The Collegiality of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Arriving at Our Common Purpose is as much about process as it is principles. The process used for determining the principles.

One of the many renowned traits of Ruth Bader Ginsburg was her ability to work with others, even those who held a different view.

She credited her mother-in-law for giving her some good advice.  “In every good marriage,” she counseled, “It helps sometimes to be a little deaf.”

Justice Ginsberg pointed out in an essay written in 2016 that the advice didn’t just apply at home.  “I have employed it as well in every workplace, including the Supreme Court,” she wrote.  “When a thoughtless or unkind word is spoken, best tune it out.  Reacting in anger or annoyance will not advance one’s ability to persuade.”

Collegiality, she wrote in that same article, is crucial to the success of the Court.

“The questions we take up are rarely easy; they seldom have indubitably right answers.  Yet by reasoning together at our conferences and, with more depth and precision, through circulation of, and responses to, draft opinions, we ultimately agree far more often than we divide sharply.”

Excerpted from an essay, which originally appeared in The New York Times Sunday Review in 2016 and was reprinted today, that was adapted from the book “My Own Words” co-written by Justice Ginsberg.