Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader
Ginsburg helped a gay couple write their wedding vows.
When Ralph Pellecchio and Jim Wernz
married last month, they made history as the first same-sex couple to
marry inside the U.S. Supreme Court, according to Talking
Points Memo.
Ginsburg reportedly not only agreed to
preside over the ceremony, but she also helped plan the event and
write the couple's weddings vows.
Pellecchio, a former student of
Ginsburg's at Columbia Law School, wrote Ginsburg to ask her to marry
him and Wernz, who have been together 32 years.
“She got back to me very quickly and
said, 'I'm not going to be in New York in the foreseeable future, but
if you were to marry in D.C., I'd do it in a minute,'” Pellecchio
said. “This was over Labor Day weekend and so it happened pretty
quickly after that.”
According to a script that Pellecchio
shared with TalkingPointsMemo.com, Ginsburg united the couple with
these words: “Mindful of the responsibility to which I attend and
grateful for the privilege accorded me at this happy moment, I do
hereby, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the
laws of the United States, declare your marriage valid and binding,
and pronounce you married.”
Ginsburg has married at least three gay
couples since September.