The Only One

Oddly enough in 2009, we have only one woman on the United States Supreme Court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. While that is likely to change within the next few months as Judge Sonia Sotomayor moves through the Senate confirmation process, it's still completely odd that 51% of the U.S. population has only 11% representation on our nation's highest court.

There's a nice interview with Justice Ginsburg in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine, including this exchange regarding historical barriers to entry for women:

Q: Do you think if there were more women on the court with you that other dynamics would change?

JUSTICE GINSBURG: I think back to the days when — I don’t know who it was — when I think Truman suggested the possibility of a woman as a justice. Someone said we have these conferences and men are talking to men and sometimes we loosen our ties, sometimes even take off our shoes. The notion was that they would be inhibited from doing that if women were around. I don’t know how many times I’ve kicked off my shoes. Including the time some reporter said something like, it took me a long time to get up from the bench. They worried, was I frail? To be truthful I had kicked off my shoes, and I couldn’t find my right shoe; it traveled way underneath.

There's some good stuff on Sandra Day O'Connor as well as Ginsburg's warm feelings towards deceased Chief Justice Renquist. Towards the end she lays out her very clear views on a woman's right to control her own body over the state's right to make decisions for her. She sure doesn't seem like an old lady.

Here's to her having Sonia on the bench with her as well.