As a student at Columbia Law School, I took Professor Ginsburg’s class on Sex Discrimination and the Law.  She had already argued and won two cases before the Supreme Court.  Nonetheless, she was open to her students’ ideas and suggestions.

My concern for civil rights, fostered in me by my parents and my faith and nurtured at City College, prompted me to take her class. 

I told my mother that this weekend.

As a member of the House of Delegates, I successfully introduced the Lilly Ledbetter law, protecting a worker’s right to equal pay.  The bill  wrote into our law a dissent by Justice Ginsburg.  

I read this quote of Justice Ginsburg’s last night: “Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.” 

I’ve tried to follow that advice. 

As a citizen, I mourn her passing and recommit myself to the principles of fairness and equity where Justice Ginsburg set an historic example.