Happy Birthday, RBG! 8 Reasons to Celebrate Justice Ginsburg

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg turns 80 on Friday, and we're ready to celebrate her graceful transition from septuagenarian to octogenarian.

Here are 8 reasons to celebrate Justice Ginsburg:

1. She's tough. Justice Ginsburg has beaten cancer twice. When she fell and broke two ribs in 2012? She still went to work. And The New Yorker's Jeffrey Toobin describes her as "kind of the monster of the Supreme Court gym."
2. She dreams of being a diva. Justice Ginsburg is a huge opera fan, and would love to have been an opera singer. Above the Law explains that in February, RBG told New York Public Radio station WQXR "People ask me, 'If you could be whatever you wanted to be, what would you be?' My first answer is not 'a great lawyer.' It is, 'I would be a great diva.'"
3. Divas love RBG just as much as she loves them. This week, the Washington National Opera gave Ginsburg a very special gift: an ivory silk crepe de chine shawl made in its costume shop, a replica of the shawls worn in its production of Bellini's "Norma," The Washington Post reports.
4. She's a bobblehead. No, that's not a derogatory term. The Green Bag, an "entertaining" law journal, has produced 16 Supreme Court bobbleheads since 2003. Justice Ginsburg became the latest jurist to be immortalized in resin in 2012.
5. Lily Ledbetter. Justice Ginsburg's dissent in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. highlighted the need for Congress to rewrite laws designed to ensure equal pay. She wrote, "This is not the first time the Court has ordered a cramped interpretation of Title VII, incompatible with the statute's broad remedial purpose ... Once again, the ball is in Congress' court ... to correct this Court's parsimonious reading of Title VII." If you're a woman, and you like equal pay, thank Justice Ginsburg.
6. And it's not just the Ledbetter Act. Toobin says that Justice Ginsburg is "by far, the current Court's most accomplished litigator;" even more impressive that Chief Justice John Roberts. Though Roberts argued more SCOTUS cases than Ginsburg, Toobin notes that most of Roberts' cases "were disputes of modest significance. Ginsburg, during the nineteen-seventies, argued several of the most important women's-rights cases in the Court's history."
7. The collar. Now that Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor are no longer on the bench, Justice Ginsburg is the only jurist who adds flair to her robe. ABC News explains that Ginsburg's embellishment is a lace collar from South Africa. Plus, she's usually wearing killer earrings.
8. She's a good friend. Justice Ginsburg and Justice Antonin Scalia are the cutest BFF-duo to ever grace the Bench. They're ideological opposites, yet they bond over their shared love of opera. Plus, we love that they took this photograph together. 

9. Whether you back the conservative block or the liberal block on the Court, you have to admire Justice Ginsburg's distinguished career. So grab a cupcake -- like you really need an excuse for a cupcake! -- and join us in celebrating 80 years of the fabulous RBG.

Related Resources:

• Heavyweight (The New Yorker)
• How Justice Ginsburg Struck Out in the Pro-Choice Movement (FindLaw's Supreme Court Blog)
• What Legal Demographic is Ruled by Women? (FindLaw's Greedy Associates)