Devastated, Thankful, Determined: Leading Women Lawyers of Anne Arundel Mourn Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

 

Alex Mann

 

Three prominent female attorneys in Anne Arundel County keep a figurine of RBG on their desks.

 

At 87, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was still a force on the bench and an inspiration to women in the legal world, where she was a trailblazer. She died Friday from complications with cancer.

 

Leading women attorneys in the county say they’ll remember her as a champion for women’s and minority rights, a force of fairness and a portrait of determination. Ginsburg’s loss left some feeling devastated and worried, others thankful to have learned from her and a few more driven than ever before to follow her lead.

 

“All women in the profession owe a great debt to Justice Ginsburg,” said Del. Shaneka Henson, D-Annapolis.

 

“Equality for women. That is her legacy,” added Tiffany Holley, an assistant public defender in Anne Arundel. “She made sure that the law, which never saw women as equal, was changed. She made sure that women like me can walk into a courtroom and walk into a classroom at law school and be treated just the same.”

 

A business and contract attorney by trade, Henson was leaving her law office Friday night when a flood of text messages from friends in the field broke the news of Ginsburg’s death.

 

Immediately, she thought about law school at the University of Baltimore, where she read opinion after opinion from the nation’s highest court. She felt like she got to know the justices through their writings, and Ginsburg’s – leader of the court’s liberal wing in her final years – always stood out.

 

“Justice Ginsburg was consistently on the side of what was fair. She was consistently on the side of interpreting the constitution to make sure that it grew with us as we grew as a nation,” said Henson, the first Black woman to represent part of Anne Arundel County in the General Assembly. “So it was just a devastating loss when the news came across that we had lost her as a person... as a justice on our Supreme Court.”

 

News of the late justice’s death left Holley with a sense of irony. She got the news while leading a group for young women in Glen Burnie, where she tells girls to try to change the world as Ginsburg did against the odds in a profession that was, when she began, dominated by men.

 

When Holley was growing up, she said her mom always told her that she could be the next Supreme Court justice. She brushed it off; but Ginsburg, the court’s second woman justice, made it seem possible.

 

“She was my idol,” Holley said.

 

At her desk at the Public Defenders Office on Margaret Avenue, she keeps a superhero figurine of Ginsburg. It’s evidence that she holds the legacy of the late justice close to her heart. She says she admires how Ginsburg never backed down in the face of adversity to say what she believed was right.

 

It’s something Holley thinks about every day at work.

 

“Even if the judge doesn’t agree with me and the prosecutor doesn’t agree with me, I want to make sure my voice and my client’s voice are heard.”

 

Count Lisa Sarro among those feeling devastated. Sarro was recently hired as general counsel for Arundel Community Development Services after being suddenly fired from her post as supervising attorney for Maryland Legal Aid’s office in Annapolis, where for decades she was a champion for poor people who needed help pushing back against their landlords in court.

 

“Her loss is devastating really on so many levels. Present, past and future,” Sarro said. “She was such a pioneer all the way back to law school and her first few jobs. She always had to fight to get a say, to make it to the table.”

 

Sarro didn’t go into public service because of Ginsburg, but soon after Ginsburg reached the Supreme Court bench in 1993, Sarro took notice. She became an icon – a fact evidenced by the figuring of the diminutive justice sitting on Sarro’s desk.

 

“She went into public interest law. Her entire career was built around fighting to make the world a better place for everybody, to really expand fairness and equal treatment of everyone,” Sarro said.

 

What stood out to Sarro most was not one of Ginsburg’s dissenting opinions, but “her ability to get across how very important it is to expand the circles of fairness... of equality in our country instead of constricting them.”

 

Like Henson, Sarro feels blindsided. Both say Ginsburg’s loss is difficult because there’s hardly time to grieve.

 

Both are worried that President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans will ram through a nominee who could undo Ginsburg’s work expanding people’s rights. Already, Sarro thinks about arguments slated soon about the Affordable Care Act, and how Ginsburg’s replacement might sway a decision.

 

Defense attorney Jennifer Alexander has chosen to not to focus on the “immeasurable” loss. Rather, she said it’s important to remember all the country has gained on account of Ginsburg’s determination and sense of what’s right.

 

“Some might see it as an advancement for women in particular, but if you believe in Justice Ginsburg’s philosophy, an advancement for women, is an advancement for everyone.”

 

Alexander, a former county prosecutor, remembers vividly being sworn into the U.S. Supreme Court bar on Nov. 17, 2014. She says despite her small stature – just 5-feet tall – “her gravitas filled” the hallowed chamber. There, their eyes met. Alexander counts it among the most memorable moments of a decades-long legal career.

 

Justice Ginsburg once was asked when she estimated there would be enough women on the highest bench in the land. She responded, “when there are nine.” Alexander will remember this exchange fondly, and suspects it’s a primary reason she earned the millennial moniker “Notorious RBG.”

 

“No one ever thought it was unusual when the bench had nine men, so why would it be unusual if the bench has nine women?”

 

The first thing that popped into the mind of State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess after hearing of Ginsburg’s death was something someone told her about the justice: Maybe she should’ve retired a little sooner.

 

“People don’t usually say that to men,” Leitess said, and she respects Ginsburg’s perseverance. “She’s been a Supreme Court justice for 27 years and I’ve been a prosecutor for 30, and if someone told me I should retire, I’d say ‘no. I still have a lot to do.’”

 

Leitess has no intention of slowing down, and she thinks other women, too, are going to continue following in Ginsburg’s footsteps. Leitess keeps Ginsburg’s figurine on her desk at home as a reminder of just that.

 

“She penned some of her opinions from her hospital bed or while recouping. Age is just a number if you can keep going and work. That’s a lesson for all of us.”

 

Leitess, reelected in 2018 as the top law enforcement official in the county, said it shouldn’t be novel for women to hold leadership positions. It should be the norm.

 

Ginsburg, she said, “certainly paved the way.”