Justice Ginsburg meets with Hawaii high schoolers

Some 200 Hawaii high school students enjoyed a rare opportunity to meet U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at a private event at Mililani High School Saturday.

“They were thrilled,” said Avi Soifer, dean of the University of Hawaii’s William S. Richardson School of Law, who attended the event. “There’s no question that Justice Ginsburg is an inspiration.”

About 210 students attended Saturday’s event, where Ginsburg spoke for about an hour, mostly answering students’ questions.

The students are past participants in the Courts in the Community Program, created by Hawaii Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald to increase awareness among students of the role of the judiciary.

Students were from Hana- lani Schools, Mililani High, Assets High, Kamehameha Schools-Kapalama campus, Radford High, Farrington High, Waipahu High, McKinley High, ‘Iolani School and Baldwin High.

Matt Mattice, executive director of the King Kamehameha V Judiciary History Center, who heads the Courts in the Community Program, said, “It’s a phenomenal opportunity for the students.”

This is Ginsburg’s third visit to Hawaii as part of the Jurists- in-Residence Program. The program, established by the UH law school in 1987, celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.

Under the program, justices every two years teach classes at the law school. Ginsburg last visited Hawaii in 2004 and in 1998. “She really loves Hawaii,” said Soifer, who has known Ginsburg since the 1970s.

Last Thursday, she taught constitutional law and criminal law classes at the law school. “She’s a remarkable person as well as a remarkable justice,” Soifer said.

Ginsburg is a formidable force in the battle against gender discrimination. According to Soifer, she is particularly known for her 1996 ruling in the United States vs. Virginia case, where Ginsburg ruled women cannot be excluded from Virginia Military Institute, then a male-only college.

Soifer said many call Ginsburg the “Thurgood Marshall of gender discrimination.” Marshall, a former associate justice who fought racial discrimination, was the first African-American to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1980, Ginsburg was appointed judge to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. President Bill Clinton nominated her to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1993.