The Cyclist and the Bear

My aunt Laurie Smith Camp was nominated by President George W. Bush to serve as a federal judge. Her confirmation date was scheduled for September 11, 2001. Delayed by the 9/11 attacks, six weeks later she was unanimously confirmed by the Senate and became the first woman to serve as a federal district judge in Nebraska. Laurie was friends with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and after she passed away, just three days after Ginsburg died, people eulogized her as the RGB of Nebraska. I prefer to think RBG was the Laurie Smith Camp of the Supreme Court, always championing the rights of women and other historically disenfranchised people.

Laurie was a passionate fan of Chief Standing Bear, who in 1879 successfully argued in the U.S. federal district court that Native Americans are “persons” under the law and thus due civil rights. Laurie told me about Chief Standing Bear when I was a child, and the story sparked my imagination because a standing bear is a formidable sight. A bear