The Notorious RBG and the Cases That Changed a Nation - Self Paced

*** this is the Self Paced version of this class, which means there are no live meetings. There is a live version, if you prefer. Just go to my teachers profile to find the live version. 

Before her days as a judge, Ruth Bader Ginsburg acted as general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), where she argued over 300 gender discrimination cases—six before the Supreme Court—and co-founded the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project. 

This course aims to introduce learners to a brilliant legal mind by taking them on a journey of legal reasoning, through the cases that strung together a civil rights movement, changing gender equality in America in enormous ways. 

The first class will introduce learners to RBG, and present the arguments and legal reasoning that led Ruth to win her first case of gender based discrimination at the federal appellate level, Moritz v. U.S.

The second class will focus on Reid v. Reid and Durren v. Missouri, where Mrs. Ginsburg wrote legal briefs and argued in front of the Supreme Court to apply the equal protection clause to gender. 

In the third class, learners will understand the legal strategy RBG employed during her advocacy days to not advocate simply on behalf of women, but to show that gender discrimination harms all of society - men and women alike. Frontiero v. Richardson and Craig v. Boren will be studied to illustrate this point.  

During the fourth class, we will turn to Justice Ginsburg and her time on the Supreme Court bench. Learners will study U.S. v. Virginia where Ginsberg penned the majority Supreme Court decision confirming gender equality as a Constitutional right.

The final case to be studied in this course will be in the fifth week. Learners will understand Ledbetter v. Goodyear, a case based on equal pay and gender discrimination, in which Justice Ginsburg wrote a dissenting opinion, which provided the context of a Congressional change in legislation. 

In the sixth and final week, the class will turn to focus on the lawyers who served as role models and support for Ruth, such as Dorothy Kenyon, Pauli Murray, Melvin Wolf and Marty Ginsburg, in order to help learners understand that change and opportunity grows and builds with support from past and present. 

Learners will engage in this learning via many modalities.  First, via video lecture from the teacher.  Secondly, through outside readings, including, among others, primary source materials and video links of those involved in the movement to change gender-based discrimination in America.  Third, learners will engage through discussions posts based on carefully crafted prompts designed to engage critical thinking.  Fourth, learners will engage in project based learning to engage critical thinking on social theory.