My Own Words

Although the book My Own Words was originally conceived in 2003, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her coauthors/biographers, Mary Hartnett and Wendy W. Williams, did not finish and publish the text until 2016. Harnett and Williams initially approached Ginsburg, a Supreme Court justice well-known for her decades of work on behalf of gender equality, to suggest that she produce a volume about herself written in her own words. They believed this was necessary because so many other authors wrote about Ginsburg, giving their own interpretations of her life and work as a lawyer, advocate, judge, and justice. The book’s five sections track Ginsburg’s life and career development from her childhood through her years as a student, professor, litigant, and jurist. The biographers provide a preface describing Ginsburg’s life in light of the subject matter. Ginsburg’s own words comprise the heart of the book, writings taken from her youth through her Supreme Court dissenting opinions. The book achieved New York Times bestseller status.

This study guide refers to the 2016 Simon and Schuster paperback version.

Summary

Part 1 of My Own Words, titled “Early Years and Lighter Side,” gives as a chronological account of Ginsburg’s childhood through her marriage to husband Martin Ginsburg. In addition, it addresses some of the better-known, unique elements of Ginsburg’s life, such as how she inspired an opera depicting her Supreme Court conflicts and friendship with Justice Antonin Scalia, and includes a portrayal of the routine processes of Supreme Court justices.

After a description of her childhood as a precocious student raised in a working-class Jewish family in Brooklyn, the text offers two essays written by 13-year-old Ruth Bader, one on her optimism about the fledgling United Nations and one about Jewish people dealing with the aftermath of the Holocaust. After excelling as a high school student, Ruth missed her high school graduation because of her mother’s death. Later that summer, still only 17, she began her studies at Cornell, meeting professors who would change her life and a young man, Martin Ginsburg, who would change it as well. In 1954, upon her graduation, Ruth became Mrs. Ginsburg. Martin contributes an essay, describing his affection for Ruth. The couple became parents while Martin fulfilled his military obligation, and then both entered law school.

Ginsburg contributes three additional essays to this section, describing first her love of music, particularly opera. She pens an appreciation for the late Justice Scalia, a longtime friend. Following this piece comes a selection from the libretto of Scalia/Ginsberg, an opera devoted to unveiling the working relationship and kinship between the disparate justices. Ginsburg concludes the first section with a description of the regular workings of the Supreme Court.

Part 2 bears the title “Tributes to Waypavers and Pathmarkers.” Ginsburg expresses appreciation to those who, as teachers or personal examples, imparted wisdom and principles to her, teaching her what one could accomplish and how to go about it. She begins these seven pieces by describing the life of suffragette Belva Lockwood, a widowed mother who became the first woman licensed to speak before the Supreme Court and the first to actually argue a case before the justices. From this, Ginsburg moves to an overview of the women in the legal professions.

Expressing pride in her Jewish heritage, Ginsburg writes a piece about the Jewish justices who preceded her on the court, and then a piece on Anne Frank, Emma Lazarus, and Henrietta Szold, whom she refers to as three brave Jewish women. Next, she praises for another accomplished woman, her mentor and Supreme Court colleague Sandra Day O’Connor. Ginsburg then writes about another famous contemporary, Gloria Steinem, who promoted feminist causes for half a century.

Ginsburg closes the section with a historical description of the wives of Supreme Court justices. She writes admiringly of the insight and subtle power they wielded before women in the US won the right to vote.

Part 3, “On Gender Equality: Women and the Law,” offers a chronological overview of Ginsburg’s legal efforts to establish gender equality, particularly focusing on her accomplishments in the 1970s. Her initial symposium lecture, “Women and the Law,” offers insight into the legal status of women during the fledgling women’s movement and offers a prescient glimpse into Ginsburg’s view of what the world might be like 20 years in the future—in 1990.

Next, Ginsburg presents an excerpt from a legal brief in which she argues that legal judgments that name the gender of an individual or group should automatically become “suspect,” meaning potentially unconstitutional. Following this is an article that appeared in the American Bar Association Journal in which Ginsburg describes the need for the adoption of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Moving forward to 1996, Ginsburg shares the Supreme Court bench announcement that the Virginia Military Academy must open its doors to woman students. The section concludes with a presentation to a group of law students that gives an overview of the work done in the 1970s, “Advocating the Elimination of Gender-Based Discrimination.”

Part 4, “A Judge Becomes a Justice,” is the briefest of the sections. It details the process of Ginsburg’s nomination for the Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton. Listed are Ginsburg’s remarks upon accepting the nomination along with her opening comments at the Senate Judiciary Hearings.

Part 5, “The Justice on Judging and Justice,” renders a detailed sampling of the processes and written opinions of the High Court as seen from the 27-year perspective of Ginsburg, who entered the court as the junior justice, eventually becoming the senior justice. After a piece describing the progression of the court’s work schedule, along with many of its traditional customs, Ginsburg writes about the importance of judicial independence, about why guarding that independence is necessary, and then listing potential threats to it. Ginsburg pens an appreciatory piece in honor of Justice William Rehnquist, who served as chief justice for the first dozen years of Ginsburg’s tenure on the court.

Ginsburg then turns her attention to the Preamble of the Constitution in an essay that seeks to establish the importance of what she calls “sideglances” into the legal systems of other nations. Following this, Ginsburg offers treatises on three subjects that hold major significance for the Equal Protection Doctrine: Brown v. Board of Education, Loving v. Virginia, and international affirmative action. From these articles listing relative victories for human rights and equality, Ginsburg moves into a discussion about opinions that dissent from the prevailing majority decision. After a lecture on the nature of a Supreme Court dissent and what the justice making the dissent hopes to accomplish, Ginsburg offers portions of seven dissenting bench announcements.

Ginsburg concludes the text with an overview of the 2015-2016 Supreme Court term that concluded prior to the book’s publication. Ginsburg discusses several of the significant cases the court disposed of during the term and the unusual situation of an eight-member court, resulting from the death of Justice Scalia, who was not replaced for 14 months.