Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

The main point I want to get across to potential readers of this book is that it is a highly substantive, serious and detailed look at the life and career of Justice Ginsburg. It may appear on first viewing--given the editorial cartoons, extensive photos, and caricatures--to be some manner of "coffee table" book novelity. But there is much meat on the bones here for anyone interested in Justice Ginsburg. In part, the book is biographical, facilitated by some innovative timeline and other charts. Many photos, some obviously I would say, drawn from RBG's own files, enhance the presentation. By chapter 4, the authors are moving into substantive legal issues. This section is innovative because of several techniques of the authors. First, they focus on some key Ginsburg cases as counsel by examining the text of her briefs through annotating the language in particular sections and carefully dissecting why it is there. Reed v. Reed is a prime example of this technique. Secondly, the important body of work that RBG developed during her years supervising and as counsel for the ACLU's Women's Rights Project are encapsulated in a double page chart (pp. 74-5), which at once underlines the significance of her efforts as well as organizing by category the cases in a concise but meaningful chart design. Her legal career at Rutgers and Columbia is also covered. By chapter 5, the focus is her judicial career on both the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (thanks to Carter) and eventually the Supreme Court via a Clinton nomination. Particularly effective is the discussion of the VMI case, one of Ginsburg's great victories as a Justice. Chapter 6 focuses upon her late husband Martin Ginsburg, somewhat colorful for a tax lawyer, and an important key to understanding Ginsburg the person and what factors have shaped her life. I found the most interesting chapter (7) to be on her working on the Supreme Court. Her relations with Sandra Day O'Connor, Rehnquist, and of course Scalia are explored. The important topic of writing opinions is also covered, as are her relationships with clerks and how her chambers operates--or as I like to say, "how the sausages are made." Chapter 8 covers the critical role she has played as a dissenter in a majority conservative court. Her revival of oral dissents on occasion is important, as is her philosophy of dissenting. Several of her important dissents, including in the recent Voting Rights Act case, are subjected to annotative analysis to emphasize the points supporting her minority view. Another two page chart (pp. 148-9) focusing upon her dissents covers the ground expeditiously but comprehensively in a most cogent format. Chapter 9 deals with the personal side of the Justice, including her love of opera and life style. Of current critical importance is the final chapter on her refusal to step aside so a younger liberal judge can be appointed to replace her before the 2016 election. She has come under a great deal of misinformed pressure to take such a step, to which fortunately this incomparable fighter has refused to yield. However, obviously, time is time and how long this 80 plus year old dynamo will continue her service is problematic--one does note that several brushes with cancer have not deterred her determination to serve out her term. The book concludes with a number of appendices on various interesting topics. There are several effective traditional bios of the Justice, Linda Hirshman's recent joint RBG and O'Connor bio being a prime example, and the RGB lilterature continues to grow in recognition of her many contributions. This book is much more light-hearted, innovative, lively, and just fun to read--but the core of a solid study of RGB is there. One cannot conclude reading this book without going away with a strong sense of RBG as a person. An invaluable addition to the growing literature on this most interesting and significant of Supreme Court justices.

I must say upfront that I am a big fan of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the one person in our government for whom I have the most respect. I then was much taken by NOTORIOUS RBG. First, the authors Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik do a good job of their biography of Ginsburg’s life, particularly her time as an attorney for the ACLU, her time as a federal judge and finally her time on the U. S. Supreme Court. Of course the thread that runs through every aspect of her life is how she has always been treated because she is a woman. She apparently picks her battles, is an organized, detailed legal opponent, brighter often than anyone else in the room, and loaded down with both class and tact. Not a bad combination. In addition to all the information about Judge Ginsburg as a jurist, the authors strew a lot of other fascinating tidbits to make this woman come alive: her love of opera, her unlikely friendship with Justice Anthony Scalia, her exquisite taste in clothes, her over-fifty-year marriage to Marty Ginsburg who had the good sense to let her be whoever she wanted to be, her support of the other women justices on the court, her physical fitness workout, etc. The book also is chock-full of photographs, cartoons, quotations, her favorite recipe: Marty Ginsburg’s recipe for pork loin braised in milk, and two full pages of girls of all ages dressed as the Justice. My favorite photograph has to be that of Justices Ginsburg and Scalia sitting on an elephant in India. Scalia is in the front seat. When asked by feminist friends why he got to sit in front, she quipped: “’It had to do with the distribution of weight.” My two favorite quotes of Justice Ginsberg among many: The first is from her first argument before the then all-male Supreme Court in 1973. The facts of the case she was arguing were that a husband of a woman in the Air Force could not get the same housing, medical and dental benefits as other military spouses because he was a man. RBG’s last words to the court: “’I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.’” The second quotation is from her remarks in the Rose Garden at the White House when President Clinton announced her nomination to the Supreme Court, remarks so moving that the President teared up: “’I have a last thank you. It is to my mother, Celia Amster Baker, [who died on the day before Justice Ginsburg’s high school graduation] the bravest and strongest person I have known, who was taken from me much too soon. I pray that I may be all that she would have been had she lived in an age when women could aspire and achieve and daughters are cherished as much as sons.’” I am sad too that my own mother never lived to see Justice Ginsburg on the U. S. Supreme Court. A great book for all readers, both male and female.

This is a most important addition to the biographical oeuvre and especially to feminist literature. Ruth Bader Ginsburg's life is one of quiet perseverance and principle. I would give this a 5-star rating but for the writing style, which is not quite as consistent or interesting as the subject matter. Specifically, the opening and ending is awkward and needed a good editor. However, the bulk of the copy settles in nicely, especially when the authors analyze and discuss legal arguments and dissents. This is a must-read for anyone interested in social and legal progress and the highly competent woman who significantly contributed to making the law more fair for both sexes. RBG broke legal, career, and personal barriers at a time when all the cards (except for her exceptional husband) were stacked against her.

Fabulous Notorious RBG : voilà un livre plaisant en tant qu'objet avec des photos, et des textes divers... un sujet essentiel le droit des femmes et une petite femme si grande !!!! Un bon choix aussi pour travailler son anglais , que de bonnes raisons pour le lire .

Con este libro se logra descubrir un poco más de la gran vida de Ruth Baden Ginsburg, pasando por su gran carrera como abogada de derechos de las mujeres e integrante de la Suprema Corte de Estados Unidos

The book contains a lot of fun facts and anecdotes as well as the important milestones and stories about RBG's life.

Really interesting, very popcultural biography of the feminist icon RBG. It does not reflect on her life very critically but the annotated legal writings are interesting if you're not an expert on US law.

I knew very little about RBG before reading this book. She is now up there with Golda Meir.