RBG’s son fights decision to give Musk and Murdoch mother’s namesake award

The son of the late US supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called a decision to give Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch an award named for his mother a “desecration” of her memory.

Discussing protests made to the Dwight D Opperman Foundation, which gives the Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Woman of Leadership award, James Ginsburg told CNN: “I don’t want to speak to what our other plans might be if the foundation doesn’t see the wisdom of desisting and ending this desecration of my mother’s memory. But I will say that we will continue to fight this.”

The second woman appointed to the US supreme court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg spent 27 years as a justice, becoming a hero to American liberals. She died aged 87 in September 2020 and was replaced by Amy Coney Barrett, the third conservative justice installed by Donald Trump.

Ginsburg helped establish the award colloquially known as the RBG, saying it would honour “women who have strived to make the world a better place for generations that follow their own, women who exemplify human qualities of empathy and humility, and who care about the dignity and well being of all who dwell on planet Earth”.

Previous recipients have included Barbra Streisand and Queen Elizabeth II.

Last week, the Dwight D Opperman Foundation announced a five-strong list it said was chosen from “a slate of dozens of diverse nominees” but which included just one woman.

That was Martha Stewart, 82, the lifestyle entrepreneur (and member of the first RBG award committee) who in 2004 was convicted of fraud and jailed for five months.

The men were:

Musk, 52, the billionaire owner of SpaceX, Tesla and X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, through which he has taken increasingly rightwing political stances;

Murdoch, 93 and