Librado Romero / New York Times
Ruth Bader Ginsburg touched many of our lives. For some the connection was personal, for others as a consequence of her leadership in the academy and then as a judge and then justice. Many have written about those connections. I was most touched by that written by my classmate and now dean of the University of Houston Law Center, Leonard M. Baynes. Professor Ginsburg and Professor Kellis Parker, were and remain, as Dean Baynes notes, godsends for many of us. They remain so.
With his permission I have re-posted his beautiful tribute and remembrance.
What I learned from law professor Ginsburg
By Leonard M. Baynes
Librado Romero / New York Times
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the first woman to be made a tenured professor at Columbia Law School in New York, is shown Jan. 18, 1972.
I was a student of Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s at Columbia Law School. She taught me and 150 other first-year students a two-credit civil procedure course. Little known to us, it was her last semester of teaching before being elevated to the D.C. Circuit of Appeals and then later to the U.S. Supreme Court.
At Columbia, at that time, there was little diversity among the law faculty. Ginsburg was the first tenured woman, and Kellis E. Parker was the first tenured African American. For many students, both professors Ginsburg and Parker were godsends. They were approachable, dedicated to students and excellent classroom teachers. They were distinct from the other professors by not conforming to the then-popular Socratic method of instruction exemplified by the stereotypical law professor Charles Kingsfield, as presented in the book and movie “The Paper Chase.” In the classroom, Ginsburg didn’t hide the ball. She was clear and concise. She served as arole model for those who aspired to be law teachers. More importantly, I also learned a lot of substantive legal concepts about the rights to juries, appeals and final judgments.
Even after ascending to the bench, she didn’t forget her former students. She agreed to perform the wedding ceremony of one of my classmates many years after our graduation. She accepted lecture engagements around the country.
I marvel at how the rest of the world has gotten to see what we all saw up front as first-year law school students, and we all learned more about the struggles that she faced as a pioneering woman lawyer demonstrating her strength of character in face of adversity. Beyond her legal brilliance, she demonstrated her superior work ethic, determination and stick-to-itness as she battled cancer. She seemed so indestructible. Her workout routines with her trainer were legendary and even were the basis for a popular book: “The RBG Workout: How She Stays Strong … and You Can Too!” She demonstrated to all of us the importance of keeping fit.
Her life story, her romance with professor Marty Ginsburg and her famed legal career became both a popular movie and a documentary. She became affectionately known as the “Notorious RBG” for her stands on equality, especially gender equity.
Like Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall, who was the first African American to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, she litigated landmark civil rights cases prior to ascending to the bench. She was a leading civil rights icon who through litigation, turned innovative legal theory regarding gender discrimination into strong legal doctrine advancing gender equality.
For our students today, it might be hard to imagine the many barriers women faced back then. I give one example from my family.
My eldest sister Chris, before she was married, had a good-paying job and good credit but didn’t qualify for a mortgage to buy a duplex. The bank demanded that it would only give her the mortgage if she had our father co-sign. My sister was angry at this injustice even up to the time of her death many decades later. She felt this particular discrimination was directed at her because she was an unmarried woman. In the 1960s, young unmarried women were not supposed to get mortgages in their own name; the stereotype was they would marry, become a housewife and bear children, making them personally unavailable for repaying the mortgage. My father did end up co-signing the loan. She bought the house and kept it even after she married. Ginsburg’s advocacy helped to overturn some of these discriminatory practices.
Ginsburg’s death at 87 feels like the end of the civil rights era. It also feels like her death may be a harbinger of an end of an almost even number of progressive and conservative voices on the Supreme Court. But at this time, I focus not on those obviously important issues but specifically on the loss of a great law teacher who demonstrated to my whole class that the constitution is a living breathing document and that each lawyer through their creativity has the power to make change for a more inclusive society.
I express my sincerest condolences to the Ginsburg family, the Columbia alumni community, the U.S. Supreme Court and all those who admired Justice Ginsburg and were inspired by her.
Baynes is the dean and a professor of law at the University of Houston Law Center.
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