RBG: An Icon of the Century

The 14th Amendment is one of the most hypocritical amendments in our Constitution. For an amendment that states “equal protection under the law,” how is it that that same government is able to make laws against or excluding certain groups of people on the basis that it is “substantially related to an important government purpose?” For one, the word “important” is extremely subjective. What one group finds important, another group can completely disagree. This can become a problem when nine Supreme Court justices are given power to rule a case involving discrimination. Therefore, even though it may not always seem like it, unjust discrimination is bound to happen to a certain group of people when the question of whether a law has an “important government purpose” rests on the shoulders of nine human beings. This is evident in the first case we looked at in class where the California Penal Code prohibited sex with a female under the age of 18 but did not prohibit sex with males under the age of 18. The Supreme Court ruled that this is not a discriminatory law, the reason being that women and men are not situated with the same “risks” when it comes to sexual intercourse. This thinking is completely backwards, and many people today looking back on this ruling would agree. It takes two for a pregnancy to occur, and the fact that nine human beings were able to make a decision that is so clearly discriminatory about age of consent that wasn’t uniform and equal for all completely obliterates the idea of equal protection under the law. This field was Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s area of expertise, and her work toward it began far before 1993 when she became a Supreme Court Justice. 

RBG is one of the most influential women’s rights leaders of her century. What made her tactics so effective was she was quite the “show, don’t tell” person. As the movie The Notorious RBG explained, she wasn’t one to go to protests and rallies and march through town holding a sign. Rather, she used her unique set of skills (for a woman of that time). That is, her legal skills. As impactful as RBG was in the advancements of women’s rights, it doesn’t mean that some of her decisions weren’t still discriminatory. Mr. Satow mentioned this briefly in his presentation as he explained: Yes, Ruth Bader Ginsburg helped advance women’s rights tremendously but in doing so other groups (such as men) were put in the backseat. This is quite interesting because many women’s rights activists preach civil rights for all, while RBG’s tactics did not follow this standard. Either way, I’m not complaining because she helped us women extraordinarily, it is just interesting to see how her tactics line up to your typical protestor, marching with a sign and shouting their beliefs for everyone to hear.