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The Second Greatest Commandment Is More Important Than Ever Right Now
Love thy political enemies
When the prolific Supreme Court Justice and feminist figure Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away on September 18, 2020, I wanted to learn more about the life she led and the positive ways in which she affected the world. As a female lawyer in the 1960s and 70s, Bader Ginsburg was instrumental in advocating for the end of gender discrimination in areas including the military and the general workforce.
Scrolling through YouTube videos one morning, I discovered something rather unexpected about the late renowned civil servant. She was close personal friends with Antonin Scalia: an Italian-American Catholic Supreme Court Justice.
Besides their religious and cultural differences — Bader Ginsburg was a self-described non-observant Jew — the two were ideological opposites. Scalia was famously conservative, viewing the Constitution through the lens of “originalism,” where the document is interpreted according to how the original writers intended it to be understood. More liberal interpretations perceive the Constitution as a “living document,” where the document is thought to develop overtime according to changing circumstances.
To us, it seems unimaginable for a person who supported Roe v. Wade: the 1973 decision to make abortion legal…
