Seldin’s predicament at Teaneck High School, then, was right in Ginsburg’s wheelhouse.

“She saw her goal at the time as challenging the larger framework of gender discrimination as it existed throughout the country, and going piece by piece, step by step, fighting for this larger principle of gender equality and specifically equal protection under the 14th Amendment,” Shana Knizhnik, the co-author of “Notorious R.B.G.: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg” and a staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society, said of Ginsburg.

She added, “It speaks to this larger philosophy of hers that there was no case too small and no arbitrary distinction in how men and women were treated in any aspect of society that she didn’t feel should be challenged.”

Seldin had four long phone conversations with Ginsburg as the case unfolded. As far as she remembers, the two never met in person. And though some details of those interactions have grown hazy over time, there are snippets of conversation, probing questions, gentle reassurances and generally positive feelings from those talks that have remained lodged in Seldin’s memory over the years.

“I remember she asked me, ‘How do you feel about going through with this?’” Seldin said. “And I said: ‘I want to do this. I really want to do this. I want the competition.’”

Ginsburg was soft-spoken, personable and kind, Seldin said. She recalled Ginsburg telling her that equality for boys and girls was overdue. Ginsburg, who later in life came to be known for a fierce fitness regimen, asked Seldin about herself and about tennis, about why she enjoyed playing the game.

For Seldin and her parents, pursuing the case was not meant to be some grandiose statement for civil rights. It was all about tennis.

Seldin inherited a love for the sport from her father, Arthur, who thrived in amateur tournaments around New York and New Jersey, collecting a stash of medals that she has kept.

Source: New York Times

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