SWITCHBACKS // The Long Black Robe
Mural by Tiff Urquhart (@URQUH.ART)
by Naomi Mendelsohn
So much has been recorded about RBG’s glass-shattering firsts. Co-founder of the first law journal in the U.S. to focus on women’s rights. The first female professor to receive tenure at Columbia Law School. The first woman to lie in state at the U.S. Capitol.
So much has been written about RBG as a jurist. Her ferocious advocacy and sharp legal mind. Her finely wrought decisions. The crafts(wo)manship of her writing, and, of course, the snap of her dissents.
So much has been heard about RBG as a human. Her devotion to her husband. Her friendship with Justice Scalia—a relationship, doubtless, mired in occasional conflict. Her love of opera.
And this is what I want to talk about. Justice is not blind. Justice is not anonymous. Judicial robes may conceal the figure, but behind the robes, the individual character of a Justice—of Justice—endures.
And RBG certainly left us a legacy. A legacy that brings me back to the visual. The image of Justice.
Not the Notorious RBG, crown askew, dissent collar at attention. Although the Notorious RBG certainly has a ring to it that is, shall we say, lacking when it comes to other Justice’s initials.
For me, it is these two parting images.
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