27,484 --> 01:10:29,964 in order to form a more perfect union." 1167 01:10:32,663 --> 01:10:35,318 Who are we, the people, in the beginning? 1168 01:10:35,448 --> 01:10:38,799 White property-owning men. Who are we, the people, today? 1169 01:10:41,193 --> 01:10:43,935 The United States in all of its diversity, 1170 01:10:44,065 --> 01:10:46,154 and I think the genius of this document 1171 01:10:48,069 --> 01:10:50,550 that was written toward the end of the 18th century 1172 01:10:52,117 --> 01:10:53,988 and has governed us for well over 200 years 1173 01:10:57,165 --> 01:10:59,646 is that it is ever becoming more perfect, 1174 01:10:59,777 --> 01:11:03,520 and we, the people is ever becoming more inclusive. 1175 01:11:12,224 --> 01:11:15,706 - The irony of Justice Ginsburg's time on Supreme Court 1176 01:11:15,836 --> 01:11:19,840 is that she has spent most of it be a great dissenter. 1177 01:11:19,971 --> 01:11:23,496 [slow melancholy music] 1178 01:11:23,627 --> 01:11:27,283 - She dissents with an eye towards making change, 1179 01:11:27,370 --> 01:11:30,329 with an eye towards either Congress 1180 01:11:30,460 --> 01:11:33,767 or a future court vindicating her position. 1181 01:11:35,160 --> 01:11:36,422 She dissents with a purpose. 1182 01:11:39,512 --> 01:11:42,820 - [Ruth] Justices Steven, Souter, Breyer, 1183 01:11:42,950 --> 01:11:47,607 and I strongly descent from today's opinion. 1184 01:11:52,046 --> 01:11:54,048 [echoing boom] 1185 01:11:54,179 --> 01:11:57,138 - [Woman] Five to four was the Supreme Court vote. 1186 01:11:57,269 --> 01:11:59,793 - [Barbara] This begins to chip away at Roe V Wade. 1187 01:12:02,492 --> 01:12:04,494 - [John] I have filed a separate opinion 1188 01:12:04,624 --> 01:12:08,149 that Justice Ginsburg, Justice Breyer, 1189 01:12:08,280 --> 01:12:10,935 and Justice Sotomayor have joined. 1190 01:12:11,065 --> 01:12:13,111 We dissent from the court's decision 1191 01:12:13,241 --> 01:12:15,983 to strike down a key part of that statute. 1192 01:12:16,114 --> 01:12:19,030 [contemplative music] 1193 01:12:20,597 --> 01:12:23,382 [echoing boom] 1194 01:12:23,513 --> 01:12:24,775 - [Woman] It has been called one 1195 01:12:24,905 --> 01:12:26,820 of the biggest threats to our democracy. 1196 01:12:26,951 --> 01:12:28,909 That ruling allowed big companies, 1197 01:12:29,040 --> 01:12:31,129 including foreign corporations, 1198 01:12:31,259 --> 01:12:34,654 to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections. 1199 01:12:38,354 --> 01:12:40,704 - [Ruth] I dissent from today's decision. 1200 01:12:42,401 --> 01:12:46,144 John Thompson spent 14 years isolated on death row 1201 01:12:48,189 --> 01:12:49,800 before the truth came to light. 1202 01:12:49,930 --> 01:12:51,715 The lab reported to the prosecutors 1203 01:12:51,802 --> 01:12:55,153 that the perpetrator's blood type was B. 1204 01:12:56,676 --> 01:12:58,722 Thompson's blood type is O. 1205 01:12:58,852 --> 01:13:02,029 [discordant tense music] 1206 01:13:03,117 --> 01:13:04,728 [echoing boom] 1207 01:13:04,858 --> 01:13:07,818 - [Man] They cannot pay him all of the years that he lost? 1208 01:13:09,297 --> 01:13:10,473 - [Woman] Reporters say he should never 1209 01:13:10,560 --> 01:13:12,213 have been convicted in the first place. 1210 01:13:16,043 --> 01:13:19,090 - Justices Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan, and I dissent. 1211 01:13:21,919 --> 01:13:25,444 [melancholy music] 1212 01:13:25,531 --> 01:13:27,533 - [Shana] I was following the Supreme Court 1213 01:13:29,361 --> 01:13:32,059 and had been looking towards the decision 1214 01:13:32,190 --> 01:13:33,365 that was gonna come out, 1215 01:13:33,496 --> 01:13:34,801 particularly in the voting rights case, 1216 01:13:34,932 --> 01:13:35,149 Shelby County V Holder. 1217 01:13:38,414 --> 01:13:39,371 - [Ruth] The Voting Rights Act 1218 01:13:39,502 --> 01:13:42,722 addresses an extraordinary problem, 1219 01:13:44,332 --> 01:13:46,639 a near century of disregard for the dictates 1220 01:13:46,770 --> 01:13:48,554 of the 15th Amendment, 1221 01:13:48,685 --> 01:13:51,775 and Congress has taken extraordinary measures 1222 01:13:51,862 --> 01:13:52,863 to meet the problem. 1223 01:13:55,518 --> 01:13:59,043 - She dissented from the majority's basically striking 1224 01:13:59,173 --> 01:14:00,479 down one of the most important pieces 1225 01:14:00,610 --> 01:14:03,264 of civil rights legislation in our history. 1226 01:14:03,395 --> 01:14:07,355 [crowd singing and chanting indistinctly] 1227 01:14:07,486 --> 01:14:09,314 - The great man who led the March from Selma to Montgomery 1228 01:14:11,838 --> 01:14:14,711 and there called for the passage of the Voting Rights Act 1229 01:14:14,841 --> 01:14:17,235 foresaw progress, even in Alabama. 1230 01:14:19,803 --> 01:14:23,197 "The arc of the moral universe is long," he said, 1231 01:14:23,328 --> 01:14:25,591 "but it bends toward justice," 1232 01:14:25,722 --> 01:14:28,202 if there is a steadfast commitment 1233 01:14:29,639 --> 01:14:33,077 to see the task through to completion. 1234 01:14:34,861 --> 01:14:38,778 That commitment has been disserved by today's decision. 1235 01:14:42,129 --> 01:14:43,957 - She actually had an edit, 1236 01:14:44,088 --> 01:14:47,134 which I find hilarious because most people think, 1237 01:14:47,265 --> 01:14:48,309 "MLK, he's got this. 1238 01:14:48,396 --> 01:14:51,182 I'm not going to add or amend." 1239 01:14:51,269 --> 01:14:54,751 But she said, "If there is a steadfast commitment 1240 01:14:54,838 --> 01:14:56,274 to see the task to completion." 1241 01:14:58,885 --> 01:15:01,409 It is vintage Ginsburg. 1242 01:15:01,497 --> 01:15:04,978 She's experienced enormous sadness in her life. 1243 01:15:05,065 --> 01:15:07,546 She's lived through backlashes to her life's work. 1244 01:15:07,677 --> 01:15:10,331 We're in the middle of a backlash right now, 1245 01:15:10,462 --> 01:15:12,943 and yet she has kept on fighting. 1246 01:15:16,860 --> 01:15:20,733 - I couldn't believe that five justices had just decided 1247 01:15:20,864 --> 01:15:23,431 that the Voting Rights Act was no longer necessary, 1248 01:15:23,562 --> 01:15:25,390 that racism had been eradicated, 1249 01:15:25,521 --> 01:15:29,176 and that all of these problems of the 1960s just 1250 01:15:29,263 --> 01:15:32,397 didn't matter anymore in terms of voting rights. 1251 01:15:32,528 --> 01:15:37,141 And her words in that moment really spoke to me. 1252 01:15:38,577 --> 01:15:40,405 Basically, throwing away the Voting Rights Act 1253 01:15:40,536 --> 01:15:42,842 was "like throwing away an umbrella 1254 01:15:42,973 --> 01:15:45,410 in a rainstorm because you're not getting wet." 1255 01:15:45,541 --> 01:15:47,499 And I just thought that was just so perfect 1256 01:15:47,630 --> 01:15:51,416 in encapsulating how absurd what the court was doing, 1257 01:15:52,939 --> 01:15:54,201 and that was the first quote that I posted 1258 01:15:54,332 --> 01:15:55,768 on "Notorious RBG." 1259 01:15:55,899 --> 01:15:58,249 ["William Tell Overture"] 1260 01:16:03,950 --> 01:16:06,431 That was the period of time where Tumblr was most popular. 1261 01:16:12,524 --> 01:16:14,439 But I just didn't have any expectation 1262 01:16:14,570 --> 01:16:17,398 that it was going to explode the way that it did. 1263 01:16:21,838 --> 01:16:24,884 - I was just looking at Tumblr today. 1264 01:16:25,015 --> 01:16:26,843 [audience laughs] 1265 01:16:26,973 --> 01:16:28,975 Bobblehead because the head bobbles. 1266 01:16:29,062 --> 01:16:30,368 [audience laughs] 1267 01:16:30,498 --> 01:16:31,587 - [Unison] Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Ooh. 1268 01:16:33,066 --> 01:16:36,635 [audience laughs and applauds] 1269 01:16:38,115 --> 01:16:38,985 [audience laughs] 1270 01:16:39,072 --> 01:16:40,204 - How did this happen? 1271 01:16:40,334 --> 01:16:42,510 [audience laughs] 1272 01:16:42,641 --> 01:16:46,602 - It's amazing, and to think of me an icon at 82. 1273 01:16:47,733 --> 01:16:49,474 [audience laughs and applauds] 1274 01:16:49,605 --> 01:16:52,433 And at first, I didn't know quite what to make of this 1275 01:16:52,564 --> 01:16:55,698 because I didn't even know who Notorious BIG was. 1276 01:16:55,828 --> 01:16:57,569 [audience laughs and applauds] 1277 01:16:57,700 --> 01:17:01,442 - And that's what I think made it so popular is that it 1278 01:17:01,573 --> 01:17:05,142 was this juxtaposition of these completely different people 1279 01:17:05,272 --> 01:17:09,494 but also experienced hardships in their lives and dealt 1280 01:17:09,581 --> 01:17:13,019 with it by pushing back and speaking truth to power. 1281 01:17:13,106 --> 01:17:14,107 [soft lilting instrumental music] 1282 01:17:14,194 --> 01:17:17,415 - My editor connected me with Irin. 1283 01:17:17,502 --> 01:17:19,547 We agreed to work together. 1284 01:17:19,635 --> 01:17:22,289 - [Irin] We wanted to capture that kind of spontaneity, 1285 01:17:22,420 --> 01:17:24,683 the visual lushness, and also turn it into a story. 1286 01:17:26,554 --> 01:17:30,776 - What is going on that she has become this cult figure now? 1287 01:17:32,648 --> 01:17:34,345 - Women are drawn to her, and young people 1288 01:17:34,475 --> 01:17:36,173 in particular are drawn to her. 1289 01:17:36,303 --> 01:17:37,174 [muffled chatter] 1290 01:17:37,261 --> 01:17:39,655 - She just is who she is. 1291 01:17:39,785 --> 01:17:42,179 She's very confident, very aware of herself. 1292 01:17:42,309 --> 01:17:43,484 - She believes in what she believes in, 1293 01:17:43,615 --> 01:17:45,225 and she's gonna say it. 1294 01:17:45,356 --> 01:17:46,792 She's not worried about what people think about her. 1295 01:17:49,839 --> 01:17:50,753 - When I became a Supreme Court justice, 1296 01:17:50,883 --> 01:17:53,277 there were six women in the Senate. 1297 01:17:53,407 --> 01:17:54,582 Now there are 20. 1298 01:17:55,758 --> 01:17:57,455 I was the second woman on the Supreme Court, 1299 01:17:57,585 --> 01:18:02,155 and when Justice O'Connor met, I was all alone. 1300 01:18:03,896 --> 01:18:07,508 Now I have two colleagues, Justice Sonia Sotomayor 1301 01:18:07,639 --> 01:18:09,032 and Justice Elena Kagan. 1302 01:18:10,120 --> 01:18:11,512 People ask me, 1303 01:18:11,643 --> 01:18:14,167 "Well, when do you think there will be enough?" 1304 01:18:14,298 --> 01:18:15,995 I'd say, "Well, when there are nine," 1305 01:18:16,996 --> 01:18:19,695 and people are aghast. 1306 01:18:19,825 --> 01:18:23,307 We've had nine men for most of the country's history, 1307 01:18:23,437 --> 01:18:25,613 and no one thought there was anything wrong with that. 1308 01:18:28,399 --> 01:18:32,969 - And I looked up at the bench on which I sat for 25 years, 1309 01:18:33,883 --> 01:18:35,580 and what could I see? 1310 01:18:35,711 --> 01:18:39,453 I saw on the far right a woman, on the far left side a woman 1311 01:18:41,281 --> 01:18:43,806 and near the middle a woman, and it was dazzling. 1312 01:18:43,936 --> 01:18:45,242 [audience cheers and applauds] 1313 01:18:45,372 --> 01:18:47,940 - It's the first time the public can see we 1314 01:18:48,027 --> 01:18:52,336 are really there, really there to stay, 1315 01:18:52,466 --> 01:18:55,687 not one at a time curiosities. 1316 01:18:55,818 --> 01:18:58,690 [audience applauds] 1317 01:19:00,300 --> 01:19:02,563 At my age, you have to take it year by year. 1318 01:19:02,694 --> 01:19:06,480 I know I'm okay this year, but what will be next year? 1319 01:19:08,352 --> 01:19:11,485 I'm hopeful, however, because my most senior colleague, 1320 01:19:11,572 --> 01:19:14,140 Justice John Paul Stevens, stepped down at age 90. 1321 01:19:15,489 --> 01:19:16,752 So I have a way to go. 1322 01:19:19,189 --> 01:19:22,366 - [Man] A lot of people have been expressing encouragement 1323 01:19:22,496 --> 01:19:24,760 that you eat more kale, so to speak. 1324 01:19:24,847 --> 01:19:27,371 [audience laughs] 1325 01:19:27,501 --> 01:19:30,026 - The number one thing people ask me 1326 01:19:30,156 --> 01:19:33,377 when I talk about Justice Ginsburg is, "How is her health? 1327 01:19:33,507 --> 01:19:34,465 How's she doing?" 1328 01:19:36,423 --> 01:19:38,077 Then they ask, "How can we keep her alive forever? 1329 01:19:40,514 --> 01:19:41,951 Can I give her a kidney?" I hear that a lot. 1330 01:19:42,081 --> 01:19:45,345 [chuckles] She doesn't need one. She's great. 1331 01:19:45,476 --> 01:19:46,346 She's in great shape. 1332 01:19:48,044 --> 01:19:50,481 - I have a personal trainer who keeps me in shape. 1333 01:19:50,568 --> 01:19:55,268 We meet twice a week, and we do 20 pushups 1334 01:19:55,399 --> 01:19:58,358 and then the plank, which I think is harder, 1335 01:19:58,489 --> 01:20:02,972 with Bryant Johnson, my trainer, my trainer since 1999. 1336 01:20:03,102 --> 01:20:04,190 [upbeat lively music] 1337 01:20:04,277 --> 01:20:07,672 I attribute my wellbeing the two hours a week 1338 01:20:07,803 --> 01:20:09,195 when I devote to that. 1339 01:20:11,067 --> 01:20:13,243 - Let's get fully ripped and exploded. 1340 01:20:13,373 --> 01:20:15,288 Let's get shredded. Let's get stupid strong. 1341 01:20:16,463 --> 01:20:17,334 - Let's go. 1342 01:20:26,778 --> 01:20:29,607 - [Neil] Judging from her push-up regimen, she is not done. 1343 01:20:29,737 --> 01:20:30,956 Justice, welcome. 1344 01:20:31,087 --> 01:20:33,872 [audience applauds] 1345 01:20:36,135 --> 01:20:40,748 - The term just ending was momentous. 1346 01:20:42,707 --> 01:20:45,057 Our docket included far more than the usual number 1347 01:20:45,144 --> 01:20:48,539 of high-profile disputes. 1348 01:20:51,716 --> 01:20:56,112 But topping the headline news at our closing conference, 1349 01:20:56,242 --> 01:21:00,638 Justice Kennedy announced his retirement effective today. 1350 01:21:04,250 --> 01:21:07,514 Counting his years as a judge of the US Court of Appeals 1351 01:21:07,645 --> 01:21:09,342 for the 9th Circuit, 1352 01:21:09,429 --> 01:21:13,869 he has served on the federal judiciary for 43 years. 1353 01:21:14,695 --> 01:21:17,611 [audience applauds] 1354 01:21:19,526 --> 01:21:22,616 - How has the court changed over the quarter century 1355 01:21:22,703 --> 01:21:23,574 that you've served on it? 1356 01:21:25,881 --> 01:21:27,012 How is it different than when you started? 1357 01:21:27,143 --> 01:21:29,362 - Well, one thing that isn't different 1358 01:21:29,493 --> 01:21:32,670 is the collegiality of the court, and that remains. 1359 01:21:35,368 --> 01:21:38,545 Of course, I miss my favorite sparring partner, 1360 01:21:38,676 --> 01:21:40,243 Justice Scalia, 1361 01:21:40,373 --> 01:21:43,507 [soft poignant music] 1362 01:21:43,637 --> 01:21:45,335 but you don't see that kind 1363 01:21:45,465 --> 01:21:49,121 of friendship existing in our Congress anymore. 1364 01:21:49,208 --> 01:21:49,905 It once did. 1365 01:21:53,038 --> 01:21:54,257 I hope it will again. 1366 01:22:00,437 --> 01:22:03,614 There was a great man once said "that the true symbol 1367 01:22:07,226 --> 01:22:10,621 of the United States is not the bald eagle. 1368 01:22:10,708 --> 01:22:11,752 It is the pendulum. 1369 01:22:13,667 --> 01:22:17,454 And when the pendulum swings too far in one direction, 1370 01:22:17,541 --> 01:22:17,845 it will go back." 1371 01:22:21,240 --> 01:22:22,720 I grew up at the time of World War II. 1372 01:22:25,331 --> 01:22:28,856 The irony was we were fighting a war against racism, 1373 01:22:30,206 --> 01:22:33,513 and yet by an executive order of President Roosevelt, 1374 01:22:37,213 --> 01:22:38,866 people who had done nothing wrong 1375 01:22:40,390 --> 01:22:42,348 except they were of Japanese ancestry, 1376 01:22:43,959 --> 01:22:48,267 were interned in camps far from their homes. 1377 01:22:50,878 --> 01:22:52,619 That was a dreadful mistake. 1378 01:22:58,147 --> 01:23:01,977 Well, I would say that we are not experiencing the best 1379 01:23:02,107 --> 01:23:05,806 of times, but my dream is that we 1380 01:23:05,937 --> 01:23:07,983 will get back to it one day. 1381 01:23:08,113 --> 01:23:10,246 I think it will take a strong people 1382 01:23:11,595 --> 01:23:14,076 from both parties to say, 1383 01:23:14,206 --> 01:23:17,035 "Let's get together and work for the good of the country." 1384 01:23:24,390 --> 01:23:26,610 Let's try in the aisle. Yes, yes. 1385 01:23:28,438 --> 01:23:29,874 - If you could predict, how many more years 1386 01:23:30,005 --> 01:23:32,659 do you think it'll be until a woman becomes president? 1387 01:23:34,009 --> 01:23:35,401 - [Ruth] How many do you think? 1388 01:23:39,753 --> 01:23:41,929 - The year? - Year? [laughs] 1389 01:23:42,060 --> 01:23:45,716 - Well, I will predict that it will happen in your lifetime. 1390 01:23:45,803 --> 01:23:47,544 I'm not certain it will happen in mine, 1391 01:23:47,674 --> 01:23:52,244 but I will make a prediction that it will happen, 1392 01:23:56,118 --> 01:23:59,469 that you will see a woman as president of the United States. 1393 01:24:00,470 --> 01:24:03,429 [soft poignant music] 1394 01:24:05,388 --> 01:24:08,043 - Recognizing that this is probably the last time 1395 01:24:08,130 --> 01:24:10,915 that the American people will ever have a chance 1396 01:24:11,046 --> 01:24:13,874 to glimpse you as a person and what you 1397 01:24:13,961 --> 01:24:17,400 would like them to think most of all when they think of you? 1398 01:24:22,187 --> 01:24:25,582 - As someone who cares about people 1399 01:24:25,712 --> 01:24:29,194 and does the best she can with the talent she has 1400 01:24:29,325 --> 01:24:31,849 to make a contribution 1401 01:24:36,201 --> 01:24:41,032 for a better world. 1402 01:24:42,773 --> 01:24:44,862 [soaring moving music] 1403 01:25:06,101 --> 01:25:10,583 - How long was you working at the Supreme Court? 1404 01:25:10,714 --> 01:25:12,890 - How long have you been working at the Supreme Court? 1405 01:25:14,457 --> 01:25:16,372 - Almost 24 years. 1406 01:25:16,459 --> 01:25:21,159 [kid gasps loudly] [audience laughs] 1407 01:25:24,989 --> 01:25:28,340 - I found it the most popular question on a college campus, 1408 01:25:28,471 --> 01:25:30,908 young women want to know what kind of tires do I buy? 1409 01:25:32,953 --> 01:25:33,693 Don't buy Goodyear. 1410 01:25:41,658 --> 01:25:44,922 - He never paid me. I never received my dollar to this day. 1411 01:25:45,052 --> 01:25:46,967 We still talk, but I never received my dollar. 1412 01:25:53,583 --> 01:25:56,238 - I've argued five times in the Supreme Court. 1413 01:25:56,368 --> 01:26:00,633 Justice Ginsburg asks terrific questions. 1414 01:26:00,764 --> 01:26:03,070 They always go to the very heart of the case. 1415 01:26:03,201 --> 01:26:06,030 I just wish sometimes she would speak a little bit louder 1416 01:26:06,161 --> 01:26:07,466 when she was asking her questions. 1417 01:26:15,213 --> 01:26:17,955 - Professor Nabokov of changed the way I read, 1418 01:26:18,042 --> 01:26:19,739 and he changed the way I write. 1419 01:26:20,871 --> 01:26:23,003 Even when I'm drafting opinion, 1420 01:26:23,134 --> 01:26:26,006 thinking how the word order should go I remember him. 1421 01:26:31,273 --> 01:26:32,448 - [Man] Is there a reason 1422 01:26:32,578 --> 01:26:34,754 why you prefer gender discrimination 1423 01:26:34,885 --> 01:26:37,583 instead of sex discrimination? 1424 01:26:37,670 --> 01:26:42,240 - In the 70s when I was writing briefs, I had a secretary, 1425 01:26:44,068 --> 01:26:48,028 and she said, "I've been typing this word, sex, sex, sex, 1426 01:26:48,159 --> 01:26:49,508 and let me tell you. 1427 01:26:49,639 --> 01:26:51,510 Use the word gender. 1428 01:26:51,641 --> 01:26:55,514 It will ward off distracting associations." 1429 01:26:55,645 --> 01:26:58,256 [audience laughs] 1430 01:27:02,304 --> 01:27:04,306 - The analogy is apt in that both Thurgood Marshall 1431 01:27:04,436 --> 01:27:07,613 with Ruth Bader Ginsburg were using the law 1432 01:27:07,744 --> 01:27:08,962 in a creative way to advance civil rights. 1433 01:27:15,186 --> 01:27:17,406 - My dear mother-in-law gave me some counsel. 1434 01:27:17,493 --> 01:27:22,149 She said, "Remember that in every good marriage, 1435 01:27:24,848 --> 01:27:28,852 it helps sometimes to be a little hard of hearing." 1436 01:27:30,201 --> 01:27:32,986 [audience laughs and applauds] [pleasant lilting music] 1437 01:27:37,600 --> 01:27:40,603 - Your marriage is one reason we decided to give it a shot. 1438 01:27:56,967 --> 01:28:00,362 - Equal Rights Amendment was intended to prevent government 1439 01:28:00,449 --> 01:28:05,149 from slotting a person solely on the basis of sex. 1440 01:28:05,280 --> 01:28:08,761 The amendment arms the judiciary with a bedrock principle. 1441 01:28:11,068 --> 01:28:15,768 all men and all women are entitled 1442 01:28:16,856 --> 01:28:18,162 to equal justice under law. 1443 01:28:20,512 --> 01:28:21,600 Thank you. 1444 01:28:21,731 --> 01:28:24,560 [audience applauds]