History of the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Inn

In mid-1995, Gloria Bates attended the annual National Conference of the American Inns of Court in San Francisco. Immediately afterward, she received permission from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to found an Inn in her name. Gloria formed a steering committee of judges and lawyers who shared her enthusiasm, and once membership and programs were in place, meetings began in September 1995.

Gloria devoted a lot of time to the development and growth of the Ginsburg Inn: from attracting members who embrace Inn ideals to forming committees, helping plan the first programs and overseeing a multitude of organizational details. Her experiences as a federal law clerk, attorney, judge and adjunct law school professor greatly complemented her service and contributions as Founder and President during our Inn's first two years.

Gloria believes that diverse membership helps promote the Inn ideals of professionalism and ethics by providing an exchange of different ideas and experiences. On that basis, Gloria worked to ensure that our Inn includes members from different segments of the legal community, as well as from different areas such as Oklahoma, Cleveland, McClain, Garvin, Kingfisher and Pottawatomie Counties.

The Ginsburg American Inn of Court is divided into six pupillage teams, each proportionately composed of judges, experienced lawyers, young attorneys, law professors and third year law students. Each team prepares and presents one program during the term (September through May) for which one hour of C.L.E. credit may be given, if the program complies with MCLE requirements. Programs deal with important issues facing members of the legal profession and contribute to improving professionalism, civility and ethics of the legal community.

About Justice Ginsburg

American Inn of Court Number 30249 is named for the Honorable Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the 107th Justice and only the second woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court.

Born March 15, 1933, in Brooklyn, New York, she graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Cornell University in 1954. Justice Ginsburg and her husband lived in Oklahoma from 1954 to 1956 while he served in the military. In 1956, she entered Harvard Law School, one of only nine women in a class of over 500 students. Two years later when her husband graduated from Harvard Law School and took a job with a New York law firm, she transferred to Columbia University Law School for her final year. Upon graduating, she clerked two years for Edmund L. Palmieri, a United States District Court Judge for the Southern District of New York, then joined Columbia Law School's Project on International Procedure. After two years, she joined the law faculty at Rutgers University Law School in New Jersey.

In 1972, Justice Ginsburg accepted a tenured professorship at Columbia University Law School. At the same time, she became actively involved with the ACLU Women's Rights Project, researching and arguing equal rights cases. A strong supporter of equal rights, she represented women and men on equality issues. For example, in Craig v. Boren, 429 U.S. 190, 97 S.Ct. 451, 50 L.Ed.2d 397 (1976), she successfully represented a man claiming discrimination under an Oklahoma statute that allowed women to buy 3.2 beer at age 18 while men had to be 21. The winning plaintiffs were a young man who wanted to buy beer and a female convenience store owner who wanted to sell her wares without discriminating against male purchasers.  The United States Supreme Court ruled in Ginsburg's favor five of the six times she argued before it.

In 1980 Justice Ginsburg became a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. She was nominated for the United States Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton on June 14, 1993.