Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s family thinks the recipients of a leadership award she created are an RBG of their own — Really Bad Group.
In fact, four recipients of the award initially founded to honor women are men — Elon Musk, media kingpin Rupert Murdoch, actor Sylvester Stallone and Michael Milken, a financier who The New York Times referred to as “the face of corporate greed in the 1980s.” The only woman to be honored is Martha Stewart.
The Times noted that Ginsburg’s family members are so livid, they would just as soon have her name removed from the award.
In a statement Friday, Ginsburg’s family slammed the choices made by the Dwight D. Opperman Foundation as “an affront to the memory of our mother and grandmother,” according to The Washington Post.
Naming no names, the family said the foundation “has strayed far from the original mission of the award and from what Justice Ginsburg stood for.”
The Post noted that the award now called the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Award was originally intended to recognize “an extraordinary woman who has exercised a positive and notable influence on society and served as an exemplary role model in both principles and practice.”
“Her legacy is one of deep commitment to justice and to the proposition that all persons deserve what she called ‘equal citizenship stature’ under the Constitution,” the Ginsburg family statement said.
“She was a singularly powerful voice for the equality and empowerment of women, including their ability to control their own bodies,” the statement said.
Julie Opperman, the chair of the foundation, said honoring people from both genders was done to honor Ginsburg, CNN reported.
Should Ginsburg’s name be removed from the RBG Award?
“Justice Ginsburg fought not only for women but for everyone,” she said.
“Going forward, to embrace the fullness of Justice Ginsburg’s legacy, we honor both women and men who have changed the world by doing what they do best,” she said.
Some who were angered at the choices were more than happy to name names.
“Honoring Elon Musk, who uses his platform to promote anti-feminist and anti-L.G.B.T.Q. sentiments, and Rupert Murdoch, who has used his immense power to undermine democracy, dishonors what Justice Ginsburg spent her career standing for,” Shana Knizhnik, who helped write “Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg,” said, in a quote reported by The New York Times.
Trevor W. Morrison, a former dean of New York University School of Law and Ginsburg law clerk said Ginsburg “had an abiding commitment to careful, rigorous analysis and to fair-minded engagement with people of opposing views.
“It is difficult to see how the decision to bestow the R.B.G. Award on this year’s slate reflects any appreciation for — or even awareness of — these dimensions of the justice’s legacy,” he said.
Stewart was on Ginsburg’s “original wish list of potential honorees,” a statement released by the foundation said, according to CNN.
The statement said Musk achieved “stratospheric accomplishments” while Murdoch is “the most iconic living legend in media.”
“This recognition not only reflects my journey in the media and publishing industry but also represents the relentless defense of civil liberties and a commitment to civil discourse that Justice Ginsburg embodied,” Murdoch said in a statement.
