Friend –

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg leaves a country changed because of her life's work. We will continue her legacy.

Before serving on the highest court, Ginsburg rose to prominence as an ACLU lawyer fighting for equal rights. She founded the Women's Rights Project in 1972 and led the ACLU in critical legal battles for almost a decade after.

Ginsburg led the ACLU in a host of important legal battles that established the foundation for the current legal prohibitions against sex discrimination in this country and helped lay the groundwork for future women's rights advocates.

At the time, most legal scholars believed the law should treat women differently. While some lawyers were taking on cases to protect individual women, Ginsburg aimed to change the law on gender equality entirely.

She argued her first Supreme Court case challenging gender-based discrimination in 1973 – in front of a court that only had male justices. "I knew that I was speaking to men who didn't think there was any such thing as gender-based discrimination and my job was to tell them it really exists," she said.

Ginsburg succeeded, winning that case and five of the six cases she argued before the Supreme Court.

Soon after leaving the ACLU, Ginsburg was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by President Carter. And, in 1993, she became the second woman to be a Justice on the Supreme Court.

You can read the ACLU's full obituary of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg here.

Our hearts are with her loved ones and all those who mourn her loss.

Sincerely,

Anthony Romero
Executive Director, ACLU