Ruth Bader Ginsburg's last book is a curation of her own legacy, tracing the long history of her work for gender equality and a “more perfect Union.”
In the fall
of 2019, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg visited the University of
California, Berkeley School of Law to deliver the first annual Herma
Hill Kay Memorial Lecture in honor of her friend, the late Herma Hill
Kay, with whom Ginsburg had coauthored the very first casebook on
sex-based discrimination in 1974. Justice, Justice Thou Shalt Pursue
is the result of a period of collaboration between Ginsburg and Amanda
L. Tyler, a Berkeley Law professor and former Ginsburg law clerk. During
Justice Ginsburg's visit to Berkeley, she told her life story
in conversation with Tyler. In this collection, the two bring together
that conversation and other materials—many previously unpublished—that
share details from Justice Ginsburg's family life and long career. These
include notable briefs and oral arguments, some of Ginsburg's last
speeches, and her favorite opinions that she wrote as a Supreme Court
Justice (many in dissent), along with the statements that she read from
the bench in those important cases. Each document was chosen by Ginsburg
and Tyler to tell the story of the litigation strategy and optimistic
vision that were at the heart of Ginsburg's unwavering commitment to the
achievement of "a more perfect Union."
In a decades-long
career, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an advocate and jurist for gender
equality and for ensuring that the United States Constitution leaves no
person behind. Her work transformed not just the American legal
landscape, but American society more generally. Ginsburg labored
tirelessly to promote a Constitution that is ever more inclusive and
that allows every individual to achieve their full human potential. As
revealed in these pages, in the area of gender rights, Ginsburg
dismantled long-entrenched systems of discrimination based on outdated
stereotypes by showing how such laws hold back both genders. And as also
shown in the materials brought together here, Justice Ginsburg had a
special ability to appreciate how the decisions of the high court impact
the lived experiences of everyday Americans. The passing of Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg in September 2020 as this book was heading into
production was met with a public outpouring of grief. With her death,
the country lost a hero and national treasure whose incredible life and
legacy made the United States a more just society and one in which “We
the People,” for whom the Constitution is written, includes everyone.
