My Correspondence with RBG

 Many will have a personal story of how Ruth Bader Ginsburg touched their lives.  Mine is

correspondence with the Justice many years ago where she revealed the human and humorous aspect of whom she was.

Back in the 1990s I was teaching constitutional law at the University of Wisconsin.  One day while discussing oral arguments in a case a student raised her hand and ask: “How long does it take for the Supreme Court to decide a case and issue an opinion once oral arguments are completed and are some justices faster at opinion writing than others?”

I looked at her and said those were good questions.  I did not know the answer but I would do some research and figure it out.

It happened that at that time in 1997 there had been no turnout on the Supreme Court for several years and that what I could do is a three-year study of Court opinions.  I would look at all cases scheduled for oral arguments, note the dates for orals, and then the dates for when they were decided and who wrote the majority opinion.  I had no idea what I would find.

When I completed my research of opinion writing for the 1995, 1996, and 1997 Supreme Court terms I found that Ruth Bader Ginsburg was by far the fastest Justice in terms of turning around an opinion, even ahead of the second fastest Justice Sandra Day O’Connor by more than a week. As I described it then, she won the “triple crown” as the fastest Justice each term and overall she was the “top gun” on the Supreme Court.

I eventually published the article entitled  “Justice Delayed, Justice Denied”: The Fastest Gun in the East (Or at Least on the Supreme Court), 16 Constitutional Commentary 213 (1999).

Simply out of courtesy I mailed a copy to Justice Ginsburg, not expecting to hear back from her.  But to my surprise I received a delightful letter from her thanking me for the article.  But more important, in her letter to me she told me the article made her day.  She told me that her daughter (who was featured in the movie (On the basis of Sex) and her granddaughter often complained that she was the slowest or pokiest eater and person they knew.  Justice Ginsburg then said she now had something to lord over them.  I imagined every time they complained to her that she was moving too slowly she told them that there was a professor from Minnesota who proved she was the fastest Justice on the Court.

The letter went on also to say nicely that other Justices were often busy reviewing draft opinions and that did not mean they were tardy or slow.  Ginsburg was gracious in victory, even with compliments.

The letter from Justice Ginsburg is framed in my Hamline office.  Over the years I think about how precious it was for her to write me.  I also thought of her just hours before she passed away on September 18, 2020.  I was teaching a CLE (continuing legal education) class for the Hennepin County Law Library in Minneapolis.  It was a CLE on highlights from last term’s Supreme Court term.  She issued the fastest opinion on the Court this pasted term–still proof that as she aged and became ill she was still the fastest Justice on the Court.