The U.S. Postal Service is unveiling a new forever stamp this year to honor the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a dedication ceremony this fall.
The event will take place in the District of Columbia at the National Portrait Gallery on Oct. 2.
The new forever stamp is meant to celebrate Ginsburg’s “groundbreaking contributions to justice, gender equality and the rule of law,” according to a press release from the USPS.
Ethel Kessler, an art director with the postal service, designed the stamp based on a portrait by Michael J. Deas that was created from a photograph taken by Philip Bermingham, which depicts the justice in her black judicial robe and iconic white collar.
The justice died at age 87 in 2020 after serving on the high court 27 years. She was appointed in 1993 by President Bill Clinton.
The Brooklyn-born jurist’s fans and foes took to calling her the “Notorious RBG” because of her unabashedly liberal missions from the bench and her tendency to insert herself into partisan politics in interviews and speeches beyond the walls of the Supreme Court.
Justice Ginsburg earned her reputation through carefully argued and fiercely written opinions — with her greatest hits usually coming in dissents prodding her colleagues to take a more expansive view of personal liberty, women’s rights and government power.
They are the causes she cut her teeth on as a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, where she defended women’s rights at a time before the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution began being applied to sex.
Her fame as a justice has been unprecedented, with an unmatched crossover appeal to people far beyond the legal world.
The American Bar Association Journal in 2018 found more than 1,000 results for RBG-related gear for sale on Etsy.com.
She also was included as a character, complete with robe and gavel, in “The Lego Movie 2,” alongside Batman and Superman in 2019.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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