Norma Chávez-Peterson: We work for the ACLU and try to honor Ruth Bader Ginsburg's legacy

Even with her dying words, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg sought to defend the U.S. Constitution and our nation's hard-fought social progress. Her death is a stunning loss for the high court and the American people, whatever our ideological differences, but especially for those of us who fight for equal justice for all people. The "Notorious RBG" was a brilliant, beloved champion for equal justice and inclusion for women and so many others. We will miss her terribly and we will fight on.

As women of color with 50-plus years of experience in social change advocacy between us, we're heartsick to imagine what a more conservative Supreme Court will mean for the vulnerable in our society. At immediate risk are the millions of people who will lose their health insurance should the court strike down the Affordable Care Act and its protection of pre-existing conditions. But social progress in women's rights, voting rights, immigrants' rights, LGBTQ+ rights, disability rights and reproductive rights are in jeopardy, too.

We take solace that we are not alone in our resolve to continue the work to ensure that "We the People" includes everyone.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg's lived experience gave her empathy and vision that — together with her keen intellect, fearless tenacity and principled interpretation of the Constitution — empowered her to set precedent in how the Supreme Court understood the rights of women even before she joined the bench.

Prior to her appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals in 1980, RBG co-founded the Women's Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, where she established the framework for current legal prohibitions against gender discrimination in this country and helped lay the groundwork for future women's rights advocacy.

When the United States was founded, most Americans — who were not White male property owners — had no rights that were recognized by the Constitution and the government it established. In 1787, "We the People" did not include Indigenous Americans, enslaved Black Americans and White American women, children and men without property.

Whether or not the Constitution's framers believed their daughters and granddaughters to be entitled to the full measure of rights and freedoms enshrined in our nation's founding document, they did ensure it could be amended by future generations to extend constitutional rights to previously excluded groups.

Ratified in 1920, the 19th Amendment protected women's right to vote. But it was in 1971, persuaded by RBG's groundbreaking brief in Reed v. Reed, that the Supreme Court acknowledged that women had any other constitutional rights and for the first time extended the Constitution's equal protection guarantee to women. "A prime part of the history of our Constitution is the story of the extension of constitutional rights to people once ignored or excluded," she once observed.

It is because of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, as advocate, jurist and, ultimately, Supreme Court justice, that constitutional rights were expanded to include women in many areas of the law. Through her life's work, she leaves our nation profoundly changed. We are a more perfect union. Even so, there is much more to do.

For example, women nationwide continue to face discrimination in the workplace, especially if they are women of color, more so if they are pregnant. Fifty-seven years after the passage of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, Latinas earn 55 cents and Black women earn 62 cents for every $1 earned by White, non-Hispanic men.

In our own region, we see an array of social inequities caused by decades of systemic racism and discrimination in health care, housing, education, employment, policing and so on. Because of these deeply rooted inequities, the coronavirus pandemic is ravaging our low-income communities of color, with South Bay and Latino neighborhoods suffering the most.

With less than six weeks before the most important election of our generation, we must vote, vote early, vote our values, vote the entire ballot and vote like our lives depend on it … because they do. And we must encourage everyone in our families and social networks to do the same. We have the power and responsibility to elect people into office who share our values of equal justice and inclusion and to hold them accountable.

The ACLU will dedicate the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Liberty Center at the national ACLU Center for Liberty in her memory. Our local ACLU affiliate will continue to prioritize protecting immigrants, pushing for police accountability, advocating for deeper investments in community-based non-law enforcement solutions, and embracing social and racial equity as a guiding principle for all our work. In these ways, we truly honor her legacy.

Chávez-Peterson is executive director of the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties and lives in Chula Vista. Alethia Phelps is communications director for the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties and lives in Bankers Hill.

Read more perspectives on RBG

The death last week of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg — the second woman ever appointed to the high court — left a vacancy on the bench and a void in Americans who had long appreciated her role in the women's rights movement and the legal system. We asked a range of San Diegans to write about her passing and we'll be publishing the pieces in coming days.

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