On Being American: The Jurisprudence of Ruth Bader Ginsburg tells the story of an advocate and a jurist committed to a broader understanding of what it means to be an American. As Linda Greenhouse explains in the Foreword, Justice Ginsburg was committed to an America that enables people with diverse experiences to live together in civic harmony. With civic harmony as its foundation, Justice Ginsburg articulated the anti-stereotyping as the guiding principle for broadening the "who" and the what of American citizenship. Knowing that implementing this vision depended on effective legislation, Justice Ginsburg believed also in jealously guarding the franchise and in honoring the peoples decision to expand it. Towards the end of her career as she dissented in abortion cases, Justice Ginsburg warned that the failure to adopt the anti-stereotyping principle posed the biggest threat in issues of reproductive choice.
The editors of this book come as close as they can to a posthumous version of what she would have written in Dobbs in the brief by Serena Mayeri, Melissa Murray, and Reva Siegel as Amici Curiae in Dobbs, included as one of the chapters. In two post-Dobbs chapter, the book first explores what the Equal Rights Amendment would have meant to Justice Ginsburg in a post-Dobbs world. In the last chapter, the book imagines how her jurisprudence would have analyzed different kinds of discrimination, not in the abstract but in the realities of the lives affected by it.
Chapter 1: The Arc of Anti-Stereotyping Doctrine
Chapter 2: Justice Ginsburgs Election Jurisprudence,
Chapter 3: Abortion and Sex Equality: Brief of Equal Protection
Constitutional Law Scholars in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization
Chapter 4: Justice Ginsburgs Cautious Legacy for the Equal Rights Amendment
Shannon Gilreath is Professor of Law and Professor of Womens, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Wake Forest University. He is nationally recognized as an expert on issues of equality, sexual minorities, and U.S. constitutional law and political theory. His many articles and books include Sexual Politics: The Gay Person in America Today (2006) and The End of Straight Supremacy: Realizing Gay Liberation (2011) (Cambridge University Press).
Suzanne Reynolds is Dean Emerita and Professor of Law Emerita at Wake Forest University School of Law. She is the author of Reynolds on North Carolina Family Law and numerous articles on family law topics. In North Carolina, she worked on the drafting committees that rewrote the law of adoption, alimony, domestic violence, and equitable distribution. Nationally, she served on the Uniform Laws Conference and was the reporter for a uniform law recognizing the domestic violence protective orders from other countries. For this and other work, she received public service awards from womens organizations, from Governor James B. Hunt, and from the North Carolina Bar Association.
