An early activist for equal rights, particularly for women, Ginsburg made a name for herself as a lawyer arguing before the high court long before she joined it. She was the second woman appointed to the United States's highest court; then-President Bill Clinton nominated her and the Senate confirmed that nomination in 1993. Her powerful visage, sporting a popular white collar atop her black robe, dominates the FOREVER stamp.

In the last few years of her life, she became something of a celebrity for her high-octane physical workout routine. Well into her late 80s, she completed an hour-long strength and cardio workout twice a week under the direction of well-known personal trainer Bryant Johnson, who often said that people half her age couldn't complete the workout.

She also became a cultural icon through an unlikely melding of two areas of pop culture. She was a fan favorite of women's rights advocates, one of whom (herself a law clerk) deemed her the Notorious RBG, a nickname that incorporated her initials and was also a nod to the famous hip hop artist The Notorious B.I.G. Ginsburg's Notorious nickname gained a larger amount of fame as a result of a sendup of her and her persona on the television skit show Saturday Night Live.

Ginsburg had earlier formed an unlikely partnership with former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Even though the pair were sometimes diametrically opposed in terms of judicial philosophy, they both enjoyed opera immensely and also enjoyed attending operas together, promising never to discuss their work while doing so. This nonpartisan entertainment viewing became so popular that it formed the basis for an opera itself, a one-act comedy titled Scalia/Ginsburg. The work had its unofficial premiere, naturally, before the Supreme Court, in June 2013.

Ginsburg, who died in 2020, is the first high court justice to appear individually on a U.S. postage stamp since Thurgood Marshall, in 2003. A 2009 set of stamps featured former high court justices Louis Brandeis, William Brennan, Jr., Felix Frankfurter, and Joseph Story.