Ruth Bader Ginsburg

“Frankly, I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don't want to have too many of.”

“I was a proponent of the ERA. The women of my generation and my daughter's generation, they were very active in moving along the social change that would result in equal citizenship stature for men and women.”

“At my advanced age - I'm now an octogenarian - I'm constantly amazed by the number of people who want to take my picture.”

“My mother told me to be a lady. And for her, that meant be your own person, be independent.”

“I always ask my law clerks, in addition to reading all the briefs, including all the amici briefs, that if there's a good law review article, they should bring it to me.”

“The Sixth Amendment secures to persons charged with crime the right to be tried by an impartial jury reflecting a fair cross-section of the community.”

“I think Mozart's operas 'The Marriage of Figaro' and 'Don Giovanni' are the two most perfect ever written. The music is magical.”

“The notion that it is improper to look beyond the borders of the United States in grappling with hard questions has a certain kinship to the view that the U.S. Constitution is a document essentially frozen in time as of the date of its ratification.”

“I think some of my colleagues' spicier lines are distracting. They draw attention away from what the justice is trying to say.”

“If there was one decision I would overrule, it would be 'Citizens United.' I think the notion that we have all the democracy that money can buy strays so far from what our democracy is supposed to be.”

“Judges should avoid commenting on a candidate for public office.”

“Feminism... I think the simplest explanation, and one that captures the idea, is a song that Marlo Thomas sang, 'Free to be You and Me.'”

“There's nothing in the Constitution that says the President stops being President in his last year.”

“We will never see a day when women of means are not able to get a safe abortion in this country.”

“On the whole, we think of our consumers - other judges, lawyers, the public. The law that the Supreme Court establishes is the law that they must live by, so all things considered, it's better to have it clearer than confusing.”

“My resume showed membership on both the Harvard and Columbia Law Reviews, a credit impressive abroad where it was not generally known that Law Reviews were student-operated publications.”

“Contraceptive protection is something every woman must have access to, to control her own destiny.”

“When police or prosecutors conceal significant exculpatory or impeaching material, we hold, it is ordinarily incumbent on the state to set the record straight.”

“It is not like I have gone crazy, I just don't want to take any chances. You never know what could happen.”

“I was tremendously fortunate to be alive and a lawyer, working at a university so I had more flexible hours, when the women's movement was coming alive and when it became possible to argue successfully for a view of the equal protection clause that included women.”