Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg buried at Arlington in private ceremony

Two police officers salute near the casket of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lying in repose at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC on September 23
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April Roach @aprilroach2829 September 2020

Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been buried beside her husband in a private ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.

The US Supreme Court judge was laid to rest near some of her former colleagues on the court.

Ms Ginsburg died of metastatic cancer at her home in Washington aged 87 on September 18.

She became the first woman to lie in state at the US Capitol, two days after her flag-draped casket was placed at the top of the steps outside the Supreme Court where mourners could pay their respects.

Arlington, just over the Potomac River from Washington, is the resting place of an estimated 400,000 service members, veterans and family members.

US Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died at the age of 87
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But Ms Ginsburg is the 14th justice to be buried at the cemetery.

Her husband Martin Ginsburg was buried at the cemetery in 2010 following his death from cancer.

He had served in the Army as an artillery school instructor at Fort Sill in Oklahoma when the couple were newlyweds.

The couple was married for 56 years and had two children. The justice had kept the framed, folded flag from her husband’s casket in her office at the court.

US Congresswomen file through the Statuary Hall to pay their respects to the late Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
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Politicians and celebrities around the world paid tribute to the "woman of brilliance".

In a statement, Meghan Markle said: “With an incomparable and indelible legacy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg will forever be known as a woman of brilliance, a justice of courage, and a human of deep conviction.

“She has been a true inspiration to me since I was a girl. Honour her, remember her, act for her.”

Writing on Instagram, Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks said her death left her feeling “very much like I felt on the night my own mother died”.

She added: “I feel like someone punched me in the stomach.

Donald Trump's Supreme Court pick praises Ruth Bader Ginsburg

“My tears have not stopped since a friend tip-toed into my room and said, ‘Stevie, Ruth died’.”

Mariah Carey also paid tribute, writing on Instagram: “Thank you for a lifetime of service. Thank you for changing history. We will never let it be undone. RIP RBG.”

While Arlington National Cemetery is known for its rows of white headstones, the section where the Ginsburgs are buried, called Section 5, is an older section of the cemetery where markers chosen by families are allowed, and their headstone is black, with a Star of David at the top.

The gravesite is just below the final resting place of former President John F Kennedy. The Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument are in the distance. Nine other justices are buried in that section, including three that Ms Ginsburg served with.

Other justices buried at the cemetery include President William Howard Taft, who served as chief justice after he was president, and Thurgood Marshall, the civil rights champion who argued the landmark Brown v Board of Education school desegregation case and became the court’s first black justice when he joined the bench in 1967.

Harry Blackmun, the author of the 1973 Roe v Wade decision establishing a woman’s right to an abortion, is buried next to Mr Marshall in Section 5.

The last justice to be buried at the cemetery was retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, who died in 2019 at the age of 99.

Additional reporting by Associated Press.