New to The 19th? Sign up for this daily briefing on gender, politics and policy.

Greetings, 19th friends! This week’s newsletter is supported by the Amended Podcast.

Politics —

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on Friday at 87

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court, died on Friday from complications of metastatic cancer of the pancreas. She was at her home in Washington, D.C., surrounded by her family, according to the court.

Ginsburg was the most senior liberal justice on the nine-member court and a feminist icon. Her court collar has been made into buttons. Her face is emblazoned on baby onesies. Her fans call her “the Notorious RBG.”

Despite battling repeated bouts of cancer, Ginsburg had said she would not retire from her lifetime appointment to the court, a move meant to deny Republican President Donald Trump the opportunity to fill another court vacancy.

‘An extraordinary force in the law’

Ginsburg was 60 years old when she joined the Supreme Court, but she earned her iconic feminist bonafides decades before. As a lawyer, she used the court to make the 14th Amendment of the Constitution — in which the founders guarantee equal protection under the law for all citizens — apply to gender, a novel but necessary interpretation.

In her life and her work, she shattered stereotypes for men and women (her husband, Marty, famously did the household cooking) and helped to dismantle the patriarchal systems and norms that held her back in her own life.

For decades, Ginsburg brought her lived experience to the courtroom, and later, to the bench, on issue after issue, from reproductive rights to employment discrimination to access to public benefits.

“She inspired me tremendously,” said Lily Ledbetter, who was at the Supreme Court during oral arguments in the 2007 gender pay discrimination case she brought against Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, her former employer.

Ginsburg also created case law banning sex discrimination that set the stage for LGBTQ+ legal wins decades later. In the 1970s, Ginsburg took a spate of sex discrimination cases to the Supreme Court, arguing that the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution barred discrimination due to gender. Her winning arguments cemented sex discrimination protections into Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“Without the early sex discrimination cases that she brought, starting in the early 1970s, and without her very strategic broad vision of how to persuade the court to recognize a very expansive understanding of sex discrimination, we would be living in a very different world,” said Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. “There would almost certainly be no sex discrimination protections for LGBTQ people.”

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

In response

Within two hours of official confirmation of Ginsburg’s death — at 8:55 p.m., specifically — Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell released a statement lauding Ginsburg’s career. He concluded with a promise: President Donald Trump’s replacement pick will get a swift confirmation vote.

Less than 24 hours later, the president was already discussing potential replacements, telling reporters that he expected to announce his choice within the week and it would “most likely” be a woman. Shortly after, in front of a cheering crowd in North Carolina, Trump confirmed that it would indeed be a “very brilliant, very talented woman.”

Republican Senators sprang into statement mode. “Given the proximity of the presidential election … I do not believe that the Senate should vote on the nominee prior to the election,” Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who is in a competitive race to hold her seat, said Saturday afternoon.

On Sunday, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who is not up for reelection this year, followed suit: “For weeks, I have stated that I would not support taking up a potential Supreme Court vacancy this close to the election. Sadly, what was then a hypothetical is now our reality, but my position has not changed.”

The partisan rancor over Trump’s court picks now extends to a third Supreme Court nomination process. Republicans hold a slim 53-to-47 Senate majority, and Democrats will need four of them to prevent McConnell from confirming a nominee. A fight to slow or delay the process is expected, with Democratic senators already speaking out.

As hundreds gathered at the Supreme Court to pay Ginsburg tribute at a vigil-cum-political rally on Saturday night, there were cheers among the tears when Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren said she would not allow McConnell to “ram through” a nominee before the election.

The majority of Americans, including half of Republicans, are in agreement, telling Reuters/Ipsos pollsters that they believe the vacancy should be filled by the winner of the Nov. 3 election.

It’s still an election year

By noon on Saturday, just 16 hours after news broke of Ginsburg’s death, donors had poured more than $45 million into various campaigns, with a focus on the Senate, according to liberal fundraising platform ActBlue. In the hour between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Friday night, donations were coming in at a pace of more than $100,000 per minute.

In Maine, Poppy Arford, a Democratic statehouse candidate, said that when she visited the county party headquarters on Saturday there was a shared sense of mourning and shock over Ginsburg’s death, along with a shared sense of mission.

“I think it’s going to bring people out of the woodwork to elect Democrats,” Arford said.

Read all our latest coverage here.

What we’re reading—

Curated by Alexis Lanza. Have something you think we should recommend? Tell us or tweet at us using #19thShares.

To have known her. Amanda Tyler, one of Justice Ginsburg’s law clerks, processes her grief and recounts her favorite memories while working under RBG. (The Atlantic, September 21)

In a fitting tribute, the Fed Cup is renamed after Billie Jean King. The Billie Jean King Cup becomes the first major annual global team sports event to be named for a woman. (The New York Times, September 17)

How the pandemic has exacerbated the gender divide in household labor. Among heterosexual couples, mothers have reduced their working hours four to five times more than fathers due to increased housework and child care responsibilities during the pandemic. (BuzzFeed, September 18)

Zendaya makes history with her Emmy win for ‘Euphoria .' Zendaya, 24, becomes the youngest to win best lead actress in a drama for her role as Rue in “Euphoria.” (The New York Times, September 20)

A message from this week's sponsor, the Amended Podcast

Amended, a six-part podcast hosted by historian Laura Free that highlights the diversity of the suffrage movement. Available now!

What we’re streaming—

🎧 Listen: Amicus Presents: The class of RBG, Part 1. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg remembers the nine other women in Harvard Law School’s class of 1959. (Amicus, July 21)

📺 Watch: Inside the making of 'I Am Woman,' the story of a feminist anthem. The biopic, "I Am Woman," named for her song of the same name, follows the story of Helen Reddy through her career, capturing her presence in the women’s rights movement. (Architectural Digest, September 16)

Join hundreds of others supporting our mission with their membership.
Your financial support helps make our journalism possible.

DONATE TODAY

You're signed up to receive updates and headlines from The 19th, a nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. Support the work of The 19th by sharing this newsletter with your friends and family or by becoming a member.

You're receiving The 19th with knavarro@19thnews.org.

Need help updating your preferences? Email us!
To stop receiving all emails from The 19th click here.

Our mailing address is:
The 19th 3267 Bee Caves Rd. Suite 107-353 Austin, TX 78746 USA