Vigil Honors RBG’s Legacy, Looks To Future

Joining thousands of fellow mourners across the country this weekend, two dozen New Haveners and suburbanites gathered downtown for a candlelight vigil Sunday evening in honor of the late Supreme Court Justice and feminist icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

They held that local vigil by the flagpole on the Green.

The event was one of many that took place across the United States in the 48 hours since Ginsburg, a pioneering women’s rights lawyer who served on the U.S. Supreme Court for nearly three decades, died from complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer Friday at the age of 87.

Her death has triggered a national outpouring of praise for her lifelong championship for equal rights and against gender discrimination.

Her death has also prompted cascades of fear, outrage, and apprehension among liberals at the prospect of Republican President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell getting to place another conservative Supreme Court justice on the bench for life before November’s general election.

“She did so much. She was such a balanced person, a fair person, and she educated other jurors to be compassionate and empathetic,” Dixwell resident and lifelong New Havener Lynn Waters said Sunday about the late RBG.

Another conservative appointment to the court could spell the end of Roe v. Wade, she said. And the Affordable Care Act. And affirmative action. She said that McConnell and Senate Republicans should follow the precedent they set in 2016 when they denied hearing and voting on former President Barack Obama’s appointment of Merrick Garland to the court during a presidential election year.

“This is really important,” she said. ​“If you wouldn’t do it for Obama, don’t do it now.”

Sunday’s event on the Green was organized largely by Bill Aseltyne (pictured), a Guilford resident and lawyer at Yale New Haven Hospital who sent out text messages to a group of friends immediately upon learning of Gnisburg’s death on Friday.

He said he and this group of friends have been texting, under the group chat title of ​“Respect, equality and justice,” for four years, since Trump first won the presidency in 2016. When he learned of the liberal Supreme Court justice’s death, he told the group that they should gather on downtown and hold a vigil of support.

“She really established the law of equal protection for women,” Aseltyne said, praising Ginsburg’s pathbreaking work in the 1970s in arguing before the Supreme Court for gender discrimination to be recognized as a violation of the 14th Amendment.

“Bit by bit, she changed the law.”

Aseltyne said that he, too, thinks that the Senate should hold off on voting on a new justice until after the November election. ​“They didn’t give Obama his pick,” he said. ​“I don’t know what would have changed. It feels like Democrats play fairly, and the Republicans keep changing the rules.”

If the Democrats do take back the Senate, he said, he’d like to see them expand the number of justices on the top court.

Jennifer Wilcox (pictured at right), another Guilford resident and YNHH attorney who showed up to the Green Sunday, said that she had been talking with her daughter earlier that very day about how, when Wilcox was born in 1969, women could not serve on a jury.

“RBG brought that case in 1973,” she said. ​“The things she did in her practice when she was heading up the women’s rights practice for the ACLU changed our world dramatically.”

“A feminist is not about, ​‘Women are better than men,’” Wilcox continued. ​“Feminism is about, ​‘We are all equal.’”

There was no formal structure or speaking order for Sunday’s event. Wilcox read a poem by Maya Angelou. Another attendee encouraged those present to send postcards to swing states urging Democrats to get out the vote.

Attendees also said aloud sentences that they felt embodied the life’s work and advocacy of Ginsburg, and that the country’s politicians and court justices should keep in mind today.

“No children should be in cages,” said city public housing chief Karen DuBois-Walton.

“Love is love,” said New Haven Pride Center Executive Director Patrick Dunn.

“No person is illegal,” said Aseltyne.

“Affirmative action,” said Waters.

Downtown resident Jennifer Heikkila Diaz came out to the evening vigil with her daughters Magdalena and Gabriela Diaz (pictured). She said she and her young children showed up on the brisk, early fall night ​“to continue RBG’s legacy.”

Looking at her daughters as they held their small plastic candles alight, twirling them in their hands before the vigil formally began, Heikkila added, ​“It’s important for them to know what she accomplished.”

The text of an earlier story on Ginsburg’s death follows:

“A giant.” ​“Fierce and fiery.” ​“A jurist of extraordinary talent.” ​“The embodiment of courage, grit, and grace.”

Those are just some of the words that Connecticut politicians used to describe the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Friday at the age of 87 — ushering in yet a new stage of national political tumult.

A Brooklyn native and pioneering women’s rights lawyer, Ginsburg was a cornerstone of the four-justice liberal bloc on the country’s highest court.

Linda Greenhouse, a New Haven resident, Yale Law School teacher, and long-time journalist for the New York Times, authored one of the most comprehensive and definitive assessments of Ginsburg’s life and legacy Friday night.

“Ruth Ginsburg was occasionally described as the Thurgood Marshall of the women’s rights movement by those who remembered her days as a litigator and director of the Women’s Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union during the 1970s,” Greenhouse wrote. ​“The analogy was based on her sense of strategy and careful selection of cases as she persuaded the all-male Supreme Court, one case at a time, to start recognizing the constitutional barrier against discrimination on the basis of sex. The young Thurgood Marshall had done much the same as the civil rights movement’s chief legal strategist in building the case against racial segregation.”

Ginsburg’s death, from complications from metatsatic pancreatic cancer, sparked press releases and social media posts from Connecticut Democratic politicians. All praised her legal career and accomplishments — and nearly all warned of the already-begun national political fight over whether or not Republican U.S. Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should allow President Donald Trump to fill Gisburg’s vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court in a presidential election year. McConnell blocked former President Barack Obama’s appointment of Merrick Garland in 2016, arguing at the time that the Senate had to wait until after that year’s presidential election before hearing and voting on a new lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.

Below are a few comments issued in email press releases and on social media by state and federal politicians from Connecticut in the wake of Ginsburg’s death. And click here to listen to a Friday interview with another New Haven resident, Yale Law affiliate, and New York Times writer, Emily Bazelon, about the coming political battle over Ginsburg’s replacement and about the potential implications for everything from the Affordable Care Act to abortion rights to gun control.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal: Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a giant. The world is a different place because of her. More than the laws she forged are the lives she touched. She was soft-spoken and slight in stature, but packed a mighty punch. She will always be a uniquely American icon – breaking barriers with courage and conviction, and letting nothing stop her from the classroom to the courtroom.

As to the appointment of Justice Ginsburg’s successor, I couldn’t improve on what Mitch McConnell said after Justice Scalia’s death: The American people must have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.

This close to the election, there is no way that the United States Senate can or should act before the voters decide.

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy: Ruth Bader Ginsburg changed her nation for the better. Fairness and justice, especially for those with the least access to power, were her north stars. She was a pioneer for women in the law, and a cultural icon on top of it all. The people of Connecticut mourn for her tonight. The precedent Republicans set in 2016 requires the Senate to wait to consider a nominee until a new president is sworn in. Should Republicans go forward and reverse this precedent, the Senate will never, ever be the same. It will be changed forever. I pray tonight that at least a few of my Republican colleagues understand this.

Gov. Ned Lamont: Tonight, the nation mourns the unimaginable loss of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg – a fierce and fiery champion for fairness and equality for all. Shattering the glass ceiling in the legal world, Justice Ginsburg overcame adversity both in and out of the courtroom – battling gender discrimination at a time when women were rarely serving as lawyers. She also fought cancer with rigor, rarely missing any days in court. A giant inspiration and pioneer for women globally, Justice Ginsburg should not just be remembered for what she stood for but what she stood against. Our nation is greater for her tenacity, dissension, and adversity against injustice. As Justice Ginsburg put it best, ​‘there will be enough women on the court when there are nine.’

Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a crusader, a fierce fighter for women’s rights, and a firm believer in justice for all. As the second woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Ginsburg was a jurist of extraordinary talent. She approached every case — no matter the complexity — with compassion, intelligence, and wisdom. And in every aspect of her life, she exemplified grace, dignity, and tenacity. She tirelessly advocated for women’s reproductive freedoms and fought against discrimination in all its forms. She was a pioneer from the beginning and a true role model until the very end.

I had the honor of knowing Justice Ginsburg since I was a child. My mother, Shirley Raissi Bysiewicz, and Justice Ginsburg were both law professors and colleagues at a time when very few women worked in the legal profession. She inspired many women, including me, to enter the legal profession. She showed the entire world that with perseverance and tenacity there is no obstacle you can’t overcome. She fought for all of us because she believed in the promise of our nation.

Let us honor her legacy by continuing her fight for freedom, equality, and civil rights. May her memory be a blessing.

Attorney General William Tong: I am raising two young women in my home, and I can only be grateful that my daughters had the opportunity to see, appreciate and learn from the example set by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. To our family, she was the embodiment of courage, grit, and grace. I met her once, and she greeted me with kindness and warmth. May we honor her by pursuing her vision of a more fair and just nation.

State Treasurer Shawn Wooden: Thank you Justice Ginsburg, the second woman to serve on SCOTUS & a pioneering advocate for women’s rights. Your dedication to equality paved the way for so many women to have a seat at the table. Your legacy will live on & continue to inspire generations to come. #NotoriousRBG