Introduction
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Janet Benshoof’s Remarks Upon Receiving the Edith I. Spivack Award March 26, 2007 INTRODUCTION Thank you Marcia, Judge Rakower and the New York County Lawyers’ Association for honoring me with this award. The Women’s Rights Committee is to be commended for establishing this annual recognition of Edith Spivack. By pursuing a legal career in 1932, Edith Spivack demonstrated how, with dedication and perseverance, a woman could not only be a lawyer but, in her case, one singularly distinguished among fellow jurists. This annual award stands not just as a reminder of how far women have come but, more importantly, how change always starts with the courage of one. I am particularly grateful to receive this award while I am still alive. In fact, I accept this “Edith” award as a challenge; in the spirit of the “Oscars.” Hopefully, in 25 years, you will have me back here, for a second “Edith” for my current work through the Global Justice Center. This award is precious to me for two reasons. First, it validates the often iconoclastic path my career has taken. But, most importantly, you have given me this opportunity to speak – well – really “enlist” you, among the most influential lawyers in America. Redefine equality and justice My central message is simple in principle but profound if practiced. The United States has lost its moral authority as a model of the rule of law. We must seek to regain that authority by actions not words, starting with affirming that gender justice and Global Justice are inseparable. And such global justice starts at home, right here, in this room, tonight. Over the last 30 years, the United States Supreme Court, while paying lip service to advancing women’s equality, has simultaneously radically redefined what constitutes sex discrimination excluding all laws, based on physical differences mainly pregnancy and abortion. It is imperative that we find the political will to repudiate this twisted definition of women’s equality rights, which embeds rather than rejects the “biology is destiny” stereotype. We need the United States to lead or at least join the global movement for women’s equality under law—not undermine it. But, first let me go back a step. Human Rights Through The Rule Of Law 12 East 33rd Street Suite 1200 • New York, NY 10016 • P 212.725.6530 • F 212.725.6536 www.globaljusticecenter.net PAST AS PROLOGUE: MY EARLY LIFE This award recognizes a legal journey, mine, which, in the spirit of Edith Spivack, has more often than not forged ahead where others think better than even to tread. Some very formative early influences left me no alternative but to beat the drums I continue to beat. It is these experiences from my Midwestern childhood I want to share with you because they are in no small measure the reason I am here before you. Early Influences How I became a lawyer in the first place is in some way more remarkable than how I got here tonight. I was born in 1947 in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, a small town in Northwest Minnesota near Fargo, North Dakota. It was—and still is—a town of 7,007 persons. Originally populated by northern European immigrants, their ethos still prevails: hard work is a virtue and getting up early is a measure of ones character. My parent’s lives were greatly influenced by the Depression. My father was the Becker County Attorney for over 45 years along with a private law practice and my mother, a former history teacher, was—not necessarily by choice—a homemaker. Both my older sister and I were expected to do well in school, go to the University of Minnesota and be equipped to “earn a living” in the event our “husbands might die.” Books as Friends Books were my first and best friends. They opened all doors, which took me out of Detroit Lakes, and even past Fargo. Every week starting at age six I would take my red wagon to the public library, half a mile away from my house and load it up with books. Now, my selections were random-sometimes literally as I would just close my eyes and select books in order to be surprised. Or sometimes, I would check out only the very thickest books— Leon Uris comes to mind—because they would last longer. My first role models were the book heroines who were able to move their lives along by acting in slightly aberrant ways. Of course these young women were old fashioned by today’s standards, do any of you remember the Nancy Drew detective series, Cherry Ames, Student Nurse, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables and, of course, Francie Nolan in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn? These books instilled in me the conviction that in order to have a rewarding life, that is, one outside of Detroit Lakes, you can (must) act differently than the crowd (not too different) and you must follow your own moral compass even if this makes you unpopular for a little while. The Holocaust The greatest influence on my life, however, was and is, the Holocaust. I remember very distinctly the day in 1957, when I was ten years old, when I first read about the Holocaust in Life magazine. Human Rights Through The Rule Of Law 12 East 33rd Street Suite 1200 • New York, NY 10016 • P 212.725.6530 • F 212.725.6536 www.globaljusticecenter.net I remember feeling both disbelief and horror. How could this massive systematic evil - this extermination of Jews (and others) have actually happened? Why didn’t anyone stop it? And why wasn’t everyone in Detroit Lakes talking about it? Where was everyone? The fact that places like Auschwitz existed in recent history and the fact that Germany was where many of my town’s people were from, including the high school foreign exchange student, made it even more inexplicable. It is from that day in 1957 that I can trace my personal imperative, albeit imperfectly executed, not to stand by but to speak up. Of course, the hardest lesson from studying collective evils and genocides is that you cannot reduce this to being about “them.” It is about what is in all of us. As a reminder of this centrality, every year on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, November 18, I do not work. It was on this day in 1938 that Nazi gangs killed and terrorized Jews and Jewish homes and temples while Germans stood by. For a Christian, it is a day of humbling remembrance, a day to ask myself “where were we,” and “where am I now?” Out of these early influences came the three lessons which have propelled my legal career. And well, propel me in general: 1. View risks as life opportunities 2. Don’t let your life be a footnote 3. Don’t fight the phony wars—after all, if we don’t speak truth to power, who will? LESSON #1: VIEW RISKS AS LIFE OPPORTUNITIES Law School When I graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1969, I had never had a woman professor, met a woman lawyer or had even known a married woman who worked. Despite the utter lack of models, I applied to 18 law schools and to my puzzlement got in all 18. I chose Harvard, not because of its prestige - no one I knew was even impressed - but for the sheer exotic idea of going “east” to Cambridge, which I envisioned would be like an artist going to Paris in the 1920’s. I was utterly clueless. First Case My first women’s rights case was in 1971 when I was a second-year student. One of the female law librarians pulled me aside and showed me a trademark application which had just been filed by Longchamps restaurant in New York. Their proposed logo, which they were already using, was a big poster of a naked woman with lines carving up her body to advertise the different cuts of beef on the menu: ribs, loin, etc., making “New York Strip” take on a new meaning. Unimpeded by any knowledge of trademark law or advice from any real lawyers, I took this on. After immersing myself in the Trademark Commission regulations I found trademarks could be opposed on public interest grounds and we had ten days left to draft an opposition. With great rhetorical flourish (and little real knowledge), I set out to establish that Longchamps, by their “depicting” said woman as said cow,” was at the center stage of perpetuating women’s oppression. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, then a visiting professor that semester at Harvard, was very supportive and offered up her husband, Marty, who was in D.C., to file it for us with the Trademark Commission. So, the Harvard Law Students’ women’s association, which I had just co founded, signed it, off it went and we won - Longchamps backed down. Human Rights Through The Rule Of Law 12 East 33rd Street Suite 1200 • New York, NY 10016 • P 212.725.6530 • F 212.725.6536 www.globaljusticecenter.net Now this ‘bold is better’ experience leads to Life Lesson 2: LESSON #2: DON’T LET YOUR LIFE BE A FOOTNOTE Early on in my legal career I fought against the “footnote” phenomenon—which you all will recognize. You have a brilliant or at least novel—legal theory that fits your case, but it has not been argued before or applied in this situation. Your colleagues act as a Greek chorus of caution: “yes, you are right” but “it will never fly,” or worse, “it will turn the judge off.” Then, you are offered the compromise; “Well, put it in a footnote.” Let these words stand as an early alert system not just in law but in life.