Memory Of Ruth Bader Ginsburg Shines Bright In Newark

NEWARK, NJ — The memory of Ruth Bader Ginsburg still shines bright in Newark.

On Thursday, Rutgers University dedicated 15 Washington Street, a neoclassical icon of the Newark skyline, as “Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hall” in honor of the late U.S. Supreme Court justice, who taught at Rutgers Law School from 1963 to 1972.

The dedication ceremony was attended by Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s daughter, Jane Ginsburg, and featured remarks by President Jonathan Holloway, Rutgers-Newark Chancellor Nancy Cantor, Board of Governors chair Mark Angelson and interim Law School Co-Dean Rose Cuison-Villazor.

Last fall, the Rutgers Board of Governors unanimously approved renaming the 17-story landmark residence hall at Rutgers University-Newark in honor of the trailblazing jurist, who died in September 2020 following recurring bouts of cancer.

In a video celebrating Rutgers’ 250th anniversary in 2016, Ginsburg reflected on how female law students at Rutgers inspired her to become a champion of gender issues after several students asked if the school could offer a seminar on women and the law.

Less than three years after starting the seminar, Ginsburg was arguing gender discrimination cases before the Supreme Court.

The newly-named Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hall was home to Rutgers Law School for nearly a quarter century after Ginsburg left Rutgers. It is now home to 330 graduate and undergraduate students, including 100 law students.

• See related article: Rutgers Renames Newark Building To Honor Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Thursday’s dedication ceremony was held following a winter symposium by the Women’s Rights Law Reporter, the first journal in the United States dedicated to women’s rights law. The symposium honored Ginsburg, who served as the journal’s first advisor. The theme was “Feminism in the Law: An Exploration of Justice Ginsburg’s Legacy.”

Rutgers Law School associate dean of academic research centers, Suzanne Kim, moderated the symposium, which included legal scholars and law professors who attended in person and virtually.

Jane Ginsburg, a School of Columbia Law professor, gave opening remarks at the symposium and recalled how, in 1969, Rutgers law students asked then-professor Ginsburg to teach a course on “Women and the Law.”

“That Rutgers student-initiated course set my mother on what became a celebrated path,” Ginsburg said, then read from her mother’s recollection of the time: “It is evident I was in the right place at the right time. Rutgers students sparked my interest and action. Faculty colleagues were supportive.”

Rachel Wainer Apter, director of the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights, clerked for Ginsburg and shared her reflections of the late law icon at the symposium.

“She recognized the humanity in every person that she met and sought to understand how their lived experiences impacted the ways in which they saw the world,” Apter said. “Indeed, the justice had a rare gift of seeing the world through the eyes of others.”

Rutgers Law professor Suzanne Kim, who previously served as advisor to the Women’s Rights Law Reporter, spoke about the need to continue Ginsburg’s work on gender equality.

“With the many gains formally we’ve achieved in the law, the pandemic reveals how much more work there is to do,” Kim said.

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