Tribute to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
GOODBYE, OLD FRIEND: TRIBUTE TO JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG Brenda Feigen* In the early 1970s, the National Board of the ACLU declared women’s rights its top legal and legislative priority, creating the national Women’s Rights Project in late 1971.1 Ruth Bader Ginsburg was then a law professor at Rutgers University2 and the ACLU’s pick for director. In 1970, Martin Ginsburg, her husband and a tax lawyer, spotted a curious case in a tax court advance sheet brought pro se by a single man who was taking care of his elderly mother. 3 Charles Moritz had to hire outside help to assist while he was away from home as a traveling salesman.4 He wanted a $600 dependent care deduction, a credit afforded any woman, married couple, widowed or divorced man, but not to a single man who had never married.5 Ruth and Marty took the case pro bono and appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit where, with the support of the ACLU, they won.6 Before Mr. Moritz could realize the benefit, the U.S. Government appealed to the Supreme Court, asserting that this case would cast a cloud of unconstitutionality over literally hundreds of federal statutes.7 In so doing, Erwin Griswold, formerly * J.D. 1969, Harvard Law School. The author co-founded the ACLU Women’s Rights Project with Justice Ginsburg. She served as the National Legislative Vice President of NOW and was a co-founder of Ms. Magazine and the National Women’s Political Caucus. Portions of this tribute first appeared in Brenda Feigen, The ACLU, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Me, ACLU (May 27, 2020), https://www.aclu.org/issues/womens-rights/aclu-ruth-bader-gins burg-and-me [https://perma.cc/R4CD-LRBY].
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