Dissenter on the Bench: Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Life and Work

Reading like a stellar podcast, Dissenter on the Bench blends Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life with the cases which marked her rise as a civil rights and woman’s rights icon by fighting for equality. Unfolding as a litigator might present, separate strands representing the stories and cases of individuals arguing before the SCOTUS, Dissenter unites these loose threads and validates the individuals’ struggles.

RBG doesn’t always win, but even when she’s on the losing side she’s able to escape out a win in her dissent. The game is over and you beat her, but she had the last word and that destroyed your position. As her profile exploded recently, we are lucky to learn the depth of her opposition to obvious oppression while she is still fighting.

While this is not Letters from an Alabama Jail, it’s a wonderful companion to The Notorious RBG. Dissenter acknowledges Notorious as well as the movement but portrays the Justice from the perspective of a lawyer. The Dissenter’s cases are introduced before the author makes a connection to her life. Evidence is introduced and pictures are woven in to support these inferences. The assumptions are logical and the conclusions about Justice’s life make sense given how she argues for equality.

You might learn a few new things about RBG from this book if you’ve already read Notorious. The strongest aspect of this read is how the SCOTUS is distilled as each case is detailed. I plan on a “reread” through an audiobook because it seriously feels like a super wholesome true crime podcast where no one dies, good wins more than bad, and you learn about octogenarian workouts.