Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Legacy Must Propel Us to Fight Harder

I learned of her passing from a text from a group chat: “RBG died.”

I instantly called my friend and we processed her death together. A few minutes later, I heard my parents talking about her death. A shockwave rippled through my friend group and classmates on Instagram, with a tidal wave of Instagram stories commemorating her life storming my feed. Across America on Friday, similar shockwaves of grief ran through households.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a feminist icon and a Supreme Court justice, died at age 87 of cancer. Her legacy cannot be understated. After graduating from Cornell University, she went on to be one of eight women in her class at Harvard Law School and the second woman to be appointed to the position of Supreme Court justice.

In her lifetime, she worked tirelessly to advocate for the rights of women and marginalized groups, voting to legalize gay marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015 and voting to strick down a restrictive Texas abortion bill in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt in 2016. Before becoming a justice, she led the Women’s Right Project for the American Civil Liberties Union and was one of the attorneys representing Sally Reed in the 1971 Reed vs. Reed case and argued against gender discrimination when it came to awarding estate.

With her death, it’s easy to feel despair. Roe v. Wade is now in more danger than it was before of being overturned. The rights of anyone who isn’t a cisgender white man may be in danger — with a possible 6–3 conservative Supreme Court majority, the rights of the LBGTQ+ community, women, and marginalized racial groups may come under attack. This sense of anguish was echoed all over my social media platforms since her death.

It’s okay to be scared. It’s okay to feel uncertain in what has already been a violent, turbulent year.

But we can also take inspiration from RBG’s legacy of perseverance and courage and continue doing what we can to make a difference in this upcoming presidential election. Phonebank, textbank, get involved in campaigns, donate, educate yourself and others, and speak out in person and on social media. We’re faced with a lot, but let’s take inspiration from RBG and continue fighting.