Ruth Bader Ginsburg Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg waves at NYU Law School on Feb. 5, 2018. Photo credit: David Handschuh

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Thursday told a class of first-year law students in Washington that the partisan divisions dominating government today are "not serving our country well."

Ginsburg, appearing at Georgetown University Law Center, was responding to a student's question about how she might draw on her friendship with the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia—the justice's ideological opposite on the court—as a guide to bridge divides.

Ginsburg recalled the close working relationships between Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy and Republican Sen. Strom Thurmond when they were on the Senate Judiciary Committee even though they didn't agree on many issues. "It was even better," she added, when then-Democratic Sen. Joe Biden was chairman and Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch was ranking member.

"Some day we will get back to the way it should be," Ginsburg said. "I think it will take courageous people on both sides who care about the health and welfare of the country and who will say, 'Enough of this dysfunction.'"

Ginsburg began her appearance with a summary of the Supreme Court's decisions from last term and a preview of some of the cases that the justices will hear in the new term beginning Oct. 7. "I can safely predict the new term will have a fair share of closely watched cases," she said.

The court's new term includes major disputes about the scope of workplace rights for gay, lesbian and transgender employees, and the court is set to hear a case about whether the Trump administration can end an Obama-era program that let certain children of immigrants to remain lawfully in the country.

Other Trump-administration cases are in the lower courts, including disputes over whether the president can defy congressional subpoenas seeking copies of his financial records. A dispute over the Trump administration's effort to effectively ban asylum along the southern border could also reach the court this term.

Ginsburg's remarks at Georgetown come a day after she and Justice Sonia Sotomayor signed a blistering dissent that said the Trump administration should not be allowed to enforce an asylum ban along the southern border while a lawsuit is pending in California.

Ginsburg's recounting of the Supreme Court's major decisions from last term included the ruling that stopped the Trump administration from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census. Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. delivered the deciding fifth vote, aligning with the court's liberal members and drawing a fresh rebuke from some conservatives.

John Roberts Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. at Rensselaer Polytech in 2017. Photo by Tim Roske

Roberts had been prepared to vote in favor of the U.S. Commerce Department, which oversees the census, but changed his vote, according to a new report from CNN. Roberts, according to the report, which cited anonymous sources, began to "waver" after oral arguments.

Ginsburg was asked various questions Thursday. Her strongest remarks came in response to a student who asked her what one thing she would add to the Constitution if possible.

"An equal rights amendment," Ginsburg replied. Sometimes, she said, she is asked why she cares about an equal rights amendment when the 14th Amendment equal protection clause serves the same purpose.

"I turn to my Constitution," she said, pulling out a copy. "I have three granddaughters. I can point to the First Amendment protecting their freedom of speech but I can't point to anything that says men and women are of equal stature before the law. I would like to say to my grandchildren that equal status of men and women is a fundamental premise of our system. I was a proponent of the equal rights amendment. I hope someday it will be put back in the political hopper and we'll be starting over again collecting the necessary states to ratify it."

 

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