Like so many others, I'm devastated by the news of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death and terrified about what comes next. While its impact on my book was not the first, second, third or fourth thing to come to mind, I have to admit that it was the fifth or sixth thing I thought about last night.
Jimmy Carter appointed Ginsburg to the US Court of Appeals (the famous "DC Circuit," just below the Supreme Court) in 1980. I have a picture of them shaking hands in my book and the story of how, thanks to Carter, she went from law professor to federal judge.
A taste: Carter wrote in his diary on the night of her appointment that his choice "was a matter of some controversy." Indeed it was--and it wouldn't have happened if Sarah Weddington, a Carter aide who had earlier argued Roe. v. Wade, hadn't prematurely leaked the choice, then confessed to Carter, who didn't mind.
Among his many other unsung accomplishments, Carter moved the federal government from tokenism to diversity. He appointed five times as many women to the federal bench as all of his predecessors combined. As Ginsburg put it after Bill Clinton named her to the Supreme Court, Jimmy Carter "literally changed the complexion of the federal judiciary."
She later noted: "People often ask me, 'Well, did you always want to be a judge?' My answer is that it just wasn't in the realm of the possible until Jimmy Carter became president and was determined to draw on the talent of all of the people, not just some of them."