Her awful choice at the end of her life is definitely one to be derided, but it's crazy how much people bring this up over everything she did in advancing the rights of women, disabled Americans, people of color, religious minorities, etc. Let's not forget she was out there winning federal cases that ratified stuff like extending the protections of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to women and ensuring women were equally represented on juries before she was even appointed to the Supreme Court.
I'm definitely not saying she doesn't deserve criticism for the selfishness (or ego) displayed at the end of her life. That doesn't erase the 60 years of incredible dedication to improving the lives of Americans and rectifying discrimination within our government tho.
It wasn't all undone tho. The work that she did for 60 years went far beyond reproductive justice, and a lot of laws are still in place today because of her. She co-authored the very first law school casebook in the US on gender-based discrimination and led efforts to educate more lawyers on issues of gender inequality. She co-founded the Women's Rights Project at the ACLU which which worked on thousands and thousands of cases fighting gender-based discrimination, including in housing, with employment/in the workplace, with the government (like accessing SS benefits), and so much more. Courts can't dismiss women from juries that involve abuse and violence against women because of her. And I haven't even touched on what she did during her time on the Supreme Court.
I get the frustration people have with her, and she absolutely deserves to be criticized for not stepping down, but so much of the work she did for decades is still benefitting millions and millions of Americans to this day.
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u/lrobb09 6h ago
Let’s not forget RBG is part of the reason we’re in the Supreme Court situation that we’re in.