King Hall community pays tribute to Justice Ginsburg

The legal community and millions of others are mourning the loss of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on Sept. 18 at age 87. A pioneer for gender equality, Justice Ginsburg was the second woman on the high court, where she served from 1993 until her death, and a pop culture icon whose fame transcended the bench.

Among those who paid tribute to Ginsburg in the days following her death were the Chief Justice of California, Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye, and Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, both UC Davis Law alums from the class of 1984, and Professor Emerita Martha West.

Cantil-Sakauye wrote an essay on Ginsburg for the The Sacramento Bee. “Her majority opinions concerning gender and education equality are inspiring,” Sakauye-Cantil wrote, “and her withering gut punch in a dissent reverberated many times over the majority opinion.”

Steinberg led a Sept. 19 candlelight vigil to remember Justice Ginsburg at the Capitol in Sacramento. West spoke about Ginsburg at a vigil held the same evening in Davis.

“In the 1970s, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was responsible for developing the law of constitutional Equal Protection which has benefited all of us ever since,” West said. “We owe her our deepest gratitude.”

See West’s full remarks on the Faculty Blog.