During her tenure, Ginsburg authored the majority opinions in cases such as United States v. Virginia , Olmstead v. Laidlaw Environmental Services, Inc. Oneida Indian Nation of New York Later in her tenure, Ginsburg received attention for passionate dissents that reflected liberal views of the law. She was popularly dubbed " the Notorious R.
Ginsburg was born and grew up in Brooklyn , New York. Just over a year later her older sister and only sibling, Marilyn, died of meningitis at the age of six. Her mother died shortly before she graduated from high school. Ginsburg , becoming a mother before starting law school at Harvard, where she was one of the few women in her class.
Ginsburg transferred to Columbia Law School , where she graduated joint first in her class. During the early s she worked with the Columbia Law School Project on International Procedure, learned Swedish, and co-authored a book with Swedish jurist Anders Bruzelius ; her work in Sweden profoundly influenced her thinking on gender equality.
She then became a professor at Rutgers Law School and Columbia Law School, teaching civil procedure as one of the few women in her field. Ginsburg spent much of her legal career as an advocate for gender equality and women's rights , winning many arguments before the Supreme Court.
She advocated as a volunteer attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union and was a member of its board of directors and one of its general counsel in the s. In , President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the U. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit , where she served until her appointment to the Supreme Court in Between O'Connor's retirement in and the appointment of Sonia Sotomayor in , she was the only female justice on the Supreme Court.
