ORLANDO, Fla. — "We have lost a giant," said Patricia Brigham, President of the League of Women Voters of Florida.
A feminist icon and champion for women’s rights, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in her home Friday at the age of 87 in pancreatic cancer.
Ginsburg made history first for her work arguing for equality in front of the Supreme Court and again, serving as the second female-justice on the high court. For many years, Ginsburg also served as a figure of hope and inspiration for many Americans.
The news that she'd passed away Friday night after years spent battling cancer came as a shock for many.
“It was a gut punch. I mean, Justice Ginsburg was a warrior and she was a champion, not only for the protection of the rights of women but for the protection of the United States Constitution,” Brigham said.
Justice Ginsburg was appointed to the nation’s highest court in 1993 by President Bill Clinton.
Before that, she’d made a career arguing and winning battles for gender equality before the Supreme Court. She was instrumental in helping launch the Women’s Rights Project of the ACLU in 1971.
Ginsburg has become known for her fiery dissents on the Supreme Court, becoming a pop icon among young people and earning the affectionate nickname of ‘Notorious RBG’. In recent years, Ginsburg was often in the news for battles with her health as often as her court opinions.
“She proved that she could stare right into the worst types of illness and still be determined to give the court and the nation her very best and she did. We have lost a giant," Brigham said. "Even though she was a tiny woman, she was a giant."
In the announcement of Ginsburg’s death, Chief Justice John Roberts said "our nation lost a jurist of historic stature", calling her a tireless and resolute champion of justice.
Small but mighty she may have been, Ginsburg's great legacy will continue to live on in many all across the country.
“The best way to honor Justice Ginsburg’s memory, her life, her work, is to pick up the mantle of justice, to pick up the mantle and move forward with it, to fight for your rights as an American citizen,” Brigham said.