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Supreme Court · Associate Justice

Ruth Ginsburg

Democratic appointee: Appointed by William J. Clinton (D)

Served 1993–2020 · 27 terms

Confirmed 96–3

Biography

Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in 2020. She was nominated by President Bill Clinton to replace retiring justice Byron White, and at the time was viewed as a moderate consensus-builder. Ginsburg was the first Jewish woman and the second woman to serve on the Court, after Sandra Day O'Connor.

Source: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Ideology over time

Ginsburg and the 15 justices who overlapped with Ginsburg, 1993–2019

−4−20+2+419952000200520102015More conservativeMore liberalThomasAlitoScaliaRehnquistGorsuchKavanaughKennedyJ. RobertsO'ConnorSouterKaganBreyerStevensGinsburgSotomayor
  • Ruth Ginsburg
  • 95% credible interval
  • Peer, appointed by a Democrat
  • Peer, appointed by a Republican
  • Court median
How to read this

Martin–Quinn scores place each justice on a single liberal–conservative dimension, estimated from their votes across terms, with scores allowed to shift from one term to the next. Higher is more conservative. The shaded band is the credible interval: wider when the record is thin, especially in a justice’s first terms, and narrower as votes accumulate.

Where Ginsburg sits among all justices

Career average, every justice in the data set

−4−20+2+4−2.92−0.20

Ginsburg’s range across terms

Served alongside Ginsburg

15 justices

Closest career average first. Filled dot: the peer. Ring: Ginsburg.

JusticeTogetherCareer avg
Elena Kagan2010–2019career average −1.74 versus Ginsburg at −1.76John Stevens1993–2009career average −1.81 versus Ginsburg at −1.76Stephen Breyer1994–2019career average −1.32 versus Ginsburg at −1.76David Souter1993–2008career average −0.77 versus Ginsburg at −1.76Sonia Sotomayor2009–2019career average −3.27 versus Ginsburg at −1.76Harry Blackmun1993career average −0.03 versus Ginsburg at −1.76Brett Kavanaugh2018–2019career average 0.56 versus Ginsburg at −1.76Anthony Kennedy1993–2017career average 0.68 versus Ginsburg at −1.76John Roberts2005–2019career average 0.81 versus Ginsburg at −1.76Sandra O'Connor1993–2005career average 1.02 versus Ginsburg at −1.76Neil Gorsuch2016–2019career average 1.04 versus Ginsburg at −1.76Samuel Alito2005–2019career average 2.00 versus Ginsburg at −1.76Antonin Scalia1993–2015career average 2.50 versus Ginsburg at −1.76William Rehnquist1993–2004career average 2.97 versus Ginsburg at −1.76Clarence Thomas1993–2019career average 3.40 versus Ginsburg at −1.76

How Ginsburg voted

Every argued case Ginsburg took part in, newest first, with how Ginsburg voted in each: with the majority, in dissent, or in an equally divided Court. A Liberal or Conservative tag is the Supreme Court Database’s coding of who prevailed in the case, not a rating of the justices.

Loading cases…
    Data notes

    The Decisions page’s argued cases with this justice’s vote from the Supreme Court Database. “Majority” includes a concurrence; a vote that dissented in part is coded by the side the justice took overall. Cases the justice sat out and equally divided cases are left out of the percentages. “Wrote” means authored an opinion. Source: Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.).

    Report a correction

    Scores: Martin, Andrew D. and Kevin M. Quinn. 2002. “Dynamic Ideal Point Estimation via Markov Chain Monte Carlo for the U.S. Supreme Court, 1953–1999.” Political Analysis 10:134–153, from mqscores.wustl.edu. Appointment data: Federal Judicial Center biographical directory. Biographies: Wikipedia, text abridged, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Portraits: public-domain images via Wikimedia Commons.