Notorious R.B.G.: How a U.S. Supreme Court Justice Became a Pop Culture Icon

Our guest blogger today is Katherine Kerbs Best, Drafting Attorney for the Missouri House of Representatives in the area of elections, utilities, state government, tourism, and ethics. She earned an AA from Cottey College in 2012, a BA in English and History from William Jewell College in 2014, and a JD from The University of Missouri in 2017. She enjoys reading, hiking, and spending time with her husband, infant son, and their one-eyed pit bull. Thanks Katherine!

Katherine Kerbs Best at RBG lecture in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 2019.

Halloween costumes, tattoos, t-shirts, manicures, jewelry, fan blogs, Lego sets, movies, documentaries, bobble heads, SNL skits, socks. These tributes are generally reserved for the height of American celebrities: movie stars, musicians, athletes. And Supreme Court Justices?

“A visitor sports Ruth Bader Ginsburg socks at the National Book Festival, August 31, 2019.” Photo by Shawn Miller/Library of Congress.

In June of 2013, the United States Supreme Court announced its decision in Shelby County v. Holder, overturning key components of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg authored the dissent, which she read from the bench when the court announced its decision. Ginsburg read her dissents from the bench five times in the 2012-13 term...something that hadn’t been done in over fifty years.

Paying careful attention to the court’s new opinions, as most law students are wont to do, Shana Khizhnik was entranced by Ginsburg’s dissent. She was inspired, in true millennial fashion, to start a blog about the diminutive justice and the “Notorious R.B.G.” was born. Shana came up with the name as a play on the rapper, Notorious B.I.G. Both Notorious’ hailed from Brooklyn and had a way with words, but the similarities between 6’2”, 300 pound Biggie and 5’1”, skin and bones Ruth ended there. 

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, United States Supreme Court Justice

The blog took off and suddenly Notorious R.B.G. was, well….notorious. With the help of Shana’s blog, R.B.G.’s ascent to the Supreme Court became part of pop culture. Graduating from law school in 1960, Ginsburg had trouble finding employment despite being at the top of her class. Her prospective employers were not shy about dismissing her based on her sex, but she eventually accepted a clerkship with a federal judge. She later entered academia, teaching at Rutgers and Columbia law schools.

Ginsburg’s major contribution to the legal field began in 1972 when she joined the ACLU as the director of the newly formed Women’s Rights Project. When reviewing cases to accept, Ginsburg took a novel and genius approach in her plan to achieve legal equality between the sexes: she chose cases that involved discrimination against men. In Weinberger v. Wisenfeld, Ginsburg successfully argued that widowers should be eligible for the same extra benefits as widows when caring for minor children. She also wrote an amicus (“friend of the court”) brief in Craig v. Boren, which challenged the different drinking ages for men and women in Oklahoma. This was also the case in which the Supreme Court first applied “intermediate scrutiny.” This is a step above “rational basis,” which is the standard the court uses to examine most alleged discrimination and a step below “strict scrutiny,” which the court uses to examine alleged discrimination based on race, among other “suspect” classifications. Intermediate scrutiny is still used today.

“Notorious R.B.G. Sign at SCOTUS, March 1, 2016.” Photograph by Lorie Shaull. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Listen_up!!_All_Them_Fives,_Notorious_RBG_sign_at_SCOTUS_this_morning_(25416505006).jpg#_blank

The men on the Supreme Court were receptive to Ginsburg’s strategy and so, little by little, Ginsburg chipped away at laws that treated men and women differently on the road to achieving her ultimate goal of full equality under the law for men and women. We’re still not there, but the Notorious R.B.G. is the architect of many of the forward leaps.

With the help of Shana Khizhnik, Ginsburg’s forgotten history as one of the greatest legal minds in the fight for women’s equality is now widely known. More aspects of Ginsburg’s life contribute to her notoriety: she works out harder than you do. She was besties with Justice Antonin Scalia, her polar opposite in ideology. There’s even an opera written about them and a photo of them riding an elephant together. She’s beaten cancer four times. 

“2018 Women’s March in Missoula, Montana.” Photo by Montanasuffragettes. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2018_Women%27s_March_in_Missoula,_Montana_69.jpg

In a speech at the University of Buffalo, Ginsburg said her presence in pop culture is “beyond her wildest imagination.” Further, she says “if I am notorious, it is because I had the good fortune to be alive and a lawyer in the late 1960s” at a time when it became possible to assert the equality of the sexes. Fame doesn’t ruffle the unflappable Ginsburg, but for those familiar with her life’s accomplishments, she’ll always be Notorious.

 

Sources and Further Exploration

Carmon, Irin and Shana Knizhnik. Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. New York: Harper Collins, 2015.

 Ginsburg, Ruth Bader. My Own Words. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016.

 Johnson, Bryant. The RBG Workout: How She Stays Strong…and You Can Too! New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017.

 “Notorious R.B.G.: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in all her glory,” accessed June 19, 2020. https://notoriousrbg.tumblr.com/

 On the Basis of Sex. Directed by Mimi Leder. Focus Features, 2018.

“Ruth Bader Ginsburg Speaks about Being Called ‘The Notorious R.B.G.” NBC News, accessed June 19, 2020. https://www.nbcnews.com/video/ruth-bader-ginsburg-speaks-about-being-called-the-notorious-r-b-g-67471429889

 

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