A Choice Informed
SATB choir
(2019)

Text: Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Language: English
Duration: 6 minutes

Winner, 2018-2019 Polyphonos Competition, National Division

Premiered October 2019
Esoterics Choir
Seattle WA

Composer’s Note

I am moved by Justice Ginsburg’s unflappable commitment to her responsibilities as a member of the Supreme Court of the United States. I am more so moved by her writing, particularly her dissents, where she balances her intense knowledge with an equally intense and biting writing style, so calmly and fully dismantling the rulings made which she does not support.

Composition (and art in general) has the capacity to be inherently political, though some works can be more overt in their statements than others. This text is excerpted and crafted from the 2014 Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby case, where it was ruled that a for-profit corporation is exempt from certain regulations to which its owners object, with particular focus on dismantling the mandate which requires employers to provide certain kinds of contraceptive healthcare for female employees. While I have very strong opinions of my own about how this case turned out, I did my best to capture instead excerpts of Justice Ginsburg’s text that speak to the direct correlation between a woman’s success and her ability to make her own choices, and the human right to make sure that a choice made is an informed one.

Text

A corporation [is] an artificial being, invisible, intangible, no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no
thoughts, no desire, and existing only in contemplation of the law.
The court holds.
[A] person [is]…
A woman [should be]…
One would expect
A matter of choice.
In a decision of startling breadth…
The ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the nation,
One would expect.
The absence of such precedent is just what one would expect.
The ability of women
To safeguard and sustain…
One would expect
Workers are not drawn from one community.
The ability of women has been facilitated by their ability to control their lives.
As a matter of faith,
A matter of choice,
As a matter of conscience,
One would expect.
Indeed by law… any decision… made by a woman…
It will be a choice, informed.
One would expect…
The court holds.
In a decision of startling breadth,
The court… has entered into a minefield.

(Text excerpted from a dissent written by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby, 1994.)