Once she got to the Supreme Court, Ginsburg added notable cases to her list of victories for equality, including 1996’s United States v. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The group participated in the vast majority of gender discrimination cases decided by the Supreme Court between 19, when Ginsburg joined the U.S. The court agreed, finding unanimously that dissimilar treatment, “on the basis of sex,” between men and women was unconstitutional.Īs the National Women’s Law Center notes, the verdict “marked the first time in history that the Court applied the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to strike down a law that discriminated against women.” It was a watershed moment, without which that 1974 law would likely not have been possible.Īfter the Reed case, Ginsburg began directing the Women’s Rights Project at the ACLU, as NPR notes. Reed - the landmark 1971 case highlighted in the 2018 film On the Basis of Sex - Ginsburg co-wrote a brief arguing that a provision of Idaho state law which said men were to be preferred to women in appointing the administrators of an estate violated the Constitution. Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s Impact on the Equal Opportunity Act By then she had already helped argue for equality in front of the Court, with great success. Ginsburg was appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1993, but had long been a major figure in the legal battle for women’s rights, before joining the federal bench in 1980. Without it, women would not have been able to access one of the basic tools of financial independence. That credit card act, signed into law by President Gerald Ford on October 28, 1974, was in some ways the culmination of that work. A body of jurisprudence favorable to equal rights - much of it stemming from legal work directed by Ginsburg when she was an attorney - began accumulating in the early 1970s and adding momentum to the fight for equality. That seems obvious today, but it was not 50 years ago. This means if you apply for a credit card or loan, you can only be considered based on factors directly related to your creditworthiness. credit cards or loans in their own name, and single women also had trouble getting credit.Įnter the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974, which “prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, or age in credit transactions.”
Until the mid-1970s, banks and other financial institutions denied married women in the U.S. But there’s a less known aspect of her legal work that has had profound consequences in the world of finance: if you are a woman who holds a credit card, you owe it in large part to the efforts of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Friday, September 18, is mourned by millions as a trailblazer who paved the way for women’s rights and gender equality. For more information, see How We Make Money. Some links on this page - clearly marked - may take you to a partner website and may result in us earning a referral commission. We want to help you make more informed decisions.
0 kommentar(er)
