Justice Ginsburg rides celebrity wave, releases anthology

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WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is riding the wave of her rock-star celebrity, releasing a compilation of her writings that range from a high school editorial to summaries of some of her spiciest dissenting opinions.

There seems to be no end lately to the interest in the court’s oldest member, the senior justice of its liberal wing who this summer made news for her criticism of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

A recent, playful biography called “Notorious RBG” was a best-seller. A children’s book on the justice and a Ginsburg coloring book came out this year. There’s a blog devoted to her, endless T-shirts and even people with Ginsburg tattoos.

The justice said recently of her popularity: “It is amazing that at age 83, everyone wants to take a picture with me.”

“My Own Words,” a collection of the justice’s writings, comes out Tuesday. It’s a sort of greatest hits album. It’s also her first book since joining the court more than two decades ago.

Ginsburg fans won’t necessarily read anything new, but devotees will no doubt be delighted to have some 300 pages of Ginsburg all in one place. There are also a few pictures, including one of Ginsburg on an elliptical machine wearing a “Super Diva” sweatshirt.

The book includes the speech Ginsburg gave in the White House’s Rose Garden in 1993 to accept her nomination to the court by President Bill Clinton and the opening statement she gave at her confirmation hearing. There’s a summary of the decision she wrote in a case that opened the Virginia Military Institute to women and her dissent in a case involving Goodyear employee Lilly Ledbetter, who lost her lawsuit over being paid less than male counterparts.

The book contains talks Ginsburg has given about others, among them former colleagues: retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the late Justice Antonin Scalia and the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

Ginsburg has said the anthology had been planned to come out after her official biography. But work on the biography began in 2003 and her biographers don’t appear to be wrapping up any time soon, she has said. Her biographers, Wendy Williams and Mary Hartnett, did help select pieces for the anthology and provide context in introductions.

The anthology, which is dedicated to Ginsburg’s late husband, is not her first time as an author. As a young lawyer in the 1960s, she co-wrote a book on Swedish law.

It seems a safe bet that her newest work will have a broader audience.