Rebecca Markert: Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an ‘advocate for true religious liberty’

This is the speech given by FFRF Legal Director Rebecca Markert on June 21 at FFRF’s Freethought Hall in Madison, Wis., to dedicate the Ruth Bader Ginsburg bust, which was unveiled during FFRF’s summer solstice celebration. 

By Rebecca Markert

Good afternoon, and happy summer solstice!

[FFRF Co-President] Annie Laurie Gaylor asked me to speak a few words about the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg today. She said I could share my favorite RBG quote, which is kind of like picking my favorite child. It’s impossible. It literally depends on the day!

But it’s really hard to find just one. I think it’s because she wasn’t only a brilliant legal mind, but she also was a very practical person. She put her head down, worked hard and became a justice on the highest court in the land — and she wasn’t even President Clinton’s first choice! She just wanted to get the job done. She fought for equality and justice based on her own “outsider” experience, which led her to be a more empathetic justice. She understood the impact of her work on the real world. 

That’s what I find so appealing about her. She’s relatable in so many ways. She’s the only Supreme Court justice who also became a pop culture icon. The “Notorious RBG.” There are posters and pins and apparel and glassware, all with her picture and quotes on them. Many of the attorneys here have some displayed in our offices.

She was a working lawyer mom, like me. After her career took off, she faced all the struggles working moms have also experienced, even still today. So, when Annie Laurie asked me what my favorite quote was, my mind went immediately to the story she told at Sundance in 2018 about her “spirited” son, who had a habit of getting in trouble at school and they would always call her. This is what she said:

“I would get called by the head of the school, the school psychologists or the room teacher to come down immediately to hear about my son’s latest escapade. Well, one day, I think I’d been up all night writing a brief. I was at my office at Columbia Law School. I got the call. And I responded, ‘This child has two parents. Please alternate calls. And it’s his father’s turn.’”

She’s primarily known for her work for women’s equality, and founding the ACLU’s Women’s Rights project. Arguing to end sex discrimination in cases before the Supreme Court (she argued five times before the Supreme Court and won four of those). She was famously asked how many women would be “enough” on the Supreme Court, and she responded, “When there are nine.” That’s another favorite quote of mine (that I also have on a T-shirt).

Some of you may be wondering why FFRF is putting in our building a bust of a Jewish Supreme Court justice known mostly for her work on women’s equality. I admit, I was also wondering if it was appropriate. Not because of her work, but, because is it OK for us to pick a favorite justice? As a lawyer, it didn’t quite feel right. But as an advocate for state/church separation and the right of true religious liberty for everyone, even nonbelievers, it absolutely is.

She understood the importance of our godless Constitution and our secular democracy. Her approach to justice was shaped by her experience as a religious minority — and thus she cared deeply about the impact of the law on minority groups. She said once, “It makes you more empathetic to people who are not insiders, who are outsiders.” 

Here’s another story that may not be as well known, and might seem to have a small impact on the separation of state and church. Justice Ginsburg was the one who got the Supreme Court to stop automatically putting “In the Year of Our Lord” on certificates issued to attorneys admitted to the Supreme  Court bar. It was a change so small that people probably barely noticed, but it ensures that all the FFRF attorneys who’ve been eligible for the SCOTUS bar have godless certificates hanging in their offices. She understood what those words meant — and how they felt — to someone who didn’t adhere to the majority faith. 

Ginsburg dedicated her entire career, on and off the court, to providing “equal protection of the laws,” not just for women, but for LGBTQIA+ individuals and religious minorities, and advancing justice for people of color and preserving our democracy. She knew that the separation of church and state was a crucial underpinning to preserving those rights too and she understood the dangers of elevating religious belief above all else.

In her final dissent, in a case known as Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania involving the contraceptive mandate in the Affordable Care Act, she warned that this “accommodation of religious beliefs” hurts the rights of others. She wrote,

“In accommodating claims of religious freedom, this court has taken a balanced approach, one that does not allow the religious beliefs of some to overwhelm the rights and interests of others who do not share those beliefs. Today, for the first time, the court casts totally aside countervailing rights and interests in its zeal to secure religious rights to the nth degree.”

Of course, in the three years since her death, we’ve seen just how far the court will go to privilege religious belief — Christianity in particular — above all else.

We’ve also seen theocratic legislators take aim at the most vulnerable of our population under the guise of religious freedom. This is why FFRF has been so active in many fights involving the right to abortion, equality for LGBTQIA+ community, racial justice and many other civil rights issues that may not seem at first to be our core issue. As RBG knew well, our secular democracy depends on laws that are based on reason, humanity and science, not religious ideology. 

FFRF has always been dedicated to defending our secular nation, our godless Constitution from religious zealots who would see it destroyed to secure their own religious privilege. As the movement to preserve our secular democracy grows, and we see more and more people talking about the separation of state and church and what it means to have true religious freedom, we find it imperative to join with other civil rights groups who are also fighting theocratic laws and policies that threaten civil liberties for everyone.

We are squarely in the dissent now, but we will fight as passionately and as fiercely as RBG did to someday have these dissenting voices be the prevailing voices. We can’t do it alone.

I’ll end with another favorite quote of mine from Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and one that I have said to our attorneys many times in our meetings and in emails, “Fight for the things that you care about. But, do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”