Courage.
While still a practicing lawyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 1973 argued to 9 men on the United States Supreme Court in a historically significant case, Frontiero v. Richardson, 411 U.S. 677 (1973).
Ginsburg asked the Supreme Court to recognize for the first time that the guarantee of “equal protection of the laws” contained in the Fifth Amendment (ratified in 1791) protected women and men from discrimination based on sex.
In talking to the 9 men on the Supreme Court, Ginsburg stated: I “urge[] a position forcibly stated in 1837 by Sara Grimke, noted abolitionist and advocate of equal rights for men and women. She spoke not elegantly, but with unmistakable clarity. She said, ‘I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.’ ”
The Supreme Court ruled nearly unanimously in her favor (8–1).
Farewell, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
“And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”
(Shakespeare, Hamlet.)
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