“There’s something you’ve got to read.”
It can be effectively argued that the long, slow, inexorable and inevitable process leading to the resignation of Pres. Richard M. Nixon began with a simple question posed to cub reporter Bob Woodward: “Can you come in?” The story of epochal changes in the lives of famous people probably almost always begin with such mundane pleasantries; such is certainly the case with the rise of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. While she was poring over paperwork related to something else entirely in the bedroom one night, Ruth heard the words quoted above ring in from the dining room courtesy of her husband. Her replay was “I don’t read tax cases.”
But, as it turns out, she would read the tax case to which Marty was referring, one that dealt the peculiar but not exactly unusual circumstances unmarried middle-aged traveling salesman Charles Moritz and his aging and increasingly health-challenged mother. At its heart, the case was less about health care than something of much greater passion to Ruth: gender discrimination. It would become the case that changed only everything for her and ironically it all commenced with about as simple a request as one can imagine.
The Superstar That Almost Wasn’t
The path toward iconic status for Ginsburg was long and hard. So long, in fact, that it almost never happened. We’ll never know for sure just how close pop culture actually came to going without “The Notorious RBG” but, ironically, it was not her conservative opposition that almost obstructed fate, but like-minded progressives on her side of the issues:
“Not long before pop culture discovered RBG, liberal law professors and commentators began telling her the best thing she could do for what she cared about was to quit, so that President Barack Obama could appoint a successor. RBG, ardently devoted to her job, has mostly brushed that dirt off her shoulder.”
The Reluctant Superstar
Not only is there irony in that the forces of progressive thought almost curtailed her rise to superstar status right as it was about to begin, the even greater irony is that the superstar herself worked so tirelessly to avoid it herself. RBG became Notorious in spite of herself:
“`RBG was never in it to be the only one, to be the superstar that nobody could match,' says fellow feminist attorney Marcia Greenberger. RBG mentored legions of feminist lawyers and happily welcomed Sotomayor and Kagan to the Supreme Court.”
The World Before Roe v. Wade
Reproductive rights are another issue that stimulates the passion of Ginsburg. She is a firebrand for protecting them, especially as the efforts to not protect them sometimes seem so overwhelming. Even readers familiar with the history of the fight for legalized abortion may be surprised at the irony of the situation at hand before Roe v. Wade:
“Captain Susan Struck, an air force nurse, never considered herself a feminist, but…in 1970, when she got pregnant, she refused to quit or get an abortion, the only options the military offered her. Ironically, abortion was still illegal almost everywhere in the United States…Military bases were the exception.”
The Odd Couple
Of course, it almost goes without saying that the one of the single greatest ironies associated with Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the deep and abiding friendship that developed between her and fellow justice Antonin Scalia. Ideologically speaking, the two represented completely opposite poles on the spectrum and the chasm existing between them on the issues would normally—or so it would seem—have been an obstruction to finding common ground elsewhere. Instead, defying all expectations, they two became inseparably close, profoundly ironic examples of a real life odd couple.
