The movie explores the real life of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and her role in the legal world and as a pop culture icon, the ‘Notorious RBG.’
Ginsburg was born in the Upper East side in New York City, as a first-generation American-Jew. She undertook a degree at Cornell University and later enrolled at Harvard Law School, where she was one of nine women out of a class population of 500 students. She later transferred to Columbia Law School , and went on to be a member of the Columbia Law Review.
The film then follows onto her career in litigation and advocacy. In 1972, Ginsburg went on to found the Women's Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which was involved in 300+ gender discrimination cases by 1974. Out of the six gender discrimination cases she argued before the Supreme Court between 1973 and 1976, she was successful in 5.
Her prominent cases involve Moritz v. Commissioner (1972) in which she took a stance on behalf of a man who had been denied a deduction in caregiver tax because of his gender, and which inspired the movie On the Basis of Sex (2018).
In Frontiero v. Richardson (1973) she successfully challenged the inequality in housing claims made by female and male service members, with the Supreme Court ruling 8–1 in Frontiero's favor.
She was also successful in Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld (1975) where she fought for the rights of widowers in gaining survivor benefits under Social Security, and argued that male survivors faced discrimination on this.
The film also comments on Ginsburg’s personal life, including her health battles again colon and pancreatic cancer. The film ends with Ginsburg stating she will continue to advocate for women’s rights and ends with an original song, ‘I’ll Fight’, performed by Jennifer Hudson.
