Ruth Bader Ginsburg broke down every wall that stood in her way and in the way of all women. She fought fiercely for reproductive freedom, including safe, legal abortion — always holding the line. She lifted up communities of color from the margins and put them front and center. She protected the LGBTQ+ community because she understood that every person deserves the right to love.

For 27 years, longer than any other woman on the Supreme Court, she never once wavered in her determination to protect the rights and freedoms of every single person in this country.

Tonight we honor her legacy; tomorrow we fight to protect it. We must approach the coming weeks and months as if our lives depend on it. Because they do.

Until her last breath, she fought for what was right. She fought for us all.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a proud Jewish woman. That she died on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, in the most tumultuous year in memory, seems particularly significant.

There is a Jewish saying when someone dies: "May their memory be a blessing."

Thank you, RBG.

May her memory be a blessing.

May her legacy be a movement.

ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero issued the following statement:

“Few individuals have had such a dramatic and lasting effect on a particular area of law as Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who directed the work of the ACLU Women’s Rights Project from its founding in 1972 until her appointment to the federal bench in 1980.

“During the 1970s, Ginsburg led the ACLU in a host of important legal battles, many before the Supreme Court, that established the foundation for the current legal prohibitions against sex discrimination in this country and helped lay the groundwork for future women’s rights advocacy. By 1974, the Women’s Rights Project and ACLU affiliates had participated in over 300 sex discrimination cases; between 1969 and 1980, the ACLU participated in 66 percent of gender discrimination cases decided by the Supreme Court.

“In 1981, President Carter appointed Ginsburg to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In 1993, Ruth Bader Ginsburg became the second woman to be a Justice on the Supreme Court.

“In her honor we will be dedicating the ACLU Center for Liberty as the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Liberty Center.

“She leaves a country changed because of her life’s work.”