Ruth-Bader-Ginsberg

My first Rosh Hashanah away from home and family was supposed to be unremarkable. I planned to be with friends, make some semblance of a holiday dinner, braid my first challah, and FaceTime my parents and brother to wish them a sweet and happy new year. Yet, it was only minutes after hearing the blast of the shofar—the signal that a new year has begun—that I heard the sounds of incoming texts, tweets, and Apple News alerts that would signal the end of an era. All these electronic blasts brought the same news: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Supreme Court justice whose shoulders bore the weight of our country’s democracy, had died.

The conductor entered the stage, turning to an oboist for a tuning note. Once the tuning subsided, he composed himself and the room went silent. He lifted his arms, the ensemble took a collective breath, and on the downbeat, the tuba began to play.

The Notorious RBG, or Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Law ’59, is now one of the most well-known members of the Supreme Court bench and a cultural icon. The popularity of “On the Basis of Sex,” the movie based on Justice Ginsburg’s involvement in the 1972 case Charles E. Moritz v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, perhaps embodies this phenomenon more than anything else.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Law ’59, cracked jokes, told personal stories, and gave advice to current law students at a panel on Friday.

In a world ruled by questionable politics, one justice perseveres with her dissenting opinions—the notorious Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Law ’59.

Last December, I turned 20. This is, for many people, only an inconsequential farewell to their teenage years, something as welcome as it is inevitable. Everyone in the world knows this: You still have 10 whole years to make as many mistakes as you can. For me, however, my birthday also marked the uneasy beginning of a mid-college crisis: Has my Columbia experience been everything I imagined it to be? As a junior, have I carved out enough communities for myself? And—the thought is near-unspeakable—what happens after college?

The opening lines of Duran Duran’s “Notorious” echoed through Lerner Hall as Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Law ’59, took the stage on Sunday.

She opened the door—but at what cost?

How did you spend your hump day? I bet you didn't have as good a time as Christine Nelson, CC '17, and the rest of her political science seminar. Sidney Rosdeitcher's Constitutional Law class took a nbd field trip to the Supreme Court for some lawyer-slaying spectatorship.