The US Postal Service issued a stamp with the image of the daughter of an immigrant from Odessa: what is the merit to America

The U.S. Postal Service has honored the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg with a stamp bearing her image. Voice of America.

Photo: Shutterstock

The agency called her an "icon of American culture." The stamp will go on sale in 2023.

Judge Ginsburg died in 2020 at the age of 87. She served on the US Supreme Court for 27 years. Judge Ginsburg became the second female chief justice in American history. For a decade, she was the leader of the liberal faction of the Supreme Court and has become a cult figure in the country.

Ruth Joan Bader was born March 15, 1933 in Brooklyn, New York. Her father, Nathan Bader, was a native of Odessa.

Because of his Jewish beliefs, he was banned from attending local schools in Imperial Russia. He immigrated from Odessa to Brooklyn, New York, with his family at the age of 13. His daughter not only received the education he so ardently desired, but also rose to the heights of the American judiciary as one of the nine justices of the US Supreme Court.

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Considered a feminist icon, she overcame countless obstacles, devoting her legal career to challenging laws and regulations that discriminate against people on the basis of gender (not only women, but also men). She has never shied away from controversial comments, whether it's about her opinion in the Supreme Court or her training in her 80s. Her opposition to keeping her mouth shut has earned her the nickname “Notorious RBG” and the crowd fans.

A moderate liberal with a sharp tongue, Ginsburg became only the second female Supreme Court Justice in history after being confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 96 to 3 under Bill Clinton.

There was no mercy for those who faced her wrath. Ginsburg had loyal fans until her death, who cared as much about her health as they did about her opinion in court. Her image was printed on T-shirts with feminist symbols and other accessories.

Ruth graduated from Cornell University in 1954 with a degree in public administration. In the same year, she married her college lover Martin Ginsburg. The couple moved to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Ruth worked for the Social Security Administration but was demoted after she became pregnant with her first child, born in 1955.

Returning to the East, Ginsburg entered Harvard Law School in 1956 and then moved on to Columbia University Law School. When she received her law degree in 1959, she won first place on the course. But while trying to find a job, she found that most law firms are reluctant to hire her, despite her brilliant achievements.

“In the XNUMXs, traditional law firms were just beginning to refuse to hire Jews. But being a woman, Jewish and a mother to boot is too much, she once wrote.

Ginsburg eventually landed a job as a clerk with US District Judge Edmund Palmieri in Manhattan, before moving to Rutgers University, where she was a professor of law from 1963 to 1972. She became pregnant with her second child while attending Rutgers University and, fearing dismissal, hid her growing belly by wearing baggy clothes. Ruth gave birth during summer vacation in 1965 and returned to work in the fall. She then taught at Columbia University, becoming the first full-time teacher there.

Ginsburg has dedicated her life to changing the social norms that made her own career so challenging.

In 1972, the Ginzburgs led a team of lawyers that successfully argued an appeal on behalf of a man who was denied a dependents tax deduction (he was bearing the cost of caring for an 89-year-old mother). This decision was the most important one for Ruth in her many years of struggle for gender equality and justice.

Ginsburg continued to challenge gender laws throughout the 1970s as a volunteer lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, for which she was also the founder and director of the Women's Rights Project. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. She served in this role until Clinton appointed her to the Supreme Court in 1993. In 1996, she wrote a majority decision that rejected the policy of admitting exclusively men to the Virginia Military Institute as a violation of the 14th Amendment.

Although she became a heroine for many activists, Ruth did not initially consider herself one of them. According to her, she fought for the legal rights of women "for personal, selfish reasons." And she never expected to go to the Supreme Court. In a 1993 New York Times profile, childhood friends recalled Ruth as a girl nicknamed “Kiki,” who knocked out her tooth by twirling clubs while playing on her high school soccer team.

“She was very shy and didn’t look cocky,” Anne Burckhardt Kittner, a close school friend, told the Times. "She never thought she was doing well in the exams, but of course she always took them."

Ginzburg voted for workers' rights and separation of church and state. Her opinions and disagreements have often attracted attention with rude but eloquent explanations of her position. Her vehement opposition to Lilly Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. in 2007, explicitly called on Congress to relax the statute of limitations for equal pay claims, noting that “a worker will know immediately if a promotion or transfer is denied. But pay inequality is often hidden from view. ” Obama signed into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, named after the plaintiff, in 2009.

In 2013, Ginsburg joined the majority in repealing the Protection of Marriage Act (DOMA) by ordering same-sex couples who are married in states where such weddings are legal to be entitled to the same federal benefits as heterosexual couples. In one of the highlights of the case, Ginsburg said in oral arguments that DOMA institutionalized "two kinds of marriage: marriage as whole milk, and marriage as skim milk." Just a few months later, she became the first Supreme Court judge to organize a same-sex wedding for her friend Michael Kaiser at the John F. Kennedy in Washington.

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Although she was serious about her career and the causes she championed, Ruth also found time for fun. For example, at the age of 83, she performed on stage, playing a small role in Donizetti's The Regiment's Daughter at the Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center.

When asked if she thought she would be scared of the stage when the time came to step out of her comfort zone as a Supreme Court judge and perform in the opera, Ginzburg burst out laughing.

"What is there to worry about?" She asked.

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