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, died this Friday at the age of 87, due to complications from pancreatic cancer.
According to a statement from the Supreme 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.
Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg confirms that she has received chemotherapy since May for liver cancer
July 17, 202000: 26
Ginsburg would have won an award for attendance in the Supreme Court, where she
never missed an oral hearing
despite the debilitating chemotherapy sessions she received for years for
three types of cancer,
or in 2010, after the death of her husband.
Political leaders from both parties, celebrities and civic groups praised Ginsburg's work and figure, considered the most accomplished of the US highest court judges.
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
“to play a little deaf
from time to time”
, 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 highest tribune, where she arrived in 1993 after her nomination at that time. 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.
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, press freedom, and legal independence, and likewise expressed
her disdain for Donald Trump in 2016,
calling it "fake."
He later apologized for that public comment in the middle of the contest, but resisted withdrawing so as not to give him the pleasure of appointing another conservative judge.
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