Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said that those who thought the legacy of past racism has been solved were “blind” and criticized Congress for its lack of work on civil rights and bipartisanship while expressing a wish that “we will go back to having the kind of legislature that we should” in an interview broadcast on Monday’s “Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC.
Regarding race relations in the US, she argued “people who think you can wave a magic wand and the legacy of the past will be over are blind. Think of neighborhood living patterns, we still have many neighborhoods that are racially identified. We still have many schools that, even though the days of state enforced segregation are gone, segregation because of geographical boundaries remains.”
Ginsburg also spoke on the Supreme Court’s rulings on laws passed during the Civil Rights era and Congress’ response to those rulings, stating “the Congress in 1991 took a look at some of this court’s restrictive interpretations of Title VII, and they passed a bill that changed all of those. At the moment, Congress is not functioning very well. For example, the Voting Rights Act was renewed by overwhelming majorities on both sides of the aisle, but the current Congress is not equipped, really, to do anything. Some day we will go back to having the kind of legislature that we should, where members, whatever party they belong to, want to make the thing work and cooperate with each other to see that that will happen. It was that way in 1993 when I was–when I was nominated for this good job. There were only three negative votes. My hope and expectation is that we will get back to that kind of bipartisan spirit.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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