In response to the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Center for Constitutional Rights issued the following statement:

The entire Center for Constitutional Rights family mourns the loss of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsbug. First, we grieve, then we renew the fight for justice that she shaped. We honor her memory by continuing to fight for justice, equity, and dignity with even greater resolve, and like her, until our last breath. 

As advocates committed to a movement-based justice mission, we will continue to fight in the courts. But as the courts become a less friendly forum, we will double down on this oppressive system of power just as we did when we worked with Fannie Lou Hamer and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party in the 1960s; with reproductive justice advocates in the 1970s; with freedom fighters struggling against repressive governments in Central America in the 1980s; with relatives of murdered activists who were fighting for human rights and environmental justice in Nigeria in the 1990s; with detainees who have been indefinitely confined and tortured at Guantánamo in the 2000s; with Black and Brown New York City residents who were unconstitutionally stopped and frisked in the 2010s; and with transgender Black women for access to healthcare and release from prison today. 

When reflecting on the importance of Boumediene v. Bush and Hamdan v. Rumsfeld in a speech in 2010, Justice Ginsburg said "Yet what greater defeat could we suffer than to come to resemble the forces we oppose in their disrespect for human dignity?"

So, in our fight for justice for all, we will continue to model our work after Justice Ginsburg who taught us: "Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you." As we look toward the future, we will celebrate her memory and trail blazing commitment to collective struggle for dignity, decency, and democracy.

In solidarity, 

Vince Warren, Executive Director

Katherine Franke, Board Chair