From the archives: Bill Clinton nominates Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Supreme Court in 1993

I wish you all a good afternoon and I thank the members of the Congress and other interested Americans who are here in just a few days when the Supreme Court concludes its term Justice Byron white will begin a new chapter in his long and productive life he has served the court as he has lived with distinction intelligence and honor and he retires from public service with the Deep gratitude of all the American people Article 2 Section 2 of the United States Constitution empowers the president to select a nominee to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court of the United States this responsibility is one of the most significant duties assigned to the president by the Constitution a Supreme Court Justice has life tenure unlike the president and along with his or her colleagues decides the most significant questions of our time and shapes the continuing Contours of our Liberty I care a lot about this responsibility not only because I am a lawyer but because I used to teach constitutional law and I serve my state as Attorney General I know well how the Supreme Court affects the lives of all Americans personally and deeply I know clearly that a Supreme Court Justice should have the heart and spirit the talent and discipline the knowledge common sense and wisdom to translate the hopes of the American people as presented in the cases before it into an enduring body of constitutional law constitutional law that will preserve our most cherished values that are enshrined in that Constitution and at the same time enable the American people to move forward that is what I promised the American people and the Justice when I ran for president and I believe it is a promise that I am delivering on today after careful reflection I am proud to nominate for associate Justice for the Supreme Court judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the United States court of appeals for the District of Columbia I will send her name to the Senate to fill the vacancy created by Justice White's retirement as I told judge Ginsburg last night when I called to ask her to accept the nomination I decided on her for three reasons first in her years on the bench she has genuinely distinguished herself as one of our nation's best judges Progressive and Outlook wise in judgment balanced and fair in her opinions second over the course of a lifetime in her pioneering work in behalf of the women of this country she has compiled a truly historic record of achievement in the finest traditions of American law and citizenship and finally I believe that in the years ahead she will be able to be a force for consensus building on the Supreme Court just as she has been on the Court of Appeals so that our judges can become an instrument of our common unity in the expression of their Fidelity to the Constitution judge Ginsburg received her undergraduate degree from Cornell she attended both Harvard and Columbia law schools and served on the law reviews of both institutions the first woman to have earned this distinction she was a law clerk to a federal judge a law professor at Rutgers and Columbia law schools she argued six landmark cases in behalf of women before the United States Supreme Court and happily won five out of six for the past 13 years she has served on the United States court of appeals for the District of Columbia the second highest court in our country where her work has brought her National acclaim and on which she was able to amass a record that caused a national legal journal in 1991 to name her as one of the nation's leading Centrist judges in the months and years ahead the country will have the opportunity to get to know much more about Ruth ginsburg's achievements decency humanity and fairness people will find as I have that this nominee is a person of immense character quite simply what's in her record speaks volumes about what is in her heart throughout her life she has repeatedly stood for the individual the person less well-off The Outsider in society and has given those people Greater Hope by telling them that they have a place in our legal system by giving them a sense that the Constitution and the laws protect all the American people not simply the powerful judge Ginsburg has also proven herself to be a Healer what attorneys call a moderate time and again her moral imagination has cooled the fires of her colleague's Discord ensuring that the right of jurists to dissent in Nobles the law without entangling the court the announcement of this vacancy brought forth a unique outpouring of support for distinguished Americans on Judge ginsberg's behalf what caused that outpouring is the essential quality of the judge herself her deep respect for others and her willingness to subvert self-interest to the interests of our people and their institutions in one of her own writings about what it is like to be a Justice judge Ginsburg quotes Justice Lewis Brandeis who once said the Supreme Court is not a place for solo performers if this is a time for consensus building on the court and I believe it is Judge Ginsburg will be an able and effective architect of that effort it is important to me that judge Ginsburg came to reviews and attitudes by doing not nearly by reading and studying despite her enormous ability and academic achievements she could not get a job with a law firm in the early 1960s because she was a woman and the mother of a small child having experienced discrimination she devoted the next 20 years of her career to fighting it and making this country a better place for our wives our mothers our sisters and our daughters she herself argued and won many of the women's rights cases before The Supreme Court in the 1970s many admirers of her work say that she is to the women's movement what former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall was to the movement for the rights of African Americans I can think of No Greater compliment to bestow on an American lawyer and she has done all of this and a lot of other things as well while raising a family with her husband and Marty whom she married 39 years ago as a very young woman together they had two children Jane and James and they now have two grandchildren hers is a remarkable record of Distinction and achievement both professional and personal during the selection process we reviewed the qualifications of more than 40 potential nominees it was a long exhaustive search and during that time we identified several wonderful Americans whom I think could be outstanding nominees to the Supreme Court in the future among the best we're the Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt whose strong legal background is Arizona's attorney general and recent work balancing the competing interest of environmentalists and others in the very difficult issues affecting the American West made him a highly qualified candidate for the court and I had the unusual experience something unique to me being flooded with calls all across America from Babbitt admirers who pleaded with me not to put him on the court and take him away from the Interior Department I also carefully considered the chief judge of the First Circuit Judge Stephen Breyer of Boston a man whose character confidence and legal scholarship impressed me very greatly I believe he has a very major role to play in public life I believe he is superbly qualified to be on the court and I think either one of these candidates as well as the handful of others whom I closely considered May well find themselves in that position someday in the future let me say in closing that Ruth Bader Ginsburg cannot be called a liberal or a conservative she has proved herself too thoughtful for such labels I see yourself put it in one of her articles and I quote the greatest figures of the American Judiciary have been independent thinking individuals with open but not empty Minds individuals willing to listen and to learn they have exhibited a Readiness to re-examine their own premises liberal or conservative as thoroughly as those of others that I believe describes judge Ginsburg and those I too believe are the qualities of a great Justice if as I believe the measure of a person's values can best be measured by examining the life the person lives than judge ginsburg's values are the very ones that represent the best in America I am proud to nominate this path-breaking attorney Advocate and judge to be the 107th Justice to the United States Supreme Court thank you