October Arroyo 2018

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Maira Kalman Ginsburg teaching at Columbia Law School, 1972
IMAGES: (Left) Maira Kalman, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 2009. © Maira Kalman, courtesy Julie Saul Gallery, New York; (right) courtesy of Columbia Law School
quietly and methodically turning words into action by arguing gender discrimination
cases before the Supreme Court. She made life-changing gains for women, winning
five out of six cases by expanding the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment
to include women. The rulings struck down laws allowing job discrimination
for pregnant women, permitting the forced sterilization of black women and making
women’s jury service optional, which led to unbalanced juries. Ginsburg also argued
so-called “widower cases” to secure Social Security survivor’s benefits for men,
ultimately winning two cases in 1975 and 1977. And as a justice, her fierce dissent in
a 2007 case about gender pay discrimination led Congress to pass the Lily Ledbetter
Fair Pay Act, which President Obama signed in 2009.
Thurston, who spent 18 months working on the exhibit, examined Ginsburg’s
papers at the Library of Congress and was able to obtain archival objects and several
reproductions as well as loans of originals from 13 other collections. The exhibit’s
sections include “an imagined, immersive environment” that recreates Ginsburg’s
childhood Brooklyn apartment replete with vintage Nancy Drew books (Ginsburg’s
childhood favorites), along with a scrapbook of childhood memories that visitors can
leaf through, said Thurston. A recreated “hyper-real” living room of Ginsburg’s first
home is decked with objects that visitors can touch and feel. “We were conscious of
telling an accurate story, but there are moments where we can’t tell everything” because
details have dimmed over the years, said Thurston. “In those moments, we have built in
an experience around it. So when details are vague, we can be playful and fill it in.”
There is a partial recreation of a gray Chevrolet that the young Ruth Bader and the
late Martin Ginsburg, Ruth’s husband of 63 years, drove on their first date. When
visitors pull down the car sun visors in the reimagined 1930s/40s–style Chevrolet,
a photograph of the couple at their engagement party is revealed. Visitors can also
watch a video of RBG’s college graduation and honeymoon as they imagine riding
along with Marty and Ruth.
The childhood section is juxtaposed against an area dedicated to Ginsburg’s serious
law school studies, first at Harvard University, and then at Columbia University where
she transferred when Marty Ginsburg, by then her husband, landed his fi rst job as a
tax attorney in New York City. The exhibit also explores her undergrad days at Cornell
University where she met Marty, fell in love and received her bachelor’s degree.
“We have 10 audio-listening stations where you are able to actually hear her when
she was presenting oral arguments for one of the five sex discrimination cases to the
Supreme Court, taken from the actual moment,” said Thurston, adding that Ginsburg
argued these cases for the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project, which she cofounded
in 1972. The audio is taken from the landmark Fronteiro v. Richardson case of 1973,
the first time Ginsburg spoke before the Supreme Court. She was so nervous that
she skipped lunch for fear she would vomit. She won. The court ruled that families of
military women were entitled to the same benefits as those of their male counterparts.
The exhibit also includes video of Ginsburg reflecting on her important cases. “As
much as possible we are dropping you into that moment in time,” Thurston said. “You
hear her examining these important cases in her life. These sections of the exhibit are
very concise. You see what the case was, the outcome and what was at stake and how it
impacts people. ”
It is these engaging elements that make the exhibit “so magical” and important,
achieving the organizers’ goal to “crystallize” Ginsburg’s important cases, said
Thurston. Visitors can also sit at a facsimile of Ginsburg’s desk in the Supreme Court
chambers. When the drawer opens, a video of her working is revealed. Several of her
majority and dissent jabots (she coordinates fancy collars with decisions) are on loan
and will be available for visitors to try on.
Though the exhibit is faithful to the book, it also delves more deeply into certain
aspects of her career, such as the profound influence of the underrated and overlooked
Pauli Murray, a lawyer, civil rights activist and founding member of the National Organization
of Women (NOW). Murray originated the strategy of harnessing the 14th
Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause to include women as grounds for litigating sex
discrimination cases. Murray’s work informed Ginsburg’s legal efforts with ACLU’s
Women’s Rights Project. “We had the space so were able to do a deep dive into Murray’s
story,” said Thurston. “She was an incredible woman.”
The show’s organizers say Ginsburg’s life and work is particularly relevant as the
country continues battling over women’s reproductive autonomy, as well as voting and
civil rights. Indeed, the 85-year-old justice has vowed publicly to stay on the bench
as long as possible. “As long as I can do the job full steam, I will do it,” Ginsburg told
supporters at a 2017 Equal Justice Works event. She told a CNN interviewer that Justice
John Paul Stevens served until he was 90, and she thinks she can serve five more
years. A two-time cancer survivor, she works out with a personal trainer twice a week,
a regimen reportedly too rigorous for some of her younger associate justices. RBG fans
joke about sending her bushels of kale and longevity tonics to keep her on the court as
long as possible.
That’s good news to admirers like former U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson, whom
The Hill quoted, saying: “She is an extraordinarily able, talented person. She remains
so to this day…I have to say she is someone I have the hugest respect for. She is a hero
in this country.” ||||
Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg runs Oct. 19
through March 10, 2019, at the Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda
Blvd., L.A. Coauthors Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik will discuss the book
and blog at 11 a.m. Oct. 21; attendees can sip coffee and sample pastry
prepared from a recipe in Chef Supreme, a collection published by Supreme
Court spouses in 2011 in memory of Marty Ginsburg, who did all the
cooking in the Ginsburg household. Museum hours are noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday
through Friday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Admission
costs $12, $9 for seniors, students and children over 12 and $7 for children 2
to 12; members and children under 2 are admitted free. Visit skirball.org.
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