MINNEAPOLIS — University of Minnesota Law School Professor Robert Stein met Ruth Bader Ginsburg about 40 years ago, more than a decade before she would be appointed to the United States Supreme Court.
At the time, while Ginsburg was at Columbia, Stein was the Dean of the U of M Law school.
"Her husband came here with her when I was Dean. We entertained them and it started a friendship that's continued right up until her tragic death," said Stein, the Everett Fraser Professor of Law at the university.
Stein said he would see Ginsburg about two to three times a year. She came to the University of Minnesota in 2014 to take part in his lecture series, the first U.S. Supreme Court Justice to do so.
Stein says the Justice loved opera and her nickname - the "Notorious RBG."
"That gave her a lot of delight. She liked to talk about that," Stein said. "When I would see her in her chambers in the years after that, she would want to show pictures, and clippings, and so forth that identified her in that way."
Stein said he admired Ginsburg both personally and professionally.
"At one point, I was introducing her and had commented that she had expanded the constitutional rights for women so greatly," he said. "She corrected me and said, 'Bob, no. I worked to expand the constitutional rights for all persons, whether women or men.' That's how she saw it. So, one couldn't help but admire her values."
Amy Bergquist, now an attorney for Minneapolis-based The Advocates for Human Rights, was a clerk for Ginsburg during the 2010-2011 term.
"She was extremely hard working," Bergquist said. "I remember working with her on one particular opinion that she was drafting and, as has become known, she has a personal trainer. Her personal trainer was coming to work with her. So, she had me go down with the personal trainer [and] as she was doing her workout we continued to work on revising and editing the opinion."
Bergquist recalls Ginsburg working longer hours than her clerks and called her an "icon."
"Somebody who was not just a justice on the court, but somebody people recognized, somebody people could point to, dress up in Halloween costumes as," she said. "You really can't point to other justices who had that literal iconic nature."
A vigil for Justice Ginsburg will be held Sunday at 8 p.m. at Boom Island in Minneapolis. You can find details here.
Editor's note: The below YouTube video was published shortly after Ginsburg's death on Friday, Sept. 18, 2020.