Watch RBG’s Fight For a Boise Woman’s Rights on the Big Screen

The movies RBG and On the Basis of Sex will return to theaters this Friday in honor of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. On the Basis of Sex tells the story of the late Supreme Court Justices' work on the groundbreaking case Moritz v. IRS.

Proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to the ACLU's Women's Rights Project, which Ginsburg co-founded in 1972. One of the very first court cases Ginsburg took on as a lawyer for the ACLU came straight out of Boise, Idaho which is also featured in the movie.

Reed v. Reed is the case of Sally Reed from Boise who was fighting to become the executor of her son's estate after he passed away. The courts were automatically going to appoint the father for no other reason other than that he was a man. Sally and her husband were separated and according to Idaho law at the time, "males must be preferred to females in appointing administrators of estates," even though Sally was the one who opened the account and deposited money into it.

Attorney Allen Derr took on Sally's case for her and was able to win the case in district court, however the decision was reversed by Idaho's Supreme Court. Reed and Derr didn't stop there though. They took the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court which caught the attention of Ginsburg.  ACLU reached out to Derr and wanted to join them in the fight.

The case became a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court ruling that the administrators of estates cannot be named in a way that discriminates between sexes. It still amazes me so much how things have changed in just the past 50 years with A LOT of credit going to Ruth Bader Ginsburg.