Honoring Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Legacy

The National Homelessness Law Center mourns the loss of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. We are grateful for her commitment—throughout her long career—to using the power of the law to protect and advance the fundamental rights of all Americans.

A pioneer and fierce advocate for equal rights, Justice Ginsburg also fought her own battle against sexist policies and beliefs to become a prominent attorney and judge, ascending to the nation’s highest Court, where she continued to work and fight to make real the words that serve as its banner: “Equal Justice Under Law.”  Our thoughts are with her family and loved ones, and our vow is to honor her legacy through our own work.

The Law Center is particularly grateful for Ginsburg’s legacy in fighting for gender equality, recognizing the disproportionate impact of poverty—including housing instability—on women, and especially on women of color. We are grateful for her work to ensure equality for LGBTQ+ individuals, many of whom are disproportionately represented in the homeless youth population. We are grateful for her support for access to health care, especially as COVID-19 continues to ravage people experiencing homelessness, low income and minoritized communities.

We also call out her legal legacy ensuring equal access to housing, from winning cases establishing gender equality in military housing supply to rulings that upheld disparate impact claims under the Fair Housing Act. Justice Ginsburg was also a champion of integrating international human rights in our own jurisprudence, including citing our obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination in her concurrence in Grutter v. Bollinger, which protected affirmative action policies.

But for many of us at the Law Center, Ginsburg’s legacy is ultimately the inspiration of her character and her commitment to using the power of the law to protect our most basic human rights. At this pivotal point in our history, the Law Center commits to continue following in Justice Ginsburg’s lifelong fight for equality and humanity.

Thank you, Justice Ginsburg.