VIEW from behind the plow

So-called progressives are probably beside themselves over Supreme Court Justice and liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s praise of recently confirmed Justice Brett Kavanaugh, considered a conservative. Ginsburg in a speech on gender equality at Georgetown Law School gave Kavanaugh, whose confirmation was marked by unproven allegations by leftist opponents of sexual assault as a teenager, credit for appointing an entirely female staff, thereby helping create for the first time in history at the Court’s fall term more women will be clerking than men. Ginsburg is passionate about equality between the sexes when they’re doing equal jobs. Ginsburg recounted her difficulty landing a job after her graduation from Columbia Law School in 1959. She detailed how a law professor threatened that he would never recommend another Columbia student to a judge of the Southern District of New York if he did not provide Ginsburg with a clerkship. Ginsburg is a true “liberal” because she is willing to look at all sides of an issue. Although Ginsburg was likely the Court’s most ardent liberal, she and the late Justice Antonin Scalia, arguably the most conservative justice, were close personal friends. They and their families spent New Year’s Eve together every year. They rode together on an elephant in India (Scalia joked that Ginsburg betrayed her feminism by sitting behind him), and Scalia watched Ginsburg go parasailing in the south of France (“She’s so light, you would think she would never come down. I would not do that”). Ginsburg let it be known that she counted on Scalia to critique her opinions. “We disagreed now and then, but when I wrote for the Court and received a Scalia dissent, the opinion ultimately released was notably better than my initial circulation. Justice Scalia nailed all the weak spots the ‘applesauce’ and ‘argle bargle’ and gave me just what I needed to strengthen the majority opinion. He was a jurist of captivating brilliance and wit, with a rare talent to make even the most sober judge laugh,” Ginsburg was quoted. Ginsburg and Scalia provide a benchmark for displaying civility in political life. The political attacks today alleging incivility are obviously small minded, principally serving as an opportunity to denigrate an opponent. Ginsburg and Scalia were both ”real.” While they were far apart on the political spectrum, they respected the Constitution and their offices. Ginsburg and Scalia also shared a love of opera. In a tribute to Scalia following his death in 2017 at age 79, one commentator recalled Ginsburg writing about Scalia: “It’s a tribute to Scalia as an interlocutor, a fellow opera lover including a reference to the opera Scalia/Ginsburg: A (Gentle) Parody of Operatic Proportions, which debuted in 2015 and a “best buddy.” Toward the end of the opera Scalia/Ginsburg, tenor Scalia and soprano Ginsburg sing a duet: “‘We are different, we are one,’ different in our interpretation of written texts, one in our reverence for the Constitution and the institution we serve.’” It appears possible Ginsburg has found a similar friend in Kavanaugh. It is comforting to hear of such appreciation between people of differing opinions serving on the nation’s highest c ourt.