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WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 10: US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg participates in a discussion at the Georgetown University Law Center on February 10, 2020 in Washington, DC. Judge Ginsburg and US Court of Appeals Judge McKeown discussed the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote that was passed 100 years ago. (Photo by Sarah Silbiger / Getty Images)
Lwando Xaso reflects on her encounters with the life and legacy of the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, United States Supreme Court Justice and advocate for women’s rights and gender equality, who died on Friday, September 18.
Last year, former Constitutional Court Judge Albie Sachs organized a visit to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City. The Honorable Robert Katzmann had promised Albie that she would assign her paralegal to accompany me. When I finally visited, I spent a day on the court with the most brilliant, kind, thoughtful guide.
(Photo: Ford’s Theater)
We went through an exhibit on the justices of the United States Supreme Court. There we saw the faces of RBG (Ruth Bader Ginsburg), Sandra Day O’Connor and Sonia Sotomayor. We both paused and smiled. The guide showed me her judge’s personal camera and her own office. I had a barrage of questions about how the court works and the politics of it all. She answered all the questions intelligently.
At the end of the tour, she accompanied me. We had such a good time together that we took a couple of selfies on the stairs of the court. When we broke up, we made plans to get together later at a fundraiser that Albie and I would be talking at, in support of Constitution Hill. She came to our fundraiser and had brought some of her colleagues. I only learned the next day that Clara Spera, the paralegal who had spent the day with me, was in fact RBG’s granddaughter.
Clara never mentioned this to me, not even when we passed through the exhibition with her grandmother’s famous face. Her talent made even more sense to me: she had her genes “Bubbie“a legend. I respected her even more for not letting me into her heritage. What impressed me was her knowledge of the Constitution and Constitutional Court of South Africa. Like her grandmother, she was an ally of our constitutionalism, which she expressed during her time with me and at the fundraiser.
It was to Clara that RBG made its last wish: that it be the next elected president of the United States who would nominate his replacement. I cannot imagine a more capable person to fight for this wish to be fulfilled. I am encouraged to see that Clara has an army of followers at her side to wage this fight.
When Albie and I spoke after learning of her death this morning, he recalled that the last time he was with Ruth, it was in late 2019, when he presented her with a lace necklace (similar to the famous necklaces she wore in court. ) Gift. the South African artist, Kim Lieberman. Albie says RBG liked it so much that he said he wouldn’t use it but would frame it like a work of art.
Albie also recalled the time RBG and her husband Martie visited the Constitutional Court in 2006:
“She declared that it was the most beautiful court building she had ever seen in the world. In 2012 she got into trouble in the United States when she advised countries seeking a new constitution to use the South African Constitution as an example rather than the United States Constitution. “
Later she wrote in the preface to the book. Art and Justice, the art of the South African Constitutional Court:
“The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa marks the birth of a new nation dedicated to ‘democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights. It is appropriate that the judicial guardian of the Constitution, the Constitutional Court, is located in a building that stands out for its accessibility to the public, as is the Court itself … In general, however, the design of the building expresses a great hope and an enduring faith in ‘a united and democratic South Africa capable of taking its rightful place as a sovereign state in the family of nations…. The Constitution, the Court building and the works of art share a lively theme: “Everyone has inherent dignity and the right to have their dignity respected and protected.” …. Everywhere, you see the imprints of the hands, eyes and imagination of all the people whom the Constitution and the laws made under it exist to serve.
Albie concluded by saying that he had lost a loving friend and that the world had lost a deeply human, highly intelligent, extremely hard-working, well-loved, and utterly indefatigable judge.
However, RBG is not dead, it lives through Clara and the young women and women of my generation around the world who set their sights higher because of her brave, brilliant and pioneering example. DM / MC
