In losing Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the United States lost a brilliant justice and trailblazing woman. Today, I look back on a United Airlines flight gone awry, which forced the late justice to rapidly evacuate down an emergency slide after her aircraft experienced engine trouble. I also look back on the justice herself.
An Emergency Evacuation For Ruth Bader Ginsburg On United Airlines
It was September 14, 2011 and the justice, then 78 years-old, was traveling on UA586, a Boeing 757, from Washington Dulles to San Francisco to speak at a legal conference at the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law. Prior to takeoff, a pilot noted smoke coming out of one of the engines and made the decision to evacuate the aircraft. Slides were deployed and all 179 passengers, including Ginsburg, were directed to quickly exit the aircraft. One passenger was injured, but Ginsburg was just fine. Already at that time she was battling pancreatic cancer and had recently undergone chemotherapy. Passengers were placed on another aircraft and the flight eventually departed several hours late.
Talk about a wake-up call!
Over the years, Ginsburg continued to travel on United. Here’s a picture a pilot shared with me from a flight last year:
My Thoughts On The Late Justice
If you’ve never watched On the Basis of Sex, a 2018 movie which chronicles the remarkable life of RBG, I strongly recommend it. Whatever your political persuasion, there is no denying that she was a tenacious, hard-working, sacrificial, woman who fought strongly for her conception of equal rights for women and others.
There’s such a tendency to put our partisan blinders on, especially during this time, but I stand in awe that Ginsburg was able to be a mother to her three-year-old child, attend law school, be a member of the law review, and essentially attend law school for her sick husband at the same time. Throughout her career, she pushed boundaries and broke glass ceilings, carefully crafting legal arguments to persuade skeptical judges and justices before joining the Supreme Court herself in 1993.
Appearing before the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in 1971 in a case known as Sprogis v. United Airlines, Ginsburg argued that it was unlawful for United Airlines to discriminate against female flight attendants on the basis of marital status. At the time, United had a policy that female flight attendants had to be unmarried and remain unmarried while employed. The policy did not apply to men. Ginsburg successfully argued that such disparity violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The court agreed and held the flight attendant was entitled to judgment as a matter of law (i.e. no need to even hear United’s side of the case).
Although seen as the liberal firebrand of the Court, she had a tender side as well, including a close personal relationship with the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who was at the opposite end of the spectrum on most major issues that came before the Court.
If you’re so inclined, listen to this obituary on RBG from NPR’s Nina Totenberg:
CONCLUSION
Ginsburg was a legal giant and a trailblazer. While her death sets up which may be the most contentious battle to fill a Supreme Court seat in U.S. history, today I hope that all of us, even those who disagreed with her judicial philosophy, will take a moment to recognize what an impact Ginsburg has had on the American judiciary and indeed on everyday life, including flight attendants, some of whom are still flying today thanks to Ginsburg’s labor.
Thank you, Matthew, for this fitting, flight-related, tribute to such a remarkable woman.
RBG was often on the wrong side of freedom and the trail she blazed was the religious/economic/personal liberties being stepped on. She is not a good example for young men and women to follow.
1, wrong and 2, way to respect someone who served our country for so long and has just passed. Says a lot about you.
Amen.
RBG served the cause of expanding government power/limiting religious; economic; personal freedom and justifying it through eloquent writing. Her service was not helpful to the cause of freedom.
Everything she wanted and fought for had the recurring component of EQUALITY for all people. No need to complicate it and hide behind inaccurate rhetoric suggesting a “limit to one’s freedoms.”
Seriously go F yourself you retrograde troll
Jojo is correct. Jackson Henderson is wrong.
Thanks for the post , agree, people should not let their politics blind them to what a brilliant woman she was and how she served this country for 27 years
I remember her most for the great shots she took at Trump. I loved it when she called him a “faker”. She was the only justice on the Supreme Court who was unafraid to make partisan political statements. She will be missed. RIP RBG.
She actually apologized for that remark. Shows that she’s a classier person than you are.
Making partisan political statements is one thing Supreme Court justices should not be doing. Like her or not the statements were out of bounds. And such type of statements by a Supreme Court justice should not be celebrated, either by the left or the right. The fact she made them demonstrates her lack of impartiality. So sure, she served the country for a long time and can be honoured for that. But a review of her decisions demonstrate a serious lack of impartiality.
@ Jackson — No, that would be you who is wrong.
Well said Matthew! RIP.
Justice RBG was very derelict in her political duty, but not much in her government duty. She was too sick to attend some court sessions. However, she wanted to last until Biden was elected but refused to listen to others to step down when Obama was President. That’s a political decision and since she expressed political goals (of lasting long enough), she failed that miserably. She expressed the same traits as Trump. Stubborn.
Now Biden is a flip, flop, flipper. (No in 1992, Yes to Garland, No to RBG’s successor appointed by Trump). McConnell is a flip flop (No to Garland, Yes to Trump’s appointee).
Poor RBG, RIP.
+1. She was so selfish, put herself first ahead of the country. After being diagnosed with cancer in 2009 she should have stepped down and allowed Obama to appoint another justice. This would have avoided the crisis we are about to witness.
It was her golden age since 2007, so why should she have stepped down? I am happy that she stayed because she influenced so many things since then. however, the crisis you are referring to is because of sloppiness and divisiveness of the democratic party, not because of her. If DP had the unity in 2016 election and if slightly more democrats went out and voted for their hated Hillary, things would have been different.
What great things has she influenced that another capable liberal (and younger) justice could not have? Justices are servants to the country, they are there to serve, not to pursue her own stubborn ambitions.
The hagiography being written about her now is quite exaggerated. She was a middle-of-the-pack justice who was often indifferent to the progressive causes she is praised to have cared about. The crisis that is coming now with Trump’s apparent desire to replace her with a conservative justice was entirely predictable (and predicted). This article, published in 2016 is a nice summary: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2016/03/the-rise-of-the-ruth-bader-ginsburg-cult
Now because of her selfishness millions of American citizens (specifically the women (if Roe
v Wade gets overturned) and minoritiess she supposedly cared about) will suffer possibly for decades from a republican-appointed supermajority.
The only country with shrunken brains reign at the supreme court. Didn’t she hear anything called retirement?
Also it’s sad to see how many dumb people making comments here.
You sound like a white man.
I could be wrong.
Lots of class calling a recently deceased woman selfish…may you never have to endure tragedy and hardship in your life because I don’t know if you could handle it.
Thank you for the non-partisan post. RBG is certainly worthy of our respect.
Justice RBG you will be missed forever
RIP and safe journey home
Now be scared who is “he” going to put in Supreme Court?
Matthew, you mention that she was headed to the Hastings School when her United flight required an emergency evacuation. When she (eventually) made it to California, she told her audience:
“I would just like people to think of me as a judge who did the best she could with whatever limited talent I had to keep our country true to what makes it a great nation and to make things a little better than they might have been if I hadn’t been there.”
Amen! Thank you RBG!
“The power I exert on the court depends on the power of the power of my arguments, not my gender”
― Sandra Day O’Connor
The grumpy old white men have all but conceded that the presidency is gone; this gives them one final shot at writing part the agenda going forward. Of course all ethical considerations go out the window…they will do anything to sustain their self interest.
Not necessarily true. Sure, if they do so it’s a blatant power grab that demonstrates not only limitless hypocrisy considering their same arguments four years ago but let’s give them a chance to prove that they care about the nation and not just power. Let’s verify before condemning.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could just get rid of all the white men in this country? Would certainly makes things a lot easier for the rest of us.
Nah, I’d be gone too. I’d settle for fairness and consistency, which are not really prevalent in the federal government right now. Sure, white men are the ones stopping things up for personal interest but getting rid of us seems a bit harsh. Sorry bud. For that matter, I’d argue that we need white men to be part of proportional representation as part of a fair allotment.
I’ll take grumpy white men who stand for freedom rather than young men who burn our cities and destroy everything they touch.
Based on your posts across the travel blogs, you stand for bigotry and racism, not “freedom”
I saw her on a United flight from Washington Dulles to Barcelona in business class. I was sitting in my seat, and I see a frail, short elderly woman pass me by, as she did, I looked at her face. I knew it was her, she looked exactly in person as on Tv. It was a cool moment in my life….just the vision of her…and a close look indeed.
If you didn’t show that you recognized her, many famous people would be upset. I have seen several Senators and similar politicians. They love it when you recognize them. One was looking around to see if anyone recognized her but no takers. Finally, I let her know who she was as she was waiting in a long TSA PreCheck line.
Movie stars are a bit different. They get too much attention so some of them like peace and quiet.
Lol, I love it when those fighting racism and sexism rail about ‘white men’.
Well said Ksa 63 !! Jackson I agree with your comments
I’ve been interested in that tidbit about Sprogis v. United Airlines, but I can’t seem to find evidence that she argued or had anything to do with the case? Can you point me in the right direction? I’d like to learn more.