Seth Kaller, Inc.

This presentation copy of Lilly Ledbetter’s memoir is inscribed to Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, “my hero!” as Ledbetter refers to her. Ginsburg wrote a strong dissent in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision against Ledbetter in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. (2007), which led Congress to pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009.

Also included is a presentation copy of an anthology of poetry about women in the workplace is inscribed to Ginsburg, whom lead editor Carolyne Wright thanks for “occupying a workspace on behalf of justice for women.”

[RUTH BADER GINSBURG].. Lilly Ledbetter and Lanier Scott Isom, Grace and Grit: My Fight for Equal Pay and Fairness at Goodyear and Beyond, 1st ed. New York: Crown, 2012. Hardcover, dust jacket. Inscribed to Justice Ginsburg: “To: Justice Ginsburg: Thank you—my hero! You are my inspiration! Best Wishes– Lilly Ledbetter.” Also signed by Lanier Isom. 288 pp., 6¼ x 9? in. WITH: [RUTH BADER GINSBURG]. Carolyne Wright, M. L. Lyons, and Eugenia Toledo, eds., Raising Lilly Ledbetter: Women Poets Occupy the Workspace, 1st ed. Sandpoint, ID: Lost Horse Press, 2015. Hardcover, dust jacket. Inscribed to Justice Ginsburg: “For Justice Ginsburg, With profound thanks for your occupying a workspace on behalf of justice for women. Best Wishes, Carolyn / June 2017.” 264 pp., 6 x 9 in.

Inventory #27867       Price: $9,000

As Lilly Ledbetter neared retirement as a supervisor from the Goodyear Tire and Rubber manufacturing plant in Gadsden, Alabama, an anonymous note informed her that she was being paid significantly less than male counterparts with similar seniority and experience, though she had begun her career with the same pay as male employees in the same position. Ledbetter filed suit in November 1998 against Goodyear for gender pay discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In her case and appeals, she won, lost, and lost again in the federal court system. At the U.S. Supreme Court, a five-justice majority ruled that employers could not be sued under Title VII for pay discrimination if the claims were based on decisions made by the employer more than 180 days ago. They rejected Ledbetter’s claim that each paycheck constituted a discrete discriminatory act. The ruling was one of statutory rather than constitutional interpretation; it explained the meaning of the law rather than its constitutionality. The majority ruled that Ledbetter “could have, and should have, sued” when the pay decisions were made rather than waiting beyond the 180-day period.

Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the dissent and was joined by three other justices. In an unusual gesture, Ginsburg read the dissent from the bench, arguing against applying the 180-day limit to pay discrimination because such discriminatory acts often occur over time with a cumulative effect.

Several Democratic members of Congress introduced the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2007, and it became an issue in the 2008 presidential election campaign, with Barack Obama supporting the bill and John McCain opposing it. In January 2009, Congress passed the Lilly Ledbetter Act, and President Obama signed it into law as his first official piece of legislation. Justice Ginsburg kept a framed copy of the Act in her chambers.

Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020) was born in Brooklyn into a Jewish family and graduated in 1954 from Cornell University, where she met Martin D. Ginsburg. They married a month after her graduation, and they moved to Oklahoma, where he was stationed in the U.S. Army Reserve. Ruth Bader Ginsburg enrolled in Harvard Law School in 1956 but transferred to Columbia Law School in New York after two years and graduated in 1959. She held a clerkship for a federal judge and then worked at Columbia Law School on international law. She was a professor at Rutgers Law School from 1963 to 1972 and at Columbia Law School from 1972 to 1980. In 1972, she co-founded the Women’s Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union to combat gender discrimination. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In 1993, President Bill Clinton nominated Ginsburg as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. She served as a liberal voice on the Supreme Court and authored many important opinions. Ginsburg died of complications from pancreatic cancer and was replaced on the court by Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

Lilly Ledbetter (b. 1938) was born Lilly McDaniel in Alabama. After high school, she married Charles Ledbetter, and they had two children. In 1979 Goodyear hired Ledbetter as a supervisor. After working for Goodyear for nineteen years and nearing retirement, she received an anonymous note that she was making thousands less than the men in her position. She filed a sex discrimination case against Goodyear and was successful, but the ruling was reversed on appeal by the Eleventh Circuit. She appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled against her in 2007 because she did not file suit within 180 days of the discriminatory policy. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote a dissent, insisting that “the pay discrepancy between Ledbetter and her 15 male counterparts was stark.” In 2009, Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act that restarted the 180 days every time a discriminatory paycheck was issued. In 2012, Ledbetter published a memoir of her struggle for equal pay, which is currently being made into a motion picture starring Patricia Clarkson as Ledbetter.