The letters come in nondescript, white envelopes. The return address: the Supreme Court of the United States, Washington, D.C.
They’ve been sent to Washington state, Florida, and California, to name a few, and delivered to volunteers of a church-run thrift shop, the members of a progressive activist group, and even the U.S. Women’s National Soccer team.
Notorious pic.twitter.com/nnjAzhKcnp
— Becky Sauerbrunn (@beckysauerbrunn) April 12, 2019
Some are typed, others are handwritten, but they all bear the seal of the Supreme Court embossed in the top left corner and, below it, the words “chambers of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.”
In some instances, the letters have been prompted by gifts or, on at least one occasion, a viral photo of a young fan. And recently, word of the correspondence from the 86-year-old justice known as “Notorious RBG” has spread as videos and photos of the awe-struck recipients are posted to social media before garnering the attention of the local and national press.
On Saturday, it was the Riveters Collective, a progressive group started after the 2016 presidential election, that found in its mailbox a handwritten letter from Ginsburg after sending her a note and handmade collar last month.
“To the members of Riveters Collective,” the letter from Ginsburg, dated April 5, read. “The collar will fit my new robe perfect. I will wear it during the last sitting period of the current term and many times thereafter. Huge appreciation for an effort that touched me deeply.”
Several dozen members of the Riveters Collective had for weeks taken turns at happy hours and meetings knitting the rows of the gold collar, clasped with a pearl button, for Ginsburg. Those who didn’t knit gave the accessory a little kiss or blessing, Eowyn Savela, president of the Riveters Collective, said.
When the collar was completed, Savela took photos of the women who helped craft it and mailed the images, the collar, and a letter off to the Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
“With humble admiration, we, the members of Riveters Collective, present you with this hand-knitted lace collar,” the group wrote in their March 30 letter to Ginsburg. “We made it especially for you, knitting gratitude, hope, and love into every stitch.”
The women were inspired to make Ginsburg a collar after viewing the documentary “RBG,” they said, which featured footage of the justice showing off a closet full of collars and jabots worn with her robe.
“We hope when you wear this collar you feel empowered by our collective strengths, for that is how you make us feel,” the Riveters Collective said at the conclusion of their letter.
Savela hoped the collar would reach Ginsburg, but certainly didn’t expect to hear more of it.
“To get a handwritten note from her saying she would wear it at the end of the term was pretty special,” she said. “It was more than we expected.”
For Ginsburg’s fans, it’s a shared feeling — hope that their gifts will make it into her hands, but no expectation of what will come after.
Miriam Benitez-Nixon remembers when she received a call from a fellow volunteer at The Little Thrift Shop in Dunedin, Fla., alerting her a letter had arrived from the Supreme Court.
“We were just flabbergasted, totally,” she said of the correspondence.
Benitez-Nixon about Christmastime found a pearl collar that was donated to the thrift shop. Like Savela of the Riveters Collective, she, too, had seen “RBG” and remembered the scene showcasing Ginsburg’s collection of collars.
“As soon as I saw it, that was her,” Benitez-Nixon said of the accessory.
So she set it aside and wrote a note to Ginsburg, which was signed by more than a dozen of The Little Thrift Shop’s volunteers.
“When the enclosed necklace came as a donation to our shop, we knew no one could wear it like you and we decided to send it to you as a gift,” the women wrote in their note, dated Jan. 16.
The letter was mailed while Ginsburg was at home recovering from surgery to remove cancerous nodules from her left lung, which left Benitez-Nixon concerned the justice wouldn’t receive it. But it eventually made its way into her hands.
“The collar you sent is exquisite and will be among my favorites. I will wear it during the first sitting I return to the court,” Ginsburg wrote to the ladies of The Little Thrift Shop in the Feb. 4 letter.
When Ginsburg returned to the bench Feb. 19, Benitez-Nixon scoured the internet for sketches from inside the courtroom to see if the justice kept her word. A drawing from sketch artist Bill Hennessy suggested she did.
“We’re all thrilled she received it, that she loved it, and we’re just thrilled that she got it,” Benitez-Nixon said.
It’s unclear how many gifts Ginsburg receives or how many letters she pens in response. But it’s not unusual for the justices to be gifted items on behalf of institutions, visiting dignitaries, or members of other courts from around the world.
In 2017, Chief Justice John Roberts received an inscribed football helmet from federal judges in Mississippi, according to his financial disclosure form, and in 2015, Justice Elena Kagan was given a signed first edition by Justice Felix Frankfurter by the University of Chicago Law School.
Paul Schiff Berman, a professor at George Washington University Law School who clerked for Ginsburg at the Supreme Court, recalled she was “meticulous about responding to correspondence that she would receive.”
“Nothing Justice Ginsburg ever produces in terms of her writing, whether in a letter or an opinion, is ever produced casually,” he said. “She thinks about and labors over every word she writes.”
Berman noted that the volume of mail Ginsburg receives has likely ballooned in recent years as she has become a celebrity, but said “her impulse is to respond to those who send her mail.”
As with the volunteers at The Little Thrift Shop and the members of the Riveters Collective, she appeared to respond to that impulse last month after receiving a jersey from professional soccer player Becky Sauerbrunn.
Sauerbrunn, a member of the U.S. Women’s National Team, wore the jersey bearing Ginsburg’s name for the SheBelieves Cup match on March 2, for which the players each selected the names of inspirational women. Sauerbrunn said she picked Ginsburg because she is a “complete rock star.”
“Dissenting opinion, battling cancer and then showing up to vote … what can’t she do?” Sauerbrunn said of the justice.
Following the match, Sauerbrunn sent Ginsburg the jersey, prompting the justice to pen a thank-you note in response.
“I am proud to be among the women chosen for recognition in the 2019 SheBelieves game against England,” she wrote in the March 29 letter to Sauerbrunn and the U.S. women’s national team. “The jersey will be my favorite for the biweekly workouts that keep me in shape.”
Sauerbrunn took to Twitter to share an imagine of the letter and offered one word of comment: “Notorious.”
