Ginsburg: Supreme Court needs women

WASHINGTON, May 6 (UPI) -- The only woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, says the high court sorely needs more female members.

"It shouldn't be that women are the exception," Ginsburg told USA Today in an interview conducted before Justice David Souter announced his retirement.

Ginsburg's status as the only woman on the court was especially poignant during a recent case involving a 13-year-old Arizona girl who was strip-searched at school, USA Today reported Wednesday.

During oral arguments, some of the justices minimized the girl's lasting humiliation, but Ginsburg, 76, had a different view.

"They have never been a 13-year-old girl," said Ginsburg. "It's a very sensitive age for a girl. I don't think that my colleagues, some of them, quite understood."

Ginsburg has been the lone woman on the high court since Justice Sandra Day O'Connor retired three years ago.

Groups such as the National Women's Law Center are urging President Barack Obama to appoint a woman to replace Souter.