New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the Brooklyn Municipal Building will soon bear the name of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
“We want to make sure that we honor her in every conceivable way and especially in the borough that she came from that gave her so much of her strength and spirit, the borough of Brooklyn,” de Blasio said, according to the Hill.
Ginsburg, who died from cancer complications on Friday at the age of 87, was born and raised in the Flatbush neighborhood in Brooklyn to a family of working-class Jewish immigrants. News that the municipal building, which houses a number of city offices, will be renamed comes just days after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that a statue of Ginsburg will be erected in Brooklyn to honor her legacy.
De Blasio said the building’s new name will be a source of pride to Brooklynites, who consider the late justice one of their own.
“What an extraordinary opportunity to say to the people of Brooklyn, ‘Here’s one of your own who changed the world. Here’s someone of, by, and for Brooklyn and this city who did greatest things on the world stage.’ And that building will carry her name forevermore,” de Blasio said.
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who had already started a petition to name a building after Ginsburg prior to her death, called news that the municipal building would be renamed “a bittersweet moment.”
“But I take heart in knowing that young girls and boys who pass by the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Brooklyn Municipal Building will know her name, learn from her example, and pick up the baton to run their own mile toward a more just, equitable, and fair America,” Adams said in a statement.
Ginsburg’s death has set in motion an election-year fight by Republicans to seat a new Supreme Court justice prior to Nov. 3. Despite the opposition of Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, Republican leaders have vowed to forge ahead with confirming whomever President Trump nominates for the role. Trump is expected to announce his pick, who he says will be a woman, on Saturday.
