Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Supreme Court Justice, dies at 87

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the iron judge who dedicated her life to fighting gender discrimination and overcame many adversities before landing on the Supreme Court in 1993,

, due to complications from pancreatic cancer.

According to a statement from the highest court, Ginsburg died this Friday night surrounded by her family in Washington DC, and will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

She is survived by her children Jane Carol and James Steven, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Conservative John Roberts, said that

We have lost a precious colleague.

Today we are grieving but confident that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her, a tireless and determined defender of justice.

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Ginsburg would have won an award for attendance in the Supreme Court, where she

despite the debilitating chemotherapy sessions she received for years for

or in 2010, after the death of her husband.

Political leaders from both parties, celebrities and civic groups praised the work and figure of Ginsburg, considered the most accomplished of the judges of the highest court in the United States.Groups of people flocked to the outskirts of the Supreme Court this Friday night (local time) after hearing the news.

A man kneels in front of the Supreme Court after hearing the news of Ginsburg's passing.REUTERS

Slender and just five feet tall, her physical appearance might project fragility, but that would be a hoax: Ginsburg once joked that, thanks to her personal trainer, she could lift more weights than some of her colleagues on the bench.

She was also not lacking in a sense of humor: she used to repeat her mother-in-law's wise advice that the secret to a lasting marriage, in her opinion, was

, something that, according to Ginsburg, also worked in the court.

Known by the nickname of 'Kiki' among her relatives, or 'the notorious RBG' –for her firmness and incomparable dissent in certain cases– she left her mark as a progressive leader in the Supreme Court, where she arrived in 1993 after her nomination by the then president Bill Clinton.

Ginsburg was then the second justice on the Supreme Court, after Sandra Day O'Connor, in a court dominated by white men for most of its history.

Flowers and tributes to Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg in front of the United States Supreme Court on Saturday, September 19, 2020.REUTERS / Carlos Barria

Following the retirement of John Paul Stevens in 2010, Ginsburg was the highest ranking judge in the progressive quartet, complete with Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

A prolific author and influential leader, Ginsburg has always supported abortion rights and the #MeToo movement for women's rights, freedom of the press, and legal independence.

Similarly, he expressed

calling him "false."

He later apologized for that public comment in the middle of the contest.

During a campaign rally in Minnesota, Trump does not mention Ginsburg by name, but has said he wants to name a new judge who can achieve confirmation in the Senate with bipartisan support, like Republican Senator Ted Cruz.

"Ted is the only man I know who can get 100 votes out of the Senate, all senators will vote for him," Trump said.

“One of the good things we have done with the Supreme Court, we have two justices on the Supreme Court.

said Trump, interrupted by applause.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg.Getty Images

Last year, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made it clear that he would fill any vacancies in the Supreme Court but, 45 days before the election, it is unknown if the caucus will stand together to give Trump another victory. legislation of this magnitude.

Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tweeted after news broke that

This is the same rule McConnell used in 2016 to prevent the confirmation of Merrick Garland, nominated by Obama in the spring of that year after another Supreme Court judge, Antonin Scalia, died.

In defense of women

Ginsburg is primarily

She defended six cases on gender equality before the Supreme Court during the 1970s, as one of the few pioneers in her field.

After venturing as a law professor, first at Rutgers University and then at Columbia University, Ginsburg joined the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), from where she co-founded in 1972 and led the Women's Rights Project.

President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton following the nomination of Ruth Bader Ginsburg as Supreme Court Justice.REUTERS

She was, in her essence, a feminist leader when the defense of women was just beginning its steep struggle, without the ease or immediacy that social networks now offer.

In fact, Ginsburg won all six cases before the Supreme Court without suspecting that, two decades later, he

in the same marble building.

His life has served as the inspiration for numerous forums, books, extensive media coverage, radio and television programs, documentaries, cartoons and other expressions of popular culture.

Ginsburg was born into a Jewish working-class household in Brooklyn, New York, in 1933, during the Great Depression.

Her mother, Celia Amster, worked in a clothing factory, and her father, Nathan Bader, as a fur seller.

His mother, who instilled in him the value of education, passed away from cancer the day before Ginsburg graduated from James Madison High School.

A graduate with high honors in Government from Cornell University in 1954, she put her plans in the freezer after marrying her husband, Martin (Marty) Ginsburg, with whom she had their daughter, Jane, the following year.

Their second son, James, was born in 1965.

A life of adversity

Subsequently, she enrolled in Harvard Law School in 1955, when her husband completed his military service.

Her life was turned upside down the following year when, in addition to attending her studies, she had to take care of Martin, who was diagnosed with cancer while also completing his law degree at Harvard.

Like many women, Ginsburg tried to balance her family obligations and career ambitions, as she

, in a class of 500 and where many resented a woman 'stealing the job' from a man.

Ginsburg encountered gender discrimination in the

, despite her hard-earned position as the first woman in the prestigious legal magazine.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is hospitalized for possible infection

July 15, 202000: 28

The couple moved to New York because of a job offer from Martin, and Ginsburg completed his studies at Columbia University in 1959.

His impeccable academic trajectory could not fight the machismo and wage inequality that prevailed in the labor market, and

Ginsburg continued to climb the ladder despite institutional barriers, so much so that she tried to hide her second pregnancy during her time at Rutgers, according to her biographers.

Her reputation and rigor as a prosecutor reached the ears of the president, Jimmy Carter, who appointed her a judge on the US capital's Court of Appeals in 1980, where she remained until Clinton appointed her to the Supreme Court. 

Without fear of making history

In one of the most important cases of his career, Ginsburg wrote in 1996 the majority opinion in

which ordered the Virginia Military Institute to

In 2007, in

the Court dismissed Lilly Ledbetter's lawsuit against the tire company because, as a manager, she earned vastly less than the men for the same work, but she apparently filed the complaint outside of the statutory time frame.

Ginsburg wrote a passionate dissent on behalf of the progressive minority, and succeeded in getting Congress to pass the Fair Pay Act of 2009, which bears Ledbetter's name and was the first law enacted by then-President Barack Obama.

In his office, Ginsburg has a copy framed with a message from Obama that reads:

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a Feb. 10, 2020, file photo.

In 2012, Ginsburg published another of his most notable opinions when he defended the constitutionality of the health care reform known as Obamacare, and the power of Congress to adopt welfare laws. 

In 2015, in

, Ginsburg supported the legality of marriage for same-sex couples across the country.

And on June 18, Ginsburg voted along with the five justices who supported the continuation of DACA for more than 650,000 dreamers.

Those who know her well assure that Ginsburg never changed neither in genius nor in style: speaking slowly,

looking for holes in the arguments of both sides in a litigation.

Until the day of his death, Ginsburg fiercely defended the legal independence of the Supreme Court, and preferred that social reforms come from the hands of the Legislature.

Journalists Juliana Jiménez and Eulimar Núñez contributed to the editing and publication of this article.