The planned April 2024 ceremony for the Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Leadership Award was canceled after criticism of its five-person recipient slate, which included Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch. Ginsburg’s children objected to the choices and said the family had not been consulted. The foundation defended its decision to honor men for the first time and said it would reconsider the award’s mission. The cancellation of the ceremony is confirmed; the available reporting does not establish that the awards themselves were formally withdrawn.
Who was named for the 2024 award?
In March 2024, the Dwight D. Opperman Foundation announced five recipients: Elon Musk, Martha Stewart, Rupert Murdoch, Michael Milken and Sylvester Stallone. The slate consisted of four men and one woman. The foundation described the honorees as leaders from different fields.
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The foundation had planned a ceremony for April 2024. Following public criticism, including objections from Ginsburg’s children, foundation chair Julie Opperman announced that the event would not take place.
Why did Ginsburg’s family object?
Ginsburg’s daughter Jane C. Ginsburg called the selection “an affront to the memory of our mother,” according to NPR’s March 18, 2024 report. Her brother, James Ginsburg, said the family had not been consulted. He argued that the award was intended to recognize people who positively influenced society and served as exemplary role models, and questioned whether Musk and Murdoch fit that purpose.
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Those statements describe the family’s assessment of the recipients and the award’s purpose; they are not findings that the honorees failed to meet a neutral eligibility test. The disagreement was also about who should define the award’s legacy: the foundation that selected the slate or Ginsburg’s family, which objected to its fit with her values.
How did the foundation respond?
Opperman said the foundation had chosen leaders in different fields and had honored men for the first time because it believed Ginsburg’s teachings about equality should be practiced. She also said politics had not been considered. In its statement announcing the cancellation, she said the foundation believed each honoree merited respect for leadership and notable contributions, but that the planned April ceremony would be canceled. She expressed regret that the family was offended and said the foundation’s purpose had been to remember Ginsburg and honor her leadership. The statements were reported by The Guardian on March 18, 2024 and NPR on March 18, 2024.
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What was the award meant to recognize?
The Guardian reported that Ginsburg helped establish the award in her name. Its stated ideal was to recognize “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”. The 2024 slate marked a change from that description: the foundation included men, explaining that it saw the move as an application of equality, while the family challenged the recipients’ fit with the award’s purpose.
The dispute therefore involved more than the gender of the honorees. It raised a question about whether applying the award’s equality principle by opening it to men was consistent with its stated focus on women and with the qualities Ginsburg’s family believed the award should honor.
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Were the awards canceled, too?
The reported action was cancellation of the planned April ceremony. Opperman also said the foundation would reconsider the award’s mission. The reporting cited here does not establish that the foundation formally rescinded the five awards, nor does it establish what later happened to the award program. It is therefore more precise to say the ceremony was canceled after backlash than to say the recipients’ awards were revoked.
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