Ruth Bader Ginsburg Gets a Bobblehead From the Smithsonian Institution

bobblehead ruth bader ginsburg

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg became a modern American icon when she was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1993, making her the second female justice and becoming an influential advocate for women’s rights. She’s been a steadfast champion for the Equal Rights Amendment and has written many precedent-setting legal cases that clarify and strengthen our rights as Americans. Her fiery dissents have made her a cultural icon, inspiring nail art, Halloween costumes, and even a Tumblr meme likening her to rapper The Notorious B.I.G. Ginsburg’s profile soared after her retirement in 2006 and she’s been honored with a bobblehead, children’s coloring books, t-shirts, coffee mugs, and tattoos.

In a recent book, My Own Words, Ginsburg and two authorized biographers collected documents spanning her full scope of life. The Smithsonian is honoring the justice with a trove of items donated by her family, including a framed copy of her decision in Lilly Ledbetter and a copy of her majority opinion in U.S. v. Virginia striking down the all-male admissions policy at Virginia Military Institute.

Ahead, check out the Green Bag’s bobbleheads of current and former Supreme Court Justices in their most judicial attire, complete with witty references to their most famous opinions. The Green Bag’s editor, Ross Davis, says he has an involved process for selecting which Justice will get the bobblehead treatment: He reads the justice’s opinions to understand their arguments and uses facts from their cases as the basis of his annotations. He’ll then send page after page of specs to the bobblehead maker—like when he wanted Justice John Paul Stevens to stand on a Sony Betamax, a reference to Sony v. Universal (1984)—until the final product is perfect.