Army of secretaries to bid final farewell to Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Most Memorable Speeches 2:44

(CNN) -

When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg returns to the Supreme Court for the last time, this Wednesday, an army of more than a hundred of her former clerks will gather with the coffin and escort her down the stone steps leading to the great hall. where the liberal icon presided for almost 30 years.

The Supreme Court, built on precedent and rooted in tradition, will honor Ginsburg in a private ceremony and then a public hearing.

But his former secretaries, who stand guard, will not abandon the coffin.

• ANALYSIS |

  Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death could reshape elections

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US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg pictured in Washington in 2013. She was the second woman to be in the highest court of Justice.

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She was born on March 15, 1933 as Joan Ruth Bader.

In this photo she was two years old.

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She met her husband, Martin, while attending Cornell University, and they both studied law.

They got engaged in December 1953.

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She was the first woman hired as an incumbent at Columbia University School of Law.

She also taught at Rutgers University.

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President Bill Clinton appointed Ginsuburg to the US Supreme Court in June 1993. Here he is holding a photo of Hillary Clinton singing the "toothbrush song" with Ginsburg's granddaughter Clara.

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During his confirmation hearing, Ginsburg holds up a book titled "My Grandma is Very Special" written by Paul Spera, his grandson.

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Ginsburg is sworn in on the Supreme Court before Attorney General William Rehnquist in August 1993.

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Ginsburg poses with his family on the Supreme Court in October 1993.

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Ginsuburg, second from left, appeared in the opening night production of "Ariadne auf Naxos," an opera at the Kennedy Center in 1994.

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Ginsburg and Judge Sandra Day O'Connor hold balls given to them by the U.S. women's basketball team in December 1995.

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Ginsburg, front right, poses with other prominent Jewish Americans on Ellis Island in 1996. The image is part of a project by photographer Frederic Brenner.

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Ginsburg poses with President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice at the State Department on January 28, 2005, when he was sworn in.

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Ginsburg served on the Supreme Court in 2007 in a "Super Diva" hoodie.

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Ginsubur arrives at a session of Congress in which President Barack Obama was speaking in 2009. That month she had undergone surgery and treatment for an early stage of pancreatic cancer.

A decade earlier, she had received successful surgery for colon cancer.

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The only women to become Supreme Court justices pose in 2010. From left to right: Sandra Day O'Connor, Sonia Sotomayor, Ginsburg and Elena Kagan.

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While waiting to receive an honorary degree from Harvard University, Ginsburg is surprised by a serenade by Placido Domingo in 2011.

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Ginsburg talks to Hilarry Clinton at the State Department in Washington in 2012.

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The US Supreme Court, with its newest member Brett Kavanaugh, poses for an official portrait in Washington in November 2018.

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Ginsburg makes his first public appearance after it was announced in August 2019 that he had received treatment for pancreatic cancer.

It was during the acceptance of an honorary degree at the University at Buffalo.

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Ginsburg participates in a discussion on the 19th Amendment at Georgetown University in February 2020. It is the amendment that guarantees the vote of women in America.

In addition to your family and your written opinions, Ginsburg employees are your most enduring legacy.

They began their tenure as young, inexperienced attorneys and emerged with unmatched legal credentials that will shape their résumés for life: clerks to the Supreme Court.

But for many, working for Ginsburg wasn't just a legal lesson.

It also instilled the idea that women could have it all, but maybe not at the same time.

She praised her "life partner," her husband, Marty, "the only man," she said, who "cared that I had a brain."

A model to follow

The judge — who was a night owl, was a fanatic of Administrative Law and a close friend of her ideological opposite, the late Judge Antonin Scalia — was a role model both in law and in life.

"The judge taught us a thing or two about a life well lived," said her former secretary Lori Alvino McGill.

"She was one of the first mentors who told me that I could do anything, but she also told me that it would be foolish to think that I could do many things well at the same time," said McGill.

"The life lessons he gave gave me the courage to step back in my own career and choose, in this moment, to be more present for my three children."

Ginsburg told his secretaries that sometimes in marriage, and at work, it helps to be "a little deaf," and he taught them about perseverance and Herculean strength.

• Reactions to the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Power struggle in the US for the relief of Judge Ginsburg 3:23

Amanda Tyler joined the judge's office in the summer of 1999, but soon learned that weeks before the new term began, Ginsburg had received her first cancer diagnosis.

Most believed that she would not participate in the discussions to go through an extensive treatment regimen.

But on the first day of the legislature, Tyler, who wrote about the experience for The Atlantic magazine, got the call from the judge.

"Amanda," he said, "call the boss's office and make sure he knows I'm coming."

Later, Ginsburg would show the new fanny pack he had purchased to hide his wearable chemotherapy device.

The day after her husband's death in 2010, Ginsburg was in court and rarely missed a session.

A demanding woman

In the weeks leading up to her own death, she traded drafts for a book project she was working on with Tyler.

"She was still teaching me about the craft of writing - how important precision is and never use four words when three are enough," Tyler said.

"With a marriage, a birth or a new job, there was always a note from the judge," said Lisa Blatt, who was Ginsburg's clerk in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

"And when I visited her, she always asked about our children and how work was going."

Ginsburg was picky about the type of employees he chose.

“My first year in Court, I was served by a paralegal who had been with me on the Washington circuit, and his application was tremendously attractive to me.

Why?

Because she wrote that she was studying law at night in Georgetown.

The reason was that his wife, an economist, had a good job at the World Bank, ”he told Jeffrey Rosen of The National Constitution Center in 2018.

"Notorious RGB"

Stories are legends.

When Ginsburg first heard his nickname, Notorious RBG, she wasn't sure what it meant, so she asked an employee.

"I asked my paralegal, what is the Notorious RBG?" He told an audience at Duke Law School in 2015.

When she learned the name was a pun on that of the late Notorious BIG, a rapper, it became a talking point in the legion of speeches and appearances she would make even when she was ill from one of her five cancer episodes. .

Often, with a small duffel bag that said "Dissent," she would tell the audience that she looked a lot like her namesake "because we're both from Brooklyn."

The crowd would roar.

In the end, the 87-year-old was far more fashionable than her former employees.

There were "you can't have the truth without Ruth" and "fear the grill" t-shirts, as well as coffee mugs and

dolls

of her.

A musician put music to her dissent in a religious freedom case.

At the time, he wasn't just impressing his younger employees - he had become an icon.

“It makes absolute sense that Judge Ginsburg has become an idol to younger generations,” Judge Elena Kagan said at an event at the New York Bar Association in 2014. “Her Impact on America and the Law American has been extraordinary.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg