COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY RECORD  December 3, 1993  Vol. 19 No. 12

                 GINSBURG SPEAKS ON COLUMBIA, THE COURT

      The following are excerpts from remarks by U.S. Supreme Court 
      Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Nov. 18-19 at Columbia:

      On being hired at Columbia in 1971: "Mike [Sovern] called in the 
      middle of the fall semester and invited me to Columbia. There 
      would be no exam. Columbia had given me my law degree and wanted 
      me there. Would I come to a welcoming cocktail party? I was made 
      to feel very much at home and promptly joined the faculty."

      On the public's influence on the court: "I can tell you that my 
      colleagues do read the newspapers. But they are influenced not by 
      the weather of the day, but by the climate of the era."

      On her mentors: "Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriet 
      Tubman, people who said things society wasn't ready to hear. In my 
      personal life it was my mother, who died when I was just 17, who 
      gave me the sense that I could be first of all, independent, and 
      that I was a person who counted. I have had the incredible luck of 
      having the most remarkable family."

      On the term "gender discrimination": "Let me tell you about how we 
      came from sex to gender. I owe it all to the suggestion of my 
      secretary. She said, 'I'm typing this brief and all I see is the 
      word sex, sex, sex on every page. Don't you know that those nine 
      men on the court will not think of what you want them to when they 
      see that word?' And she suggested that I use the word gender."

      On being a media celebrity: "I wasn't prepared for it. Some things 
      though, about it are exhilarating, like getting on the Style page 
      after your 60th birthday."

      On allowing television cameras in the courtroom: "The concern that 
      some of the judges have is not about gavel to gavel coverage, it's 
      about the editing that might be done, that you could distort a 
      proceeding by taking a snippet from here and putting it together 
      with another."

      On the Supreme Court Justice selection process: "Former Chief 
      Justice Warren Burger came to my chambers to wish me well (before 
      she was appointed). He said "In 1969 when I was confirmed this 
      hearing went barely an hour, why can't it be that way again?" One 
      word can tell you why. That word is television. It is an 
      opportunity for all the people on the committee to appear before 
      their constituents ... Some parts of it can be abbreviated."