Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye is one of several who wrote in the Sacramento Bee about the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg:
It feels impossible to overestimate the importance that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had on my generation of female lawyers and jurists. The legal community is in mourning. She was one of ours. She showed the world how to punch above your weight class. Her majority opinions concerning gender and education equality are inspiring; and her withering gut punch in a dissent reverberated many times over the majority opinion.
I always found it noteworthy that Justice Ginsburg shared a warm friendship with her ideological opposite, Justice Antonin Scalia, because it went to the heart of how we as judges and justices should treat our colleagues — with civility and respect.
Last year, when the Judicial Council of California presented a Distinguished Service Award to Alameda Superior Court Judge Carol Brosnahan, Justice Ginsburg submitted a brief video of congratulations, as she and Judge Brosnahan were longtime friends. They had entered Harvard Law School together in 1956 — two of nine women in a class of more than 500. Justice Ginsburg said the dean pointed out that the women occupied seats that could have been held by men. “That dean,” said Justice Ginsburg, “could hardly imagine what women could do once the artificial barriers to our opportunities were removed.”
We lost Justice Ginsburg on the eve of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. When she praised Judge Brosnahan last year, she said her friend embodied tikkun olam. “In Jewish tradition,” Justice Ginsburg said, “tikkun olam refers to our obligation to repair tears in our communities. You have done just that with compassion and wisdom.” When I heard her say that, I thought to myself, “And so have you Justice Ginsburg. So have you.”
