RBG's Family, Brooklyn Leaders To Plan Her Statue In BK

BROOKLYN, NY — A commission of family, Brooklyn leaders and feminist icons will oversee the plan to put a statue of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the borough, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced.

Cuomo appointed a 23-member commission this week that will help with the design, location and installation of a memorial in her native Brooklyn, which the governor announced shortly after her death last month.

The commission includes Ginsburg's family, friends, colleagues and several Brooklyn leaders, including the principal of her alma mater James Madison High School. It will also have several "honorary members," including Gloria Steinem, Hillary Clinton and Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

"Ruth Bader Ginsburg embodied a set of ideals often missing in today's civic dialogue - she showed us reason, empathy and hope," Cuomo said. "Her legacy as a jurist, professor, lawyer and scholar will endure for generations and we are honored to erect a permanent statue in memory of Justice Ginsburg. Lord knows she deserves it."

Ginsburg, then Joan Ruth Bader, was born at what is now called Maimonides Medical Center on 10th Avenue on March 15, 1933.

She grew up in a house on East Ninth Street just a short walk from P.S. 238, where she went before heading to James Madison High School, according to a summary of her time in Brooklyn on Untapped Cities.

Ginsburg and her family were members of the East Midwood Jewish Center.

After graduating sixth in her class at James Madison, Ginsburg headed to Cornell University, where she met her husband Martin "Marty" Ginsburg. She would enroll in Harvard Law School a few years after graduating.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has also said he plans to honor Ginsburg in Brooklyn by renaming the municipal building after her.

Here's a full list of the members on the statue commission:

• Jane Ginsburg, Daughter to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
• Clara Spera, Granddaughter to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
• Mimi Ginsburg, Granddaughter to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
• Constance Beaty, Artist and Portraitist for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
• Irin Carmon, Senior Correspondent at New York Magazine and Co-Author of "Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg."
• Jodie Cohen, Principal of James Madison High School
• Alphonso David, President of the Human Rights Campaign
• Fatima Goss Graves, President and CEO, National Women's Law Center
• Subash Iyer, Special Counsel for Ethics, Risk and Compliance at MTA and Former Clerk for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
• Judge Robert A. Katzmann, United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
• Shana Knizhnik, Staff Attorney at The Legal Aid Society and Co-Author of "Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg."
• Susana Torruella Leval, Director Emerita of El Museo del Barrio
• Gillian Metzger, Harlan Fiske Stone Professor of Constitutional Law at Columbia University and Former Clerk for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
• Trevor Morrison, Dean of NYU School of Law and Former Clerk for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
• Sonia Ossorio, President of NOW New York
• Anne Pasternak, Director of the Brooklyn Museum
• William Savitt, Partner, Litigation Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and Former Clerk for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
• Nina Totenberg, Legal Affairs Correspondent at NPR

Honorary Members

• Honorable Hillary Clinton, Former United States Secretary of State
• Janet DiFiore, Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals and the State of New York
• Letitia James, Attorney General of New York State
• Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• Gloria Steinem, Feminist Activist and Co-Founder of Ms. Magazine