20 | OCTOBER 8 • 2020 

W

hen Sam Bagenstos heard 
the news about the death of 
Supreme Court Justice Ruth 
Bader Ginsburg, he was in the middle of a 
Rosh Hashanah service on Zoom and was 
instantly overcome with emotion.
“Tikkun olam is a principle 
and a practice that mattered a 
lot to the justice, and it’
s some-
thing I think she’
s passed along 
to a new generation, even for 
those who don’
t know or use 
that term,
” Bagenstos said.
Bagenstos, a civil rights law-
yer and professor of law at the University 
of Michigan, served as a law clerk for 
Ginsburg from 1997-98, and is one of many 
Detroit-area connections and admirers of 

Ginsburg mourning her recent passing.
“She was always incredibly meticulous 
about getting the cases right. She worked 
20-hour days and inspired you to work 
as hard as she did,
” Bagenstos said. “We 
worked on some quite significant cases and 
some cases nobody has heard of, but she 
took all the cases equally seriously.
”
Ginsburg was appointed to the high court 
in 1993 and was the first Jewish woman and 
only the second woman ever to become 
a justice. Ginsburg was one of the most 
important figures in fighting for gender 
equality in U.S. history.
While Ginsburg was known for being 
stoic and focused, Bagenstos’
 experiences 
with the justice give a peek into who she 
was on a personal level and how much she 

cared for her law clerk family.
“The first case I argued in front of the 
Supreme Court, I lost 9-0,
” Bagenstos said. 
“She wrote me a note when the opinion 
came out about how great I was in the argu-
ment, and it was really all about the side I 
was on and not about my lawyering. I really 
appreciated that.
“Often, when I would file a brief in the 
court, she would write me a little note with 
some kind of funny joke about a line in the 
brief I wrote, showing me she had read the 
brief very carefully,
” Bagenstos continued.
Bagenstos married another law clerk of 
Ginsburg’
s, Margo Schlanger, and it was 
through their shared link to Ginsburg that 
they connected.
Schlanger was a clerk of Ginsburg’
s from 
1993-95 and was looking to 
work at the Justice Department 
once her clerkship was over. 
In a conversation with former 
Massachusetts Gov. Deval 
Patrick, who headed the civil 
rights division of the Justice 
Department at the time, 
Ginsburg mentioned Schlanger as someone 
he should interview for a job.
In return, Patrick mentioned the name of 
Bagenstos, a young lawyer at the time work-
ing under Patrick, as someone Ginsburg 
should interview to become one of her 
clerks. Bagenstos hadn’
t even applied for the 
job. They were both hired in their respec-
tive roles.
Bagenstos and Schlanger eventually start-
ed going out to lunch every week to main-
tain open lines of communication.
“One thing led to another and we fell in 
love, and in the middle of my clerkship I 
proposed, and Margo said yes,
” Bagenstos 
recalled. “When I told Justice Ginsberg, it 
really was the happiest I’
d ever seen her.
”
Schlanger, also a professor of law at the 
University of Michigan, applied to work for 
Ginsburg on the D.C. Circuit prior to her 
SCOTUS appointment because Ginsburg 
was already such a hero in regards to gen-
der rights. 
“The guiding principle for Justice 
Ginsburg was that men and women should 
be equal, not only when they do the things 
you’
d expect men and women to do, 
but however they choose to be men and 
women,
” Schlanger said. 
“I was a women’
s history major in college. 
The importance of this kind of an idea 

Sam 
Bagenstos

Ginsburg’s
Detroit Connections
A romance sparked between RBG’
s former law clerks, 
and an artist pays tribute with a memorial.

DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER

Jews in the D

COURTESY OF EDWARD STROSS

Mural by 
Edward Stross
Margo 
Schlanger

