The American Civil Liberties Union’s executive director (ACLU), Anthony Romero, apologized on Tuesday for distorting Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s famous remark in order to pursue “woke” vocabulary, according to The New York Times.
The ACLU has stirred backlash for correcting Ginsburg’s quotation by replacing the word woman with gender neutral lexis. The controversial publication, posted on Twitter on the anniversary of RBG's passing to address abortion issues, was criticized for "erasing women" and dubbed a "stab in the back" of the late Supreme Court judge.
Romero said he regretted that the words “woman” and “her” were removed, saying it was a mistake by the digital team.
“We won’t be altering people’s quotes,” he claimed. “It was a mistake among the digital team. Changing quotes is not something we ever did.”
The organization, nevertheless, hasn’t deleted the controversial post despite the outrage, claiming that Ginsburg would have supported the high-handed editing if she were alive.
“Having spent time with Justice Ginsburg, I would like to believe that if she were alive today, she would encourage us to evolve our language to encompass a broader vision of gender, identity and sexuality,” Romero assumed.
On 18 September 2020, Ginsburg died at the age of 87 of complications from pancreatic cancer. She had been treated for various cancers since 1999.
Former President Bill Clinton nominated Ginsburg for the US Supreme Court in 1993. She became the second female Supreme Court judge after Sandra Day O'Connor, appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1981. Ginsburg's appointment was the first by a Democratic president in 26 years.