Statements from the Chiefs about Ruth Bader Ginsburg
NCSC President Mary C. McQueen reflects on the life and impact of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
NCSC President Mary C. McQueen reflects on the life and impact of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Speaking as the first woman to serve as the President of the National Center for State Courts, I've always found a personal connection with one quote in particular of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: "We are at last beginning to relegate to the history books the idea of the token woman." Growing up in the deep South, my female role models were Eleanor Roosevelt and my mother. Both believed that women and men possessed equal responsibilities, talents, and rights. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's life became a roadmap for my generation to follow and pass along to our daughters and granddaughters. Many of my female colleagues were the "first something": first woman State Supreme Court Chief Justice, first woman State Court Administrator, first woman Governor, first State Attorney General, first woman member of a local Rotary Club, first woman member of Congress. News coverage of the appointments and elections of these amazing women usually started with that line: "the first woman." As Justice Ginsburg carefully crafted a blueprint for a more equal union, those of us who were "first somethings" used those cracks in the glass ceiling to validate her faith in us and in our country's promise of a more perfect union – validate our equality through hard work, tireless commitment and selfless leadership. Today twenty State Supreme Court Chief Justices and twenty-six State Court Administrators are women – no longer "tokens" or symbols of gender equality but defenders of justice, guardians of the Rule of Law and advocates for access to justice. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg left us with instructions for future generations, "one lives not just for oneself but for one's community" From the women you have influenced, we salute you!
Chief Justice O'Connor Issues Statement on Justice Ginsburg Staff Report
September 18, 2020
Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor of the Supreme Court of Ohio released the following statement tonight on the passing of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg used her considerable talents to fight for equal protection under the law for all, regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual identity, disability, or national origin. America has lost a jurist with a conscience, true consistent convictions, civility, a sense of humor and a love of the law. America has lost a lodestar. I, along with so many who admired and respected RBG, am truly devastated by her passing. May she rest in peace.
Statement from the Supreme Court of Indiana on the Passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
September 19, 2020
In a year already marked by significant suffering and loss, the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg hits especially hard. I join others in mourning the passing of a trailblazer, changemaker, and inspiration to many. Justice Ginsburg's work provided both men and women an opportunity to better their lives. She was a hero to many of us in our legal careers, and a cultural icon outside the legal profession. And her civility and genuine friendship with those who had differing opinions show her as an example of a leader to model. To those of us who emulate her, this is not just the loss of a powerful leader and statesperson, but the personal loss of a mentor. We offer our condolences to her family and share in their grieving. Justice Ginsburg's memory should inspire each of us to effect positive change in this world.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Presentation of the William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence
Supreme Court of the United States
Presented to Chief Justice Christine M. Durham, Supreme Court of the State of Utah
November 15, 2007
The William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence honors a jurist for "outstanding qualities of judicial excellence, including integrity, fairness, open-mindedness, knowledge of the law, professional ethics, creativity, sound judgment, intellectual courage, and decisiveness." It is my great pleasure and privilege to introduce the Rehnquist Award winner for 2007, Chief Justice Christine M. Durham of the Supreme Court of the State of Utah.
Chief Justice Durham has nobly served Utah and the legal profession both in her work on the bench and in a wide range of extracurricular pursuits. Like the late Chief Justice himself, she has demonstrated time and again every quality this award was created to honor.
Chief Justice Durham graduated summa cum laude from Wellesley College. After a year of teaching, she embarked on a rather peripatetic legal education. Starting at Boston College Law School, she transferred after just one semester to Arizona State. Then, at the end of her first year, she transferred again — this time to join her husband at Duke University, where he had enrolled as a medical student.
Graduating from Duke with high grades, Chief Justice Durham encountered a problem familiar to women lawyers at or beyond "a certain age": no law firm in the area would consider her for an associate position. Wasting no time on anger or depression, she devoted her energy to starting a solo practice that included consulting, legislative work, litigation, and teaching.
Chief Justice Durham moved to Salt Lake City with her family in 1973. The city's legal community then included only a dozen or so women. The sometimes chill atmosphere did not slow her progress. In 1978, just five years after her move to Utah, she became the first woman appointed to the state's district court. Four years later, impressed by her bright mind and spirit, Governor Scott Matheson appointed her to the state Supreme Court — once again, the first woman so elevated. Her colleagues elected her Chief Justice in 2002 and re-elected her to a second four-year term in 2006.
In her tenure as Chief, she has gained respect as a wise jurist, a caring and efficient administrator, and a dedicated champion of justice — equal and accessible to all.
Throughout her career, Chief Justice Durham has been both a role model and an unflagging advocate for women in the profession. A founding member and former president of the National Association of Women Judges, she was that organization's highest honoree in 1997. At the national level, she also served on the American Bar Association's Commission on Women in the Profession. Legions of women in Utah and elsewhere have been encouraged by her words and deeds.
Jan Graham, co-founder of Women Lawyers of Utah and later the state's Attorney General, described Chief Justice Durham as "a beacon in the darkness" during Graham's early years in law practice. In tribute, Women Lawyers of Utah created the Christine M. Durham Woman Lawyer of the Year Award to honor professional excellence and sustained work to improve opportunities for women in law practice.
Tonight's award also recognizes Chief Justice Durham's commitment to various educational initiatives — from grade school to graduate school. She has been a passionate and effective advocate of collaboration between the judiciary and Utah's schools. In her own words: "Courts must look for ways to explain themselves to their communities if they are to regain and maintain the legitimacy and respect necessary for their fundamental role in a representative democracy."
To that purpose, she helped found the Education for Justice Project, which pairs judges and lawyers with Utah's Board of Education to reinvigorate civic education. Among its innovations are "court-school partnerships," which connect trial courts with local schools. She also served as the first chair of the Coalition for Civic, Character, and Service Learning, promoting civic education through joint efforts with judges, lawyers, legislators, and educators.
Chief Justice Durham has been an equally ardent proponent of judicial and professional education. Perhaps that commitment stems from her own experience in 1978, as a newcomer to the trial bench. Offered no training, she was simply "handed a borrowed robe and a case file and told, here, go be a judge." Utah's novice judges today are not left to sink or swim that way, thanks in no small part to Chief Justice Durham's leadership.
As the first Chair of the Utah Judicial Council's Education Committee and founder of the Leadership Institute in Judicial Education, she has helped train hundreds of state court judges and personnel since 1989. She has also taught at NYU's Appellate Judges Seminar.
The legal profession and the judiciary alike have benefited from her service on numerous blue-ribbon boards, commissions, and committees — including one I volunteered for, unsuccessfully, many times in the 1980s: the U.S. Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on the Rules of Civil Procedure. I did have the pleasure of serving with her on the American Law Institute Council, where she continues to contribute her intellect, common sense, and good judgment.
Chief Justice Durham is also highly regarded as a legal scholar. Her work focuses on state constitutions, particularly state religion clauses. She teaches state constitutional law at the University of Utah College of Law and has also taught at Duke University and Brigham Young University. Tenth Circuit Chief Judge Deanell Reece Tacha rightly calls her "one of the country's preeminent scholars on state constitutions."
I would be remiss if I left the impression that Christine Durham's remarkable career has come at the expense of family life. On the contrary, she and her husband George — a pediatrician and former Chief of the Medical Staff at the Primary Children's Medical Center — are parents of four children. Their first was born just two weeks before Christine entered law school; their second, during her third year.
Chief Justice Durham has served nearly three decades on the bench, dedicating herself to the improvement of professional and civic education and to better equipping the legal profession to meet the needs of the communities it serves.
For her unwavering pursuit of justice and the inspiring example she has set for countless young lawyers, please join me in applauding the Honorable Christine M. Durham, 2007 recipient of the William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence.
Statement from Chief Justice Susan Christensen
On the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Chief Justice Christensen reflects on Justice Ginsburg's legacy, her trailblazing work for civil rights, and her lasting impact on the legal community.