But she made an appearance recently on the arm of Rachel Fink, a student of the University of Maryland.
Fink sat for nearly three hours last month as a tattoo artist known as “Nikkiballs” permanently imprinted a portrait of Ginsburg on her arm.
“I think it’s a lot about respect,” explained Fink. “People on social media and my generation have taken to her.”
There are tattoos, muscle tees, YouTube serenades and judicial swag all paying homage to the small, soft-spoken justice who has been on the nation’s highest bench for 21 years — as long as some of her more devoted followers have been alive.
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When Justice John Paul Stevens retired in 2010, Ginsburg took on a new role on the court. She became the most senior member of the court’s liberal wing. That means in some of those controversial 5-4 cases, she gets to choose who writes the dissent.
Last term, when a divided court ruled in favor of the religious freedom claims of closely held for-profit corporations with objections to including a full range of contraceptives in their employees’ insurance, Ginsburg didn’t mince her words. She issued a 35-page dissent.
The dissent so inspired musician Jonathan Mann that he set her words to music and posted a video on Youtube. At last count it had 229,684 views.
