This book is perfect for RBG junkies and worshippers , and legal gossips , who care as much about the persona of the lawyer or judge as they do about the lawyer ’ s brief or the judge ’ s opinions . Although the book provides an excellent feel for Supreme Court jurisprudence in general in the late 20th and early 21st centuries , the truly interesting , even fascinating , parts of the book come in the detail , the tidbits of “ insider information ,” such as the apparent congeniality within the Court ( even between conservatives and progressives ) and the ability of the Justices to not only get along , but to actively socialize with one another while at the same time eviscerating each other in dissenting opinions and during oral arguments . The book also contains a broad discussion , based on cases before the Court on a variety of subjects and issues , of how politics and social issues impact the Court , and how the Court ’ s opinions impact politics and society , the rich and the poor . Through the interviews with RBG , the reader comes to understand just how much income inequality there is in our society as reflected in the Court ’ s opinions .
This book taught me about the most important Supreme Court cases decided in the past 45 years , cases with which I may not have otherwise been familiar in my dayto-day practice of law . When I started law school in 1972 , Roe v . Wade had not even been decided , and little did we know of Ruth Bader Ginsberg .
My primary , and overwhelming , critique of Conversations with RBG is repetition . Mr . Rosen asks RBG the same questions in his interviews , over and over , and RBG gives the same answers to the same questions . Mr . Rosen discusses RBG ’ s majority and dissenting opinions over and over , and by the Afterword , I found myself skipping pages because I had read the same things three times before .
Even though I would have likely “ melted ” in the mere presence of RBG , let alone been able to interview her , I found Mr . Rosen ’ s interview questions to be more obsequious over the course of his interviews . To say he gave RBG softball questions is an understatement . It is one thing to admire , but quite another to publicly fawn over one ’ s interview subject . Perhaps this type of book would have been better written by someone not quite as personally involved as Mr . Rosen .
Lastly , although there were chapters with different titles and subject matters , the book seemed jumbled , disorganized , and as stated earlier , repetitious . I do not profess to know how such a book should be structured , but I did not find this book to be particularly wellorganized . Perhaps Mr . Rosen should have interviewed RBG on her work as an advocate , and then , once on the Supreme Court , asked her questions , on a case-by-case basis . That might have produced a more perfunctory , boring book , but at least it would not have been so repetitive .
Regardless of the positives and negatives about Conversations with RBG , the following are my key take-aways from the book .
Key Take-Aways from Conversations with RBG
• RBG focused on the practical effects of a constitutional ruling on the lives of real people struggling to make a living , struggling to define their life paths .
• RBG ’ s interest in both race and gender equality was premised on the fact that both were “ congenital , unalterable ” traits with no necessary relationship to talent or ability to perform .
• RBG ’ s marriage to Marty Ginsburg was a marriage of equals . Child rearing did not involve physical characteristics unique to women , and therefore Marty and Ruth Ginsburg shared equally in the burdens and joys of raising their two children .
• To RBG , the Constitution and Declaration of Independence were living and breathing documents ; after all , as the book describes , who were the people in “ We the people ” when the
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16 July / August 2021