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Ginsburg and Husband Report Net Worth Above $6 Million

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<i> From a Times Staff Writer</i>

Supreme Court nominee Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her lawyer-husband have a net worth of more than $6 million, according to a financial statement released Tuesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Their only liability is a $60,000 mortgage on their Watergate apartment, valued at $1.3 million. Their total net worth as of June 1 was $6,195,770.

Of their joint holdings, $2,580,300 consisted of unlisted securities with retirement accounts valued at more than $2 million. Ginsburg also holds $100,000 worth of Treasury notes.

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Ginsburg, 60, was a professor of law and an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union before she was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in 1980. Her husband, Martin, is a lawyer associated with the prominent Washington firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson. He also teaches at the Georgetown University Law Center.

Martin Ginsburg estimated the worth of his professional corporation at $550,000.

At least two Supreme Court justices are millionaires. In their 1992 financial disclosure statements, made public in May, Sandra Day O’Connor listed assets worth between $1.18 million and $3.27 million, while John Paul Stevens listed assets worth from $1.1 million to $2.47 million.

Those disclosure statements excluded personal property and primary residences.

The Judiciary Committee is scheduled to begin hearings July 20 on Ginsburg’s nomination, and her confirmation appears to be assured.

Her response to a committee questionnaire indicated that she first heard from the White House about a possible nomination to the high court on June 11. The next day, she said, White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum asked her to return to Washington from an out-of-town trip to Vermont on the first possible plane on Sunday morning, June 13.

After a preliminary interview by Nussbaum and others on her financial affairs, she said, she met President Clinton at 11:30 a.m.

“We had a conversation, with no other person present, that continued until 1:15 p.m.,” she said. She was questioned further by Nussbaum and others for several hours.

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She said that Clinton telephoned her later that night. “Some time before midnight, the President told me of his intention to nominate me, and I accepted,” she said.

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