Justice RUTH BADER GINSBURG’S SHELBY COUNTY v. HOLDER DISSENT

The June 25, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court decision on Shelby County v. Holder struck down the Voting Rights Act of 1965’s formula for preclearance i.e. the process for determining which states and localities should be required to get federal approval for changes to voting policies to ensure that those policies are not racially discriminatory. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the dissent and was joined in it by Breyers, Sotomayor, and Kagan.

On the day of the decision, Justice Ginsburg spoke to the Supreme Court and summarized her position. The full text of that speech is painted on this series of upcycled Madewell magazine totes with Angelus leather paint.

In her dissent, Ginsburg argued that removing preclearance requirements was like "throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet." She warned that removing preclearance would result in discriminatory voting changes that would be difficult to litigate.

She was correct in her prediction and since the decision there have been numerous attacks on voting rights, including most recently the decision issued on April 29, 2026 that futher guts the Voting Rights Act of 1965. If you would like to own one of these bags, they are available in exchange for proof of a recent donation of $100 or more to The Ruth Bader Ginsburg Endowed Fund for Research in Civil Rights and Gender Equality. Please use the Contact Us tab to reach out to make arrangements.

MOOMINS

The Moomins are characters created by writer Finnish writer and illustrator Tove Jansen after World War Two and through the series the author/illustrator wrestles with themes of home and displacement. The Moomins and the creatures in their world all live in Moominvalley, and some of them also live on these upcycled, hand-painted bags.

MANSFIELD PARK BY JANE AUSTEN

In Jane Austen’s Mansfield (1814) Park, Fanny Price, our unlikely protagonist is a young woman who is being raised by her wealthy aunt and uncle Lord and Lady Bertram at Mansfield Park. The Bertrams had offered to be her guardian to unburden her financially strapped mother who lives in a dirty house in Portsmouth, as everyone is always quick to point out. The Bertrams believe themselves to very generous, and are shocked when Fanny refuses an offer a marriage from local charmer Henry Crawford. Fanny knows a life with Crawford will bring nothing but sorrow. Lord Bertram thinks that sending Fanny home to Portsmouth will help her see the error of her ways and remind her to be grateful for the gifts she has been given. But the “lesson” does not have its intended effect. Fanny is truly delighted to be going home, where she can embrace her family and be treated as an equal, rather than a charity case or an object of pity. The scene painted on the bag captures this moment of revelation. Angelus leather paint was used on an upcycled tote bag from Cuyana.

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by JANE AUSTEN

Elizabeth Bennet is the protagonist of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813) and she is a woman in a quandary. As a well-bred, genteel young lady she is not allowed to work. Her father’s estate is entailed by law to the nearest male heir who is their very awkward distant cousin the pastor Mr. Collins. Her only hope of a life with any security is marrying a man of means, but she brings very little (monetarily) to the table to tempt such a man. And yet she maintains her moral compass and high spirits. In this scene she is visiting her friend Charlotte Lucas, who has recently married her bumbling cousin Mr. Collins, and Mr Darcy margically happens to come upon her in the sitting room in the parsonage. There these two individuals begin to approach each other in neutral territory and the seeds of what is to come are planted. This is painted with Angelus leather paint on an upcycled bag of unknown provenance.

THE BLOODY CHAMBER BY ANGELA CARTER

The Bloody Chamber was Angela Carter’s 1979 re-writing of fairy tales written & collected by authors such as the brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, and Hans Christian Andersen. In the titular story, which is a retelling of Bluebeard, a young pianist takes a train ride to the castle of her new husband. He gives her as a wedding gift “a choker of rubies, two inches wide, like an extraordinarily precious slit throat.” She is seventeen and his fourth wife, but she is determined to lift herself and her mother out of poverty. He of course intends for her to meet the same end as his previous brides, but she, her mother and the piano tuner are able to intervene and the change how the story ends. Angelus leather paint was used on a canvas tote printed with a “Nope” candy heart drawn by Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell.