Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg To Receive University Of Chicago Honor

Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg smiles as she takes questions from first-year students at Georgetown Law, Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018, in Washington. Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg smiles as she takes questions from first-year students at Georgetown Law, Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018, in Washington. Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg To Receive University Of Chicago Honor

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U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is scheduled to come to Chicago in September to receive the University of Chicago 2019 Harris Dean’s Award.

The annual award is given to “an exceptional leader who has championed analytically rigorous, evidence-based approaches to policy, and who is an example for the next generation of policy leaders and scholars,” according to the university.

Ginsburg will also participate in a conversation with U of C’s Harris School of Public Policy Dean Katherine Baicker.

“The distinguished career of Ruth Bader Ginsburg serves as an inspiration for our students and for rising leaders around the world,” Baicker said in a press release. “Justice Ginsburg’s leadership on the Court and her analytical approach to judicial decision-making exemplify the commitment and impact honored by the Harris Dean’s Award. We are thrilled to welcome Justice Ginsburg to the University of Chicago to speak with policy students and others who have so much to learn from her career.”

Ginsburg, who made headlines for criticizing candidate Donald Trump in 2016, has, for some, become the face of resistance to President Trump, and an iconic figure among women and left-leaning young people because of her leadership of the liberal wing of the Supreme Court.

The announcement of the U of C event caused initial concern for one social media user, who joked that seeing Ginsburg’s photo always causes fear that the 86-year-old justice has passed away.

Ginsburg, who’s had three major bouts with cancer over the past 20 years, told NPR last month she’s not oblivious to health concerns, but reassured people she’s not going anywhere.

“There was a senator, I think it was after my pancreatic cancer, who announced with great glee that I was going to be dead within six months,” she recalled. “That senator, whose name I have forgotten, is now himself dead, and I am very much alive.”

Registration for the Sept. 9 event is full, just a day after U of C announced it on social media. The post got more than 2,000 likes and nearly 350 people shared it. There’s now a waitlist for the event and it will be streamed live, according to the university.

Ginsburg has served on the Supreme Court for more than 25 years. She had been previously appointed as a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1980.

Mariah Woelfel is a producer at WBEZ. You can follow her on Twitter at @MariahWoelfel.