Fireside Chat, Interview, Lecture
Linda Hirshman: Talks at GS Session Highlights
- Linda Hirschman's book chronicles the public and private lives of Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, focusing on their combined and individual roles in achieving formal legal equality for women.
- In 1969, the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment did not apply to sex discrimination; the legal landscape shifted in 1971 when the Supreme Court ruled in Reed v. Reed that it did.
- The narrative opens on June 26, 1996, the final day of the Supreme Court term, marking the delivery of the opinion in United States v. Virginia.
- United States v. Virginia determined that the Virginia Military Institute must admit women under the Equal Protection Clause.
- Chief Justice William Rehnquist, the senior justice in the majority, assigned the opinion of the court to Justice O'Connor despite her being the first woman on the bench.
- Justice O'Connor declined to write the opinion, delegating it to Justice Ginsburg because Ginsburg had led the strategic litigation campaign to establish sex discrimination coverage under the Constitution from 1970 to 1980.
- O'Connor's decision to cede the opinion was pivotal, resulting in Ginsburg delivering the "opinion of her career" that shaped the law of sex discrimination.
- The authors describe the Justices' relationship as an "affectionate alliance" rather than a friendship, where they were strategically better together than apart without consciously voting together.
- O'Connor's primary goal was ensuring she would not be the last woman on the Court, a priority she communicated to Ginsburg upon her appointment.
- While their political backgrounds differed (O'Connor: Republican, Arizona; Ginsburg: Liberal Democrat, Brooklyn), both shared "stunning" discipline and a shared belief that they were entitled to rule.
- Both women avoided unnecessary battles and picked narrow targets for opposition, operating with a strategic patience influenced by a wedding gift of earplugs from Ginsburg's mother-in-law advising to "be a little deaf."
- O'Connor is characterized as a charismatic social animal with a broad career trajectory who might have become a governor or legislature member, whereas Ginsburg was a natural at the specific legal career ladder of law clerk to judge.
- Ginsburg is noted for her long-term strategic vision in legal doctrine, often planting specific sentences in opinions to be "harvested" years later.
- O'Connor viewed the presence of a woman on the bench primarily as a necessary symbol of capability to show women could govern as well as men.
- Ginsburg remained "agnostic" on the premise that a woman judge would decide differently than a man judge, contrasting with her defense of Justice Sonia Sotomayor's view that experience shapes outcomes.
- During Sotomayor's 2009 confirmation hearings, Ginsburg defended Sotomayor's assertion that a "wise Latina woman" might reach different outcomes based on life experience, noting that life tenure allows justices to "never have to say you're sorry."
- The discussion concludes that diverse backgrounds among justices alter the nature of oral arguments and dissents, potentially leading to different legal conclusions even when final outcomes remain the same.