Ginsburg Takes Her Place on Supreme Court Bench

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg took her seat at the bench Friday in a ceremony marking the first time that two women sat together on the nation’s highest court.

With President Clinton and more than 300 friends, family and guests looking on, Ginsburg again swore to “do equal right to the poor and to the rich.”

She took the same oath Aug. 10, when she became the 107th Supreme Court justice.

Ginsburg’s new colleagues shook hands with her as she approached Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist for the oath. Afterward, she took her place down the bench from Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

O’Connor became the first female justice in 1981. That year, Ginsburg predicted in a speech to a university audience that another woman would join O’Connor within the decade.

Ginsburg replaced retired Justice Byron R. White, who sat in the President’s row along with retired Justices Lewis F. Powell Jr. and William J. Brennan. Clinton, the first Democratic President since Lyndon B. Johnson to name a member of the high court, smiled as Ginsburg repeated the oath in measured tones.

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno presented Ginsburg’s presidential commission to the court.

After the ceremony, Rehnquist joined Ginsburg for the traditional walk down the Supreme Court building’s marble front steps. The chief justice took an early exit at the bottom of the stairs as Ginsburg’s family joined her.

The high court begins its 1993-94 term on Monday.