[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 32 (Monday, August 16, 1993)]
[Pages 1600-1601]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on the Swearing-In of Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader 
Ginsburg

 August 10, 1993

    Please be seated. Welcome to the White House. It is my distinct 
honor to introduce the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

[At this point, Chief Justice Rehnquist administered the oath of office, 
and Justice Ginsburg made brief remarks.]

    Ladies and gentlemen, before we adjourn to the reception in honor of 
Justice Ginsburg, I'd like to acknowledge the presence here today of 
Senator Moynihan, who sponsored her so strongly in the Senate, Senator 
Larry Pressler of South Dakota, Senator Strom Thurmond of South 
Carolina, and the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, my good 
friend Jack Brooks from Texas. It's good to see all of you here.
    This was a very important appointment to me. In one of my former 
lives I had the great joy and responsibility of teaching the United 
States Constitution and the decisions of the Supreme Court under it to 
aspiring but not always interested law students. [Laughter] I have 
learned over the course of a lifetime of practical experience what I 
knew then: We breathe life into the values we espouse through our law. 
It gives to every American, including the most illiterate among us, the 
most totally unaware of how the legal system works, a fair measure of 
our ideals and some reality that comes into life from the speeches given 
by the rest of us. There is no one with a deeper appreciation of this 
fact than Ruth Bader Ginsburg. This is a moment, this historic moment, 
therefore, that all Americans can celebrate. For no one knows better 
than she that it is the law that provides the rules that permit us to 
live together and that permit us to overcome the infirmities, the 
bigotry, the prejudice, the limitations of our past and our present.
    Her nearly unanimous confirmation by the United States Senate was 
the swiftest in nearly two decades. Much credit must go to her own 
brilliance and her thoughtful, balanced reasoning. But I thank Senators 
Moynihan and D'Amato for their sponsorship and assistance. I thank 
Chairman Biden and Sen- 

[[Page 1601]]

ator Hatch for their contributions and all the other Senators, including 
those here present, who supported her.
    Ruth Bader Ginsburg does not need a seat on the Supreme Court to 
earn a place in our history books. She has already secured that. As a 
brilliant young law school graduate she became an early victim of gender 
discrimination when as a woman and mother she sought nothing more than 
that which every one of us wants, a chance to do her work. She met this 
challenge with character and determination. She took on the complex 
challenges of winning what seems now to be such a terribly simple 
principle, equal treatment for women and men before the law. Virtually 
every significant case brought before the Supreme Court in the decade of 
the seventies on behalf of women bore her mark. Today, virtually no 
segment of our society has been untouched by her efforts.
    In the 1980's, Ruth Bader Ginsburg ended her career as a scholar and 
advocate and began a new one as a judge on the United States Court of 
Appeals here in the District of Columbia. She has emerged as one of our 
country's finest judges, progressive in outlook, wise in judgment, 
balanced and fair in her opinions. She defied labels like ``liberal'' 
and ``conservative,'' just as she did in her hearing before the Senate, 
to earn a reputation for something else altogether, excellence.
    And through it all she has proved that you can have what most of us 
really want, a successful work life and a successful family life. That 
is due in no small measure to her husband of 39 years, himself a 
distinguished lawyer and now, I hasten to say, for all the rest of us 
fast becoming a national model of what a good husband ought to be. 
[Laughter] Marty Ginsburg, please stand up and take a bow.
    Her children, Jane and James, are here. And she became a proud 
grandmother of Paul and Clara and in her announcement made them two of 
the most famous grandchildren in the entire United States.
    Now Ruth Bader Ginsburg's greatest challenge lies ahead, a challenge 
to which she brings a powerful mind, a temperament for healing, a 
compassionate heart, a lifetime of experience. Her story already is a 
part of our history. Now her words and her judgments will help to shape 
our Nation today and well into the 21st century.
    Most of us know that the inscription above the main entrance to the 
Supreme Court reads: Equal Justice Under Law. But carved into the marble 
above the Court's other entrance is another telling message: Justice, 
the Guardian of Liberty. In Ruth Bader Ginsburg, I believe the Nation is 
getting a Justice who will be a guardian of liberty for all Americans 
and an ensurer of equal justice under law. We are all the better for 
that.
    Thank you for being here. We're adjourned to the reception in 
Justice Ginsburg's honor. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 2:43 p.m. in the East Room at the White 
House.