Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff. Lauren Boglebaum here. On August tenth, a force
Speaker 1: of nature entered the Supreme Court of the United States,
Speaker 1: and in the twenty seven years following her oath of office,
Speaker 1: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg definitely earned her nickname the Notorious RBG.
Speaker 1: As the first Jewish woman and the second female justice
Speaker 1: ever to serve on the Supreme Court, Ginsburg entered the
Speaker 1: position already a trailblazer, but it was her incomparable work,
Speaker 1: ethic and tireless commitment to gender equality the truly set
Speaker 1: her apart. Ginsburg was one of only nine women in
Speaker 1: her Harvard Law school class in nineteen fifty six. In
Speaker 1: an interview with the documentary series makers, she later said,
Speaker 1: you felt in classes as if all eyes were on you,
Speaker 1: and that if you didn't perform well, you'd be failing
Speaker 1: not only for yourself but for all women. Ginsburg also
Speaker 1: attributed part of her success in law school to parenting
Speaker 1: a fourteen month old daughter at the time of her studies.
Speaker 1: She was ranked first in her class at Harvard and Columbia,
Speaker 1: the school she transferred to for her senior year. While
Speaker 1: Ginsburg had already established herself as an uncommonly accomplished and
Speaker 1: driven legal powerhouse by the time President Bill Clinton nominated
Speaker 1: her for the Supreme Court in June of It was
Speaker 1: the decisions she made after that that earned her a
Speaker 1: coveted position. There was nothing short of historic. Ginsburg died
Speaker 1: on September eighteenth, twenty of complications from metastatic cancer of
Speaker 1: the pancreas, but her accomplishments live on today. Let's talk
Speaker 1: about three of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's most essential Supreme Court cases,
Speaker 1: in which her concurring opinion helped make our country a
Speaker 1: little bit more just for its citizens. So, after taking
Speaker 1: some time to settle into her role as an Associate Justice,
Speaker 1: Ginsburg began making a name for herself as an advocate
Speaker 1: for gender equality and women's rights. In the case of
Speaker 1: the United States versus Virginia made that clear. At the time,
Speaker 1: Virginia Military Institute, or vm I, remained the only school
Speaker 1: that only admitted one gender among Virginia's public institutions of
Speaker 1: higher learning. Alumni of vm i's Citizens Soldier Training were
Speaker 1: considered hot commodities in the job market because the school's
Speaker 1: unique curriculum was designed to prepare students for leadership positions
Speaker 1: in both civilian life and military service. Thanks to the
Speaker 1: competitive edge that the institution gave alumni, vm I had
Speaker 1: the largest per student endowment of all public undergraduate institutions
Speaker 1: in the country. The United States sued v m I
Speaker 1: and the state of Virginia, alleging that the school's men
Speaker 1: only admission policy violated the Fourteenth Amendments Equal Protection Clause,
Speaker 1: which prohibits states from denying anyone the equal protection of
Speaker 1: their laws. Virginia argued that the restriction was fair game
Speaker 1: because women wouldn't be able to handle the rigorous nature
Speaker 1: of the program, but vm I also attempted to cover
Speaker 1: its spaces by proposing a parallel program for women called
Speaker 1: the Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership or v w I
Speaker 1: l located at the private all women liberal arts school,
Speaker 1: Mary Baldwin College. Ginsburg and the majority on the court
Speaker 1: weren't convinced. Writing for the seven to one majority, Ginsburg asserted,
Speaker 1: Virginia maintains that methodological differences are justified by the important
Speaker 1: differences between men and women in learning and developmental needs,
Speaker 1: but generalizations about the way women are estimates of what
Speaker 1: is appropriate for most women, no longer justified denying opportunity
Speaker 1: to women whose talent and capacity placed them outside the
Speaker 1: average description. Ginsburg also stated that the v w I
Speaker 1: L was not an adequate compromise, since the Court considered
Speaker 1: it quote a pale shadow of vm I in terms
Speaker 1: of the range of curricular choices and faculty stature, funding, prestige,
Speaker 1: alumni support, and influence. The school contemplated going private to
Speaker 1: circumvent the ruling, but its board decided in a close vote,
Speaker 1: just eight to seven, to finally let women through the doors,
Speaker 1: thus ending the existence of men only public universities in America.
Speaker 1: Of course, the Supreme Court hears all kinds of cases,
Speaker 1: not just gender issues. But let's talk about Friends of
Speaker 1: the Earth versus laid Law Environmental Services. In the year
Speaker 1: two thousand, when laid Law Environmental Services Incorporated bought a
Speaker 1: wastewater treatment plant, it was granted a National Pollutant Discharge
Speaker 1: Elimination System permit that granted it permission to discharge treated
Speaker 1: water and limited pollutants. However, laid Law repeatedly released amounts
Speaker 1: of mercury into South Carolina's North Tiger River that exceeded
Speaker 1: those limits and Eventually, plaintive petitioners Friends of the Earth
Speaker 1: and others filed a citizens suit under the Clean Water Act,
Speaker 1: which regulates the discharge of pollutants. After lawsuit began, laid
Speaker 1: Law began to comply with the permit and argued that
Speaker 1: the case was now moot, meaning resolved, because the company
Speaker 1: had corrected its wrongdoing. But the Supreme Court wasn't having it.
Speaker 1: In the seven to two opinion delivered by Ginsburg, the
Speaker 1: Court held that a case from a citizen for civil
Speaker 1: penalties does not have to be dismissed as moot just
Speaker 1: because the defendant begins complying with regulations after litigation has
Speaker 1: already begun. In part, Ginsburg wrote, a defendant's voluntary cessation
Speaker 1: of allegedly unlawful contact ordinarily does not suffice to moot
Speaker 1: a case. Congress has found that several penalties in the
Speaker 1: Clean Water Act cases do more than promote immediate compliance.
Speaker 1: They also deter future violations. And then, more recently was
Speaker 1: the case of a Burgha Fell versus Hodges In. In
Speaker 1: this case, fourteen same sex couples and two men whose
Speaker 1: same sex partners had passed away filed suits in their
Speaker 1: home states of Michigan, in Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee. At
Speaker 1: the time, all four of these states defined marriage as
Speaker 1: a union between one man and one woman. The petitioners
Speaker 1: said that this narrow definition violated the Fourteenth Amendment because
Speaker 1: it denied them the right to get married or to
Speaker 1: have the marriages they had received in other states legally
Speaker 1: recognized at home. After the trial courts in each state
Speaker 1: sided with the plaintiffs, the rulings were appealed in the U. S.
Speaker 1: Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, where the decisions
Speaker 1: were reversed and it was ruled that state bands did not,
Speaker 1: in fact violate the couple's Fourteenth Amendment rights to equal
Speaker 1: protection and due process. This split led to the Supreme
Speaker 1: Court review. It was a close vote. Ginsburg excited with
Speaker 1: the five to four majority in the ruling, which held
Speaker 1: the same sex marriage bands are indeed violations of the
Speaker 1: Fourteenth Amendments, due process and equal protection clauses. Justice Anthony
Speaker 1: Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion, the Constitution promises liberty
Speaker 1: to all within its reach, a liberty that includes certain
Speaker 1: specific rights that allow persons within a lawful realm to
Speaker 1: define and express their identity This landmark civil rights case
Speaker 1: legalized same sex marriage across the United States, giving hundreds
Speaker 1: of thousands of lgbt Q plus Americans the same rights
Speaker 1: and protections guaranteed to hetero sexual couples by both the
Speaker 1: Due Process claus and the Equal Protection Clause of the
Speaker 1: Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Thanks to Justice
Speaker 1: Ginsburg for her tireless work in promoting fairness and equality.
Speaker 1: May her memory be a blessing. Today's episode was written
Speaker 1: by Michelle Konstantinovski and produced by Tyler Klang. For more
Speaker 1: on this lots of other curious topics, visit how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of I heart Radio.
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