Ginsburg cites court's unanimity, cordiality
By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Capitol Bureau
While the U.S. Supreme Court has been strongly divided on certain cases, the justices of the high court still are able to maintain collegiality, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said yesterday.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
Despite sharp differences on issues such as the 2000 presidential election and campaign finance, "we remain good friends, people who respect each other and genuinely enjoy each other's company," Ginsburg said before about 350 people at a Rotary Club of Honolulu luncheon in Waikiki.
U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was visiting Hawai'i yesterday.
Ginsburg said the court has maintained a unanimity rate of about 40 percent, which she said is "something to be very proud of," especially considering that the court takes cases in which lower courts have been divided.
"The institution we serve, the U.S. Supreme Court, we all appreciate is ever so much more important than the particular individuals who compose this court at any given time," she said.
Ginsburg, 70, was appointed by President Clinton to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1993 and is the second woman to serve on the high court after Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Ginsburg is considered to be one of the more liberal justices of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
When asked if the court is affected by public activism, Ginsburg recited a quote that the "court is not and should not be affected by the weather of the day, but it should be affected by the climate of the era."
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg addressed the Rotary Club of Honolulu yesterday, telling it that the high court's members are collegial.
"Think of the civil rights movement that certainly came in advance of the court's moving in that direction," she said. "The same is true of the women's movement that sparked response on the court's part. If citizens don't care ... there's no court that can protect them. But if citizens do care, courts can reinforce our most cherished values and see that they are preserved and not sacrificed."
Ginsburg, who was instrumental in launching the Women's Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, said seeing women lawyers argue on both sides of a case before the U.S. Supreme Court is not unusual now.
"No one even notices that anymore," she said. But the justice lightly added one caveat:
"I will, on the other hand, admit that I've been there now 10 1/2 years and there hasn't been a term when at least one lawyer hasn't called me Justice O'Connor," she said, prompting an eruption of laughter. She noted the physical differences between O'Connor and herself and said although justices David Souter and Stephen Breyer have a certain resemblance, lawyers do not confuse them.
Ginsburg said the National Association of Women Judges had a premonition about that happening when she joined the Supreme Court and gave the two women justices T-shirts reading "I'm Sandra, not Ruth" and "I'm Ruth, not Sandra."
Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.
Correction: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's last name was misspelled in a previous version of this story. She has visited Hawai'i more than twice. Also, the previous version of this story had one of her quotes incorrect.
