Supreme court justice and general warrior goddess, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, took down same-sex marriage challengers in court on Tuesday with her usual, effortless brilliance. Ginsburg, who has been crowned by young fans as the Notorious R.B.G., has long been an advocate for equal rights and a champion for liberal justice.
Ginsburg is 82-years-old and the first Jewish woman and the second woman of all time to serve on the Supreme Court. On Tuesday she flattened the argument that the court does not have the right to oppose centuries of tradition.
"Marriage today is not what it was under the common law tradition, under the civil law tradition. Marriage was a relationship of a dominant male to a subordinate female. That ended as a result of this court's decision in 1982, when Louisiana's Head and Master Rule was struck down. Would that be a choice that state should be allowed to have? To cling to marriage the way it once was?" Ginsburg told the court, according to the Guardian.
When John Bursch, the often-spurned legal representative of states looking to maintain the ban on gay marriage, argued that marriage’s sole purpose is to provide a stable environment for procreation, Ginsburg destroyed his grounds with a helping of humor.
“Suppose a couple, a 70-year-old couple, comes in and they want to get married? You don’t have to ask them any questions. You know they are not going to have any children.” Oh snap!
Ginsburg, who inspired the Saturday Night Live catchphrase, “You’ve been gins-burned” when Kate McKinnon impersonated the salty Associate Justice on Weekend Update, has been throwing curveballs throughout her career.
In 2010 Ginsburg opted for a snooze during the State of the Union Address, sans defense.
During the State of the Union Address in 2015, Ginsburg went for another nap, though this time she admitted that, “she wasn’t 100 percent sober,” explaining that the wine from the lavish feast served prior lulled her into a slumber.
This past April, Ginsburg released a feminist reading of the Passover seder, co-written with Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt, which highlights the crucial role women play in the Exodus narrative.
In one passage Ginsburg writes, “These women had a vision leading out of the darkness shrouding their world. They were women of action, prepared to defy authority to make their vision a reality bathed in the light of the day.”
Amen, R.B.G., amen.
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