With all eyes on the US Supreme Court following Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement, now is a perfect time to drop a trailer for the film about one of his colleagues—and one of the court’s most inspiring justices ever.
Yesterday (July 16), Focus Features released the first trailer for On the Basis of Sex, the Hollywood biopic about the life and early career of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a longtime US Supreme Court justice and women’s rights icon. Directed by Mimi Leder (The Leftovers) and starring Oscar nominee Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything, Rogue One), the film is already garnering awards buzz.
It follows RBG, a documentary about Ginsburg that came out earlier this summer to unanimously positive reviews. Justice Ginsburg, who at 85 is still an active (and fiery) judge known for her grueling workout regimen, is having something of a pop culture moment. And deservedly so.
The film traces Ginsburg’s career in the 1970s as a young lawyer who argued numerous gender discrimination cases before US federal courts (including the Supreme Court). Her work directly led to several changes in the law, including in Reed v. Reed, a Supreme Court case that ultimately extended the protections under the Equal Protections Clause of the 14th Amendment to women for the first time.
Ginsburg was nominated by US president Jimmy Carter to the US Court of Appeals in 1980, and then to the Supreme Court by Bill Clinton in 1993. When Justice Kennedy officially retires at the end of the month, she’ll be the court’s second longest-serving justice, behind Clarence Thomas.
On the Basis of Sex will be released Dec. 25.