The nation mourns the loss of a trailblazing jurist and civil rights defender, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In her memory, we take a look at how her commitment to civil, voting, and immigrant rights uplifted and strengthened the Latino community.
Appointed by President Bill Clinton, Justice Ginsburg served on the highest court of the land since 1993, only the second woman to do so. During her years on the Court, she came to be known as the Great Dissenter, the title once conferred upon Justice John Marshall Harlan for his many dissents in the defense of civil liberties, including in the infamous Plessy v. Ferguson. Justice Ginsburg’s legacy is undoubtedly defined by her fight for equal rights—for women, the LGBTQ community, minorities, and immigrants.
Born of immigrant parents herself (her father was a Jewish immigrant from Russia and her mother of Austrian-Jewish background), Justice Ginsburg consistently expressed care and concern for the rights of migrants. In June of 2020, she sided with the majority in Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California, which found the Trump administration’s rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program unjustified. In June of 2018, she sided with the minority in Trump v. Hawaii, the case that upheld Trump’s Muslim Ban.
In Arizona v. United States (2012), she sided with the majority to strike down certain provisions in Arizona’s controversial SB1070, which required immigrants to possess a certificate of alien registration on them at all times and required law enforcement to attempt to determine immigration status when “reasonable suspicion” existed that an immigrant was undocumented. In Demore v. Kim (2003), Justice Ginsburg sided with the minority in ruling against a lengthy mandatory immigrant detention, and in Zadvydas v. Davis (2001), she joined the majority to rule that the government could not indefinitely hold immigrant detainees if their home countries refused to accept their repatriation.
Additionally, Justice Ginsburg’s vote played a crucial role in decisions that impacted Latinos in the millions. In 2019, she was a key vote in the 5-4 decision in Department of Commerce v. New York, in which the Court blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to add a citizenship question to the census. In 2015, she joined the majority in the Affordable Care Act cases, protecting the healthcare of millions of Latinos and other Americans.
Her protection of voting rights and repudiation of voter suppression measures sought to protect the minorities who are often targets of such attempts. In 2013, she wrote a strong dissent in Shelby Country v. Holder, which dismantled an important provision of the Voting Rights Act that mandated southern states to get federal approval before making changes to their voting laws. “Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet,” she wrote.
Her commitment to civil and immigrant rights has gained Justice Ginsburg the praise of groups like the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Hispanic National Bar Association, the Latino Victory Fund, and Voto Latino. We all owe Ruth Bader Ginsburg tremendous gratitude for her life-long commitment that we all, no matter our gender, race, sexual orientation, where we are from, or what religion we practice, be equal under the law.
Photo: Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States