Fuck this shit.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg isn’t even FUCKING buried yet and the GOP is already stealing not just her seat on the Court, but her name. (Yes, I know that *technically* Neil Gorsuch’s seat is the stolen one, not the one Amy Coney Barrett is poised to take over, but as the GOP is reneging on the principle that made Gorsuch a justice in order to get Coney Barrett on the high court, you best believe it still applies. Also, it is well worth noting, the seat Coney Barrett sits on in the Seventh Circuit was, itself, stolen. As Leslie Proll notes, President Obama nominated Myra Selby to the seat in 2016, but Senators blocked that nomination.)
The powers that be at the National Republican Senate Committee are selling this fugly shirt that rips off RBG’s moniker (also, why isn’t there a period after the B? Do or do not on the punctuation, there is no in between):
Hard pass on that one.
Of course, there’s a WORLD of difference in a nickname that catches fire organically and one bestowed ham-handedly by politicos trying to sell merch ahead of what is sure to be a heated confirmation process. It comes off as a thirsty af move trying to glom some popularity from a recently passed icon.
For those who may not know, Notorious RBG came to life because of a law student. In 2013, Shana Knizhnik, then a 2L at NYU Law, was pissed after the Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County (which, sames) and she created a Tumblr in tribute to Ginsburg’s dissent and coined the now-famous Notorious RBG name.
It’s obviously a play on Biggie Smalls’s own nickname — one the deceased rapper’s son approves of — and it took off. As Knizhnik says, “I was mostly thinking of the catchy nickname and how she was such a powerful force. Here you had this diminutive person, this tiny human, and nobody saw her as a badass. But when you see what she has done, over years, with such dignity and grace, it represented that.”
So, when you see some Republican try to trot out the name in reference to Amy Coney Barrett, but the only Big Poppa they know is their grandfather who sips sweet tea on the porch and crows, “The south will rise again!” know that’s some bullshit. Nicknames are earned and Coney Barrett hasn’t done much of anything noteworthy except have some backwards notions about reproductive freedom and be at the right place at the right time.
As for the Notorious RBG’s name, like Birdman says, put some respeck on it.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).