Speaker 1: Waste no time on anger, red resentment. Just do it.
Speaker 1: Just get the job done. That was Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Speaker 1: Justice Ginsberg, who died on September eighteenth, was famously focused
Speaker 1: on moving ahead, ignoring petty arguments, getting the job done.
Speaker 1: And the job, as she sought, was to help bring
Speaker 1: about equality for all Americans. I'm a land verveer, and
Speaker 1: this is Seneca's one hundred Women to Hear. We're bringing
Speaker 1: you one hundred of the world's most inspiring and history
Speaker 1: making women. You need to hear. Ruth Bader Ginsburg has
Speaker 1: been described as a feminist icon, as the notorious RBG
Speaker 1: as a ground breaker. What other Supreme Court justice has
Speaker 1: been immortalized on dolls, mugs, t shirts, and even a
Speaker 1: Saturday Night Live parody. But Justice Ginsburg was much more
Speaker 1: than a pop culture meme. She was one of this
Speaker 1: country's most influential voices in the fight for equality. As
Speaker 1: Kenneth Starr wrote in The Wall Street Journal, her legacy
Speaker 1: is enduring and deep, but it can be summed up
Speaker 1: in two closely related concepts. Equality for all persons vindicated
Speaker 1: under the rule of law. That meant equality for women,
Speaker 1: for men, for everyone. Given her profound impact on women's rights.
Speaker 1: The New York City Bar Association hosted an annual speech
Speaker 1: in her honor, the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Distinguished Lecture on
Speaker 1: Women and the Law. I had the privilege of giving
Speaker 1: that lecture in two thousand and nine. I consider it
Speaker 1: among the most important moments in my career. I was
Speaker 1: also fortunate to hear her present a tribute to Justice
Speaker 1: Sandra Day O'Connor at an event hosted in two thousand
Speaker 1: and fifteen by Seneca Women. Justice Ginsberg was her typical self, witty, warm, eloquent,
Speaker 1: and insightful. Listen and learn why Ruth Bader Ginsberg is
Speaker 1: one of Seneca's one hundred women to hear and why
Speaker 1: she will be so deeply missed. What a treat this afternoon.
Speaker 1: Thanks mens, and I thank all the organizers for inviting
Speaker 1: me to speak on behalf of all of my colleagues
Speaker 1: in honor of the incomparable Sandra Day O'Connor, first woman
Speaker 1: ever appointed to the Court of the United States. During
Speaker 1: her twenty five years on the Court's bench and continuing thereafter,
Speaker 1: she has shown time and again that she is a
Speaker 1: true cowgirl, resourceful resilience, equipped to cope with whatever fortune
Speaker 1: brings her way. Collegiality is the key to the effective
Speaker 1: operations of a multi member bench. Sandra Day O'Connor has
Speaker 1: done more to promote collegiality among the courts members and
Speaker 1: with our counterparts abroad than any other Justice past or present.
Speaker 1: As I said in the video we just watched, Justice
Speaker 1: Prior wrote of ba quality, Sandra has a special talent,
Speaker 1: perhaps the gene for lighting up the room she enters,
Speaker 1: for restoring good humor in the presence of strong disagreement,
Speaker 1: for producing constructive results, for reminding those at odds today
Speaker 1: that tomorrow is another day. Of all the accolades. Justice
Speaker 1: O'Connor has received one strikes me as concisely on targets,
Speaker 1: and that too was captured on the video. Going up
Speaker 1: on the Lazy b Ranch in Arizona. She could brand cattle,
Speaker 1: drive a tractor, fire a rifle accurately well before she
Speaker 1: reached her teams. One of the hands on the ranch
Speaker 1: recalled his clear memory of Sandra Day. She wasn't the
Speaker 1: rough and rugged type, he said, but she worked well
Speaker 1: with us in the canyons. She held her own. Justice
Speaker 1: O'Connor has done just that at every stage of her
Speaker 1: professional and family life. But when she joined the court
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty one, she brought to the conference table
Speaker 1: experienced others did not possess at all, or to the
Speaker 1: same degree. The experience of growing up female in the
Speaker 1: nineteen thirties, forties and fifties, of raising a family, of
Speaker 1: doing all manner of legal work, government service, private practice,
Speaker 1: successful candidacies for public office, leadership of Arizona Senate State Court,
Speaker 1: judicial service, both trial and a pellet, quick and diligent
Speaker 1: learner that she is, she mastered the mysteries of federal
Speaker 1: law in short order and held her own from the
Speaker 1: very start. Her welcome when I became the junior justice
Speaker 1: is characteristic. The court has customs and habits not reported
Speaker 1: in its official rules. Justice o'connon knew what it was
Speaker 1: like to learn the rope on one's own. She told
Speaker 1: me what I needed to know when I came on
Speaker 1: board for the courts nineteen ninety three terms not in
Speaker 1: an intimidating dose, just enough to enable me to navigate
Speaker 1: safely my first days and weeks. At the end of
Speaker 1: the October nineteen ninety three sitting siously awaited by first
Speaker 1: opinion assignment, expecting and keeping with tradition, that the brand
Speaker 1: new Justice would be slated for an uncontroversial, unanimous opinion.
Speaker 1: When Chief's assignment lists came round, I was dismayed. The
Speaker 1: Chief gave me an intricate, not at all easy ARISA
Speaker 1: case on which the Court had divided six to three. ARISA,
Speaker 1: for those who don't know, is the acronym for the
Speaker 1: Employee Retirement Income Security Act candidate for the most inscrutable
Speaker 1: legislation Aristamabad. I thought that this o'kind of advice. It
Speaker 1: was simple. Just do it, she says, And if you
Speaker 1: can circulate your draft opinion before he makes the next
Speaker 1: set of assignments, otherwise you will risk receiving another tedious case.
Speaker 1: That advice typifies Justice O'Connor's approach to all things. Waste
Speaker 1: no time on anger, regret, resentment, just do it, just
Speaker 1: get the job done. Justice O'Connor was a dissenter in
Speaker 1: that case. As I read the bench announcement summarizing the
Speaker 1: court's decision, she gave an attendant a note for me.
Speaker 1: It read, this is your first opinion for the court.
Speaker 1: It is a fine one. I look forward too many more,
Speaker 1: remembering how good that note made me feel I said
Speaker 1: note to Justice sot On my R and Justice Kagan
Speaker 1: when they announced their first opinions for the court as
Speaker 1: first woman on the Supreme Court, Justice O'Connor set apace
Speaker 1: I could hardly match. To this day, my mail is
Speaker 1: stilled with requests that run this way. Last year or
Speaker 1: some years before, Justice o'connon visited our campus. All country spoken,
Speaker 1: our bar or civic association did this on that next
Speaker 1: words politely phrase to this effect. Now it's your terms.
Speaker 1: My secretary has once imagined that Justice O'Connor had a
Speaker 1: secret twin sister with whom she divided her appearances. The
Speaker 1: reality is she has an extraordinary ability to manage her time.
Speaker 1: Why has she gone to des Moines, Belfast, Lithuania, Rwanda
Speaker 1: when she might have the fly fish ski, play tennis
Speaker 1: or golf. In her own words, For both men and women,
Speaker 1: the first step in getting power is to become visible
Speaker 1: to others and then to put on an impressive show.
Speaker 1: As women achieve power, the barriers will fall as society
Speaker 1: sees what women can do. As women see what women
Speaker 1: can do, there will be more women out there doing
Speaker 1: things and will all be better off for it Seneca's
Speaker 1: one t women to hear we'll be back. After the
Speaker 1: short break of her journeys abroad. Her former law clerk
Speaker 1: Ruth McGregor, now retired Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court,
Speaker 1: I said, Justice Sultana has worked tirelessly to encourage emerging
Speaker 1: nations to live under the rule of law by maintaining
Speaker 1: democratically elected legislatures and independent judiciaries. At the same time,
Speaker 1: she has strongly reminded us that this country could lose
Speaker 1: the rule of law if we do not act to
Speaker 1: protect our precious heritage. Is There was a time in
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty eight when the Silconnor's energy flagged long month
Speaker 1: in which she coped with rigorous treatment for breast cancer.
Speaker 1: Though tired and in physical discomfort, she didn't miss a
Speaker 1: sitting day on the court. That's busy term. Once fully recovered,
Speaker 1: she spoke of that trying time. Her account, carried on
Speaker 1: public television, gave women battling cancer hope the courage to
Speaker 1: continue to do as she did, and I was one
Speaker 1: of those women. She went back to the am exercised
Speaker 1: class she initiated at the Court long before it was
Speaker 1: predicted she could there wasn't a lot I could do,
Speaker 1: she said, But I did a little. I did what
Speaker 1: I could. What she could do became evident years later,
Speaker 1: when the Olympic women's basketball team visited the court. Justice
Speaker 1: O'Connor led the team on a tour, ending at the
Speaker 1: highest court in the land, the full basketball court on
Speaker 1: the building's top floors. The team practiced some minutes, then
Speaker 1: one of the players passed the ball to Justice O'Connor.
Speaker 1: She missed the first shot, but the second way straight
Speaker 1: through the hoops. Each chase on the court stocket attracted
Speaker 1: Justice O'Connor's best effort, and she was never shy about
Speaker 1: stating her views at conference or in follow on discussions.
Speaker 1: When she wrote separately to concurring or in descent, she
Speaker 1: stated her disagreement directly and professionally. She avoided castigating colleagues
Speaker 1: for an opinion that was Orwellian, profoundly misguided, not to
Speaker 1: be taken seriously, or a jurisprudential disaster. And I am
Speaker 1: making none of those up. In the twelve and a
Speaker 1: half years we served together, court watches have seen that
Speaker 1: women speak in different voices and hold different views, just
Speaker 1: as men do. Even so some advocates each term revealed
Speaker 1: that they had not fully adjusted to the presence of
Speaker 1: two women on the High Court bench. During oral argument,
Speaker 1: many a distinguished counsel, including a Harvard Law School professor
Speaker 1: and more than one Solicitor General, responded to a question.
Speaker 1: I asked, well, Justice O'Connor. Sometimes, when that happened, Sander
Speaker 1: would smile and crisply remind counsel she's Justice Skinsburg. I'm
Speaker 1: Justice O'Connor. Anticipating just such confusion in nineteen ninety three,
Speaker 1: my first term as a member of the Court, the
Speaker 1: National Association of Women Judges has t shirts made for
Speaker 1: us Justice O'Connor's ridd I'm Sandra, not Ruth. I'm Ruth
Speaker 1: not Sanders. As a retired justice, she has taken on
Speaker 1: an array of off the bench activities. Prime among her
Speaker 1: current undertaking, as everyone in this room knows, is her
Speaker 1: creation and promotion of WWI civics dot org, designed to
Speaker 1: educate grade school children about the three branches of government.
Speaker 1: Avidly as well, she has championed judicial independence, urging appointment
Speaker 1: rather than an election of judges. She has regularly welcomed
Speaker 1: foreign jurists visiting the United States and she has traveled
Speaker 1: long distances to meet with lawyers and judges abroad, many times.
Speaker 1: At the request of the State Department. Some years ago,
Speaker 1: Justice o'cono made a surprise appearance one night in the
Speaker 1: Shakespeare Theater's production of Henry the Fifth, playing the role
Speaker 1: that evening of Isabel, Queen of France, and looking regal,
Speaker 1: she spoke the famous line from the treaty scene, Happily,
Speaker 1: a woman's voice may do some good. Indeed it may,
Speaker 1: as Justice o'conma has constantly demonstrated in her quarter century
Speaker 1: service on the Supreme Court and in all of her endeavors. Tireless, gracious, inspiring.
Speaker 1: That is how we will remember Ruth Vader Ginsburg. There
Speaker 1: is so much to learn from her life and her words.
Speaker 1: Here are just a few lessons. First, anger just isn't
Speaker 1: worth the effort, as she said, don't be distracted by
Speaker 1: emotions like anger, envy, resentment. These just zep energy and
Speaker 1: waste time. Second, women are powerful when they support each other.
Speaker 1: She never forgot how Sandra Day O'Connor helped her when
Speaker 1: RBG was a newcomer to the Supreme Court, and she
Speaker 1: paid it forward by encouraging the women justices who came
Speaker 1: after her. Finally, no matter your struggles, always make your
Speaker 1: best effort, so at the end of your journey you
Speaker 1: can say with her, I did what I could. Tune
Speaker 1: in to the next episode of Seneca's one hundred Women
Speaker 1: to Hear, learn about our next featured woman, and discover
Speaker 1: why she's one of Seneca's one hundred Women to Hear.
Speaker 1: Seneca's one hundred Women to Hear is a collaboration between
Speaker 1: the Seneca Women Podcast Network and iHeartRadio, with support from
Speaker 1: founding partner p And. If you like what you heard
Speaker 1: on the show, rate and review it on Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: we hope you'll join us for our next episode of
Speaker 1: one hundred Women to Hear, where we can all listen,
Speaker 1: learn and get inspired. Have a great day.