UPDATE
Mar 19, 2024 2:55 PM CDT
After a backlash from the late Supreme Court justice's family, the Dwight D. Opperman Foundation has canceled April's Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Leadership Award gala. This year, the award would have been given to men for the first time—including Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch. Foundation chair Julie Opperman said the foundation is "not interested in creating controversy," the Washington Post reports. She said the foundation will "reconsider its mission and make a judgment about how or whether to proceed in the future." Ginsburg's relatives had called the slate of awardees an "affront" to her memory. Her son Jim Ginsburg tells the Post he is "relieved" that the ceremony won't happen this year.
Mar 15, 2024 1:42 PM CDT
Relatives of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg say they don't want her name to be associated with this year's slate of Ruth Bader Ginsburg Leadership Award recipients, which includes Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch. Mother Jones reports that relatives consider the conservative billionaires to be "odd and inappropriate" choices.
- The awards, established by the Dwight D. Opperman Foundation, started out as the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Woman of Leadership Award in 2020. Ginsburg herself presented the first award to philanthropist Agnes Gund. She died later in 2020 and recipients in later years, including Barbra Streisand and Queen Elizabeth II, were not controversial. But this year, the foundation expanded the number of awards and decided to make men eligible, the Washington Post reports. Sylvester Stallone, Martha Stewart, and white-collar-criminal-turned-philanthropist Michael Milken are also on this year's list.