How Ruth Bader Ginsburg Restored My Faith in America

“There are strong disagreements. But you can disagree without being disagreeable.” — Ruth Bader Ginsburg, when asked if there was ever yelling in the court

Oh, this election season. It’s hard to remember a time in my life where we weren’t talking about the 2016 presidential election. My favorite way to describe it is basically one giant garbage fire. No matter who wins, America loses. Trump, the orange monster, has said more things in the past 15 months that are too shocking, appalling, and despicable for anyone, much less for a serious presidential candidate in 2016. Hillary, who’s more qualified than probably anyone before her is severely disliked basically because she’s a woman and campaigns poorly. We all know this situation we’re in, just short of the November election none of this is news or surprising to anyone. There’s a very real possibility liberals will be dumb liberals and throw votes away on a ridiculous third party candidate and then who knows where we’ll be. But just when I’m about to light my passport on fire, start calling myself Canadian, and seek asylum in either Vancouver or any one of my favorite Asian locations, came a bright light Wednesday night in the form of adorable dynamo, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The Notorious R.B.G., Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, visited New York City Wednesday night at the Temple Emanu-el to do a 1.5 hour speaking engagement with Dan Abrams, the Chief Legal Affairs Anchor for ABC News. Ginsburg has a new book coming out on October 4 called, My Own Words, so this was probably a bit of press, but I bought my tickets exactly 7 months ago, waited 2 hours in line to get a good seat in this 2000 person sold out crowd, and anxiously awaited hearing anything she had to say.

I was not disappointed. At 83 years old she was stunning, brilliant, funny, classy, insightful, and above all else wise — choosing her words very carefully throughout the evening.

“Wisdom is in short supply. Take it where you can get it.” — RBG discussing words of advice Sandra Day O’Connor gave to her

Abrams asked her very interesting questions such as:

• If she ever dreads going into work like the rest of is — “Emphatically…No.”
• What the behind the scenes in the court is like — “We can disagree on very important issues, but we can still like and respect one another.”
• If Merrick Garland will happen — “Sooner or later. Either during the lame duck period or when we have a new president. I am hopeful we will have a full court.”
• If she does 20 pushups per day — “10 to start, I take a break, and then 10 more, and a 30 second plank.”

However, the two biggest areas of her talk focused on the recent Texas abortion access bill, and the constitution.

Ginsburg has always been a women’s rights activist and her track record speaks for itself, but she was the driver behind the 5–3 vote throwing out the Texas case. Here she goes on to say how this impacts women of all economic levels and backgrounds, and some light thoughts on abortion:

The biggest highlight of the night for me was toward the end of her talk that seemed almost accidental. Abrams was talking to her about the guests they often invite into the court for lunches to “liven up conversation.” The question was asked, “How do you preserve liberty in a time of terror?” while having Hosni Mubarak, Former President of Egypt, as an influential guest and the answer was “You cannot give your enemy a greater weapon than fear.” The accident came when Abrams noticed at the end of that discussion, Ginsburg had her personal constitution book. He picked it up and remarked about the green tabs in this “piece of history” he was holding and asked her if the tabs had any significance. She seemed reluctant to answer, or rather was thinking through the best way way to answer.

Ginsburg said she loves how thin her constitution book is because it’s hard to make amendments. The Founding Fathers were wise she said, to make us think long and hard about changing the law of the land. However, in Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3, there is the Fugitive Slave Clause. This clause states that any person held to service that flees to another state, must be returned. One of her green tabs is on her favorite amendment — the Fourteenth Amendment. While the Thirteenth amendment abolished slavery and made the Fugitive Slave Clause pretty much null and void, it was the Fourteenth Amendment that ensured citizenship rights and protection under the law for everyone. Hearing Ruth Bader Ginsburg, one of the greatest justices of our time, and possibly all time, read you a passage from the Constitution and her reasoning for why this is important as well as its relevance in modern times, quickly became one of my favorite moments in life. America is not perfect. Americans are not perfect. But what we’ve built together over the last 200+ years is worth preserving. In the end, I have to believe we’re all working toward a more perfect union.