Top 74 Ruth Ginsburg Quotes

#1. Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the most liberal and illumined of the nine Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Donna Leon

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #16896
#2. I said on the equality side of it, that it is essential to a woman's equality with man that she be the decision-maker, that her choice be controlling.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #54968
#3. My mother told me to be a lady. And for her, that meant be your own person, be independent

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #84901
#4. I don't say women's rights - I say the constitutional principle of the equal citizenship stature of men and women.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #95398
#5. Racial discrimination in elections in Texas is no mere historical artifact. To the contrary, Texas has been found in violation of the Voting Rights Act in every redistricting cycle from and after 1970.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #138093
#6. It is not like I have gone crazy, I just don't want to take any chances. You never know what could happen.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #162546
#7. Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #163907
#8. He United States is subject to the scrutiny of a candid world ... what the United States does, for good or for ill, continues to be watched by the international community, in particular by organizations concerned with the advancement of the rule of law and respect for human dignity.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #170777
#9. Generalizations about the "way women are" and estimates of what is appropriate for most women no longer justify denying opportunity to women whose talent and capacity place them outside the average description.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #184313
#10. We had to go on and do the work of the court and we did.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #202021
#11. Approving some religious claims while deeming others unworthy of accommodation could be 'perceived as favoring one religion over another,' the very 'risk the [Constitution's] Establishment Clause was designed to preclude.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #216181
#12. Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #235148
#13. In sum, the Court's conclusion that a constitutionally adequate recount is impractical is a prophecy the Court's own judgment will not allow to be tested. Such an untested prophecy should not decide the Presidency of the United States. I dissent.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #244884
#14. You can't have it all, all at once. Who - man or woman - has it all, all at once? Over my lifespan I think I have had it all. But in different periods of time things were rough. And if you have a caring life partner, you help the other person when that person needs it.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #256043
#15. I am a judge born, raised, and proud of being a Jew. The demand for justice runs through the entirety of the Jewish tradition. I hope, in my years on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, I will have the strength and the courage to remain constant in the service of that demand.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #262420
#16. The state controlling a woman would mean denying her full autonomy and full equality.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #279036
#17. I do hope that some of my dissents will one day be the law.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #296921
#18. She never envisioned a legal career for me, but she did think it was very important that I be able to support myself, and I think she would be pleased to see what has become of me.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #303945
#19. When police or prosecutors conceal significant exculpatory or impeaching material, we hold, it is ordinarily incumbent on the state to set the record straight.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #305154
#20. Whatever community organization, whether it's a women's organization, or fighting for racial justice ... you will get satisfaction out of doing something to give back to the community that you never get in any other way.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #310046
#21. We do not read (the law) to elevate accommodation of religious observances over an institution's need to maintain order and safety, ... We have no cause to believe that (the law) would not be applied in an appropriately balanced way, without sensitivity to security concerns.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #314461
#22. Frankly, I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don't want to have too many of.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #315425
#23. My rule was I will not answer a question that attempts to project how I will rule in a case that might come before the court.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #367090
#24. Prisons should be co-ed because separate quarters are discriminatory.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #432030
#25. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg fell asleep during Obama's speech. She woke up with the other justices drawing a gavel on her face.

Conan O'Brien

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #439716
#26. If we gave up our freedom as the price of security, we would no longer be the great nation that we are.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #473084
#27. When contemplated in its extreme, almost any power looks dangerous.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #505239
#28. I became a lawyer for selfish reasons. I thought I could do a lawyer's job better than any other.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #513234
#29. I have yet to see a death case among the dozen coming to the Supreme Court on eve-of-execution stay applications in which the defendant was well represented at trial ... People who are well represented at trial do not get the death penalty.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #585793
#30. The written argument endures. The oral argument is fleeting.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #586616
#31. Sunday is the Academy Awards. Every time an actor says, 'I didn't expect this,' Ruth Bader Ginsburg will do a shot.

David Letterman

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #597242
#32. History has shown that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg did, in fact, dramatically change the balance of the court in many critical areas, such as abortion, the privacy debate expansion and child pornography.

Sam Brownback

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #672697
#33. The age of consent for sex should be 12 years old.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #734988
#34. If I resign any time this year, he [President Obama] could not successfully appoint anyone I would like to see in the court ... [A]nybody who thinks that if I step down, Obama could appoint someone like me, they're misguided.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #744518
#35. The greatest threat to public confidence in elections in this case is the prospect of enforcing a purposefully discriminatory law, one that likely imposes an unconstitutional poll tax and risks denying the right to vote to hundreds of thousands of eligible voters.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #746499
#36. Who will take responsibility for raising the next generation?

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #747810
#37. Rabbi Alfred Bettleheim once said: "Prejudice saves us a painful trouble, the trouble of thinking.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #748287
#38. All respect for the office of the presidency aside, I assumed that the obvious and unadulterated decline of freedom and constitutional sovereignty, not to mention the efforts to curb the power of judicial review, spoke for itself.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #748325
#39. I do think that being the second [female Supreme Court Justice] is wonderful, because it is a sign that being a woman in a place of importance is no longer extraordinary.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #768195
#40. Religious organizations exist to foster the interests of persons subscribing to the same religious faith. Not so of for-profit corporations. Workers who sustain the operations of those corporations commonly are not drawn from one religious community.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #769690
#41. Tim Tebow has been on the bench longer than Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

David Letterman

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #797068
#42. I would not like to be the only woman on the court.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #823218
#43. We live in an age in which the fundamental principles to which we subscribe - liberty, equality and justice for all - are encountering extraordinary challenges, ... But it is also an age in which we can join hands with others who hold to those principles and face similar challenges.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #888315
#44. When Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg was before us in 1993, she said that her standard was to give no hints, no forecasts, no previews, and declined to answer dozens of questions.

Orrin Hatch

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #904732
#45. Sometimes people say unkind or thoughtless things, and when they do, it is best to be a little hard of hearing - to tune out and not snap back in anger or impatience.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #905741
#46. Members of the legislature, people who have run for office, know the connection between money and influence on what laws get passed

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #1062117
#47. If I had any talent God could give me, I would be a great diva

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #1094973
#48. If there was one decision I would overrule, it would be Citizens United. I think the notion that we have all the democracy that money can buy strays so far from what our democracy is supposed to be.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #1126598
#49. It is not women's liberation, it is women's and men's liberation.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #1147734
#50. My mother told me two things constantly. One was to be a lady and the other was to be independent, and the law was something most unusual for those times because for most girls growing up in the '40s, the most important degree was not your B.A. but your M.R.S.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #1162444
#51. When I'm sometimes asked when will there be enough [women on the Supreme Court] and I say, 'When there are nine,' people are shocked. But there'd been nine men, and nobody's ever raised a question about that.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #1193085
#52. If you have a caring life partner, you help the other person when that person needs it. I had a life partner who thought my work was as important as his, and I think that made all the difference for me.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #1248103
#53. And I give you this picture because it fairly captures our nearly fifty-year happy marriage, during which I have offered up an astonishing number of foolish pronouncements with absolute assurance, and Ruth, with only limited rancor, has ignored almost every one. A

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #1260988
#54. We should learn ... to do our best for the sake of our communities and for the sake of those for whom we pave the way.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #1278517
#55. One might plausibly contend that Congress violates the spirit, if not the letter, of the constitutional doctrine of separation of powers when it exonerates itself from the impositions of the laws it obligates people outside the legislature to obey.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #1305232
#56. Anger, resentment, envy, and self-pity are wasteful reactions. They greatly drain one's time. They sap energy better devoted to productive endeavors.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #1417444
#57. There is a Constitutional right to prostitution.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #1420149
#58. I would not look to the United States Constitution if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #1435020
#59. Dissents speak to a future age.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #1454137
#60. Every constitution written since the end of World War II includes a provision that men and women are citizens of equal stature. Ours does not.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #1472297
#61. Arizona presents no specific reason for excepting capital defendants from the constitutional protections extended to defendants generally, and none is readily apparent.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #1522722
#62. So that's the dissenter's hope: that they are writing not for today but for tomorrow.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #1526045
#63. A constitution, as important as it is, will mean nothing unless the people are yearning for liberty and freedom.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #1551522
#64. You would have a huge statelessness problem if you don't consider a child born abroad a U.S. citizen.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #1563112
#65. The impact of all these restrictions is on poor women, because women who have means, if their state doesn't provide access, another state does ... It makes no sense as a national policy to promote birth only among poor people.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #1603212
#66. According to Ruth, Nabokov changed the way she read and wrote: "He used words to paint pictures. Even today, when I read, I notice with pleasure when an author has chosen a particular word, a particular place, for the picture it will convey to the reader." Ruth remembers

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #1628288
#67. Reading is the key that opens doors to many good things in life. Reading shaped my dreams, and more reading helped me make my dreams come true.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #1629634
#68. Cushman, who assigned her to research McCarthy's assault on civil liberties, "wanted me to understand two things," Ruth recalls. "One is that we were betraying our most fundamental values, and, two, that legal skills could help make things better, could help to challenge what was going on.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #1637905
#69. Promoting active liberty does not mean allowing the majority to run roughshod over minorities. It calls for taking special care that all groups have a chance to fully participate in society and the political process.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #1717528
#70. I think our system is being polluted by money,

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #1724364
#71. The emphasis must be not on the right to abortion but on the right to privacy and reproductive control.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #1742727
#72. Women's rights are an essential part of the overall human rights agenda, trained on the equal dignity and ability to live in freedom all people should enjoy.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #1750519
#73. I would not look to the U.S. Constitution if I were drafting a constitution in 2012.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #1751317
#74. Women will only have true equality when men share with them the responsibility of bringing up the next generation.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Ginsburg Quotes #1831931

Famous Authors

Popular Topics

Scroll to Top