As the nation is consumed with talk over a possible new Supreme Court Justice, a current Justice visited Virginia Wednesday Ruth Bader Ginsburg gave a talk at Virginia Military Institute, a school she helped transform.
The argument could be made that RBG’s visit to VMI on Wednesday had special significance. The Supreme Court Justice and longtime women’s rights litigator wrote the majority opinion in a landmark case in the 90s that found the state-run school’s all-male admission policy to be unconstitutional.
“All doors must be open to our sons and daughters.”
At one point, she read part of a poem written by someone at the time that captured the sexist backlash to the Court’s decision.
“'Captain Bertha splits a seam, these pants weren’t made for girls… So flouncing out, the tittering throng lines up at Stonewall’s feet. Feminists triumphant, their victory complete.' My response to this was, 'Wait and see. You will be proud of the women who become graduates of VMI.'"
The entire student body attended the public event, including the school’s 200 female cadets who wouldn’t be there were it not for Justice Ginsburg.
The event was co-sponsored by Washington & Lee University School of Law.