With a Barack Obama administration, Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, age 75, is likely to take retirement (Reported to have Cancer, see update below), leaving the president-elect an opportunity to make his mark on the court. See photos, a video, and a biography below.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg Photo
President-elect Obama will likely have two opportunities in his first term to appoint new justices to the Supreme Court of the United States, with the likely retirement of Justices Jon Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Both are considered part of the liberal wing of the court.
Ginsburg was born Joan Ruth Bader on March 15, 1933 in Brooklyn, New York, so her age is 75. She was Nathan and Celia Bader’s second daughter. Her family called her “Kiki.” She graduated from James Madison High School. In high school, her beauty and competitive edge won her popularity and a position on the twirling squad. Perhaps her drive came from her mother’s battle with cancer, which led to death just days before her daughter would graduate high school.
Ginsburg’s academic prowess gave her all the scholarships she would need to make her way through college. She attended Cornell University where she graduated first in her class. Here she met her future husband, Martin Ginsburg. They later marry, and both enroll at Harvard Law School. Her husband graduated and accepted a job in New York. She transferred to Columbia Law School where she graduated at the top of her class. She became the first woman to serve on two major law school law reviews.
In 1963, Ginsburg joined the faculty at Rutgers University Law School. She spent much of this time working on feminist issues, and started working with the American Civil Liberties Union, where she was later served on the board and as general counsel. She later accepted a position at Columbia Law School, being the first woman to be hired tenured at that school.