Ruth Joan Bader Ginsburg (born March 15, 1933) is an Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. Ginsburg was appointed by Democratic President Bill Clinton, in 1993 and generally votes with the liberal wing of the court. She is the second female Justice, Sandra Day O'Connor being the first, and the first Jewish woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

Prior to her appointment to the Supreme Court, Ginsburg served as a federal judge for 13 years on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In practice, she spent a considerable portion of her career as an advocate for the equal citizenship status of women and men as a constitutional principle. She engaged in advocacy as a volunteer lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, and was a member of the ACLU's Board and one of its General Counsel in the 1970s. She served as a professor at Rutgers School of Law in Newark and Columbia Law School.

In 1997, Ginsburg administered the oath of office to Vice President Al Gore as per his request. In 1999, Ginsburg had surgery for colorectal cancer and underwent chemotherapy for eight months. On February 5, 2009, she was hospitalized at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for surgery relating to pancreatic cancer.