supreme court justice — Life

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the oldest sitting Supreme Court Justice and all-around badass feminist icon, turns 82 today.

Appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1993, Ginsburg is the second woman justice in U.S. history. Her positions on wage parity, same-sex marriage, and women's rights (When the Supreme Court decided to allow private businesses to refuse certain forms of birth control coverage to their employees, Justice Ginsburg wrote a scathing, 35-PAGE dissent.) have earned her the nickname "The Notorious R.B.G.," thanks to a Tumblr of the same name dedicated to her. The blog posts everything cool about the Justice’s life, including the pop culture reverence of the Supreme Court veteran. If you don’t know, now you know.

In response to the question of whether she has considered stepping down, Justice Ginsburg has said: "As long as I can do the job full steam. I think I'll recognize when the time comes that I can't any longer. But now I can." In other words, this bossy gal has no intention of hanging up her robes. The verdict is in: Ya been Gins-burned!

We honor this remarkable woman's 21 years on the Supreme Court and 82 years of general badassery with just a few notable quotes:

“My mother told me two things constantly. One was to be a lady, and the other was to be independent.”

“The decision whether or not to bear a child is central to a woman’s life, to her well being, and her dignity.”

“[W]hen I’m sometimes asked when will there be enough [women on the supreme court]? And I say ‘When there are nine.’ People are shocked. But there’d been nine men, and nobody’s ever raised a question about that.”

“You can’t have it all, all at once. Who—man or woman—has it all, all at once? Over my lifespan I think I have had it all. But in different periods of time things were rough.”

“I – try to teach through my opinions, through my speeches, how wrong it is to judge people on the basis of what they look like, color of their skin, whether they’re men or women.”