A Washington, D.C., spring gala to honor Elon Musk, Rupert Murdoch, Michael Milken, Martha Stewart and Sylvester Stallone has been canceled, organizers said Monday.
The invitation-only celebration at the Library of Congress on April 13 was being organized to bestow Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Leadership Award honors on the tech, media, finance, food and film luminaries.
On Monday, the chairman of the Opperman Foundation, which chooses honorees and organizes the event independent of the late Supreme Court justice’s survivors and estate, said in a statement that the group was pulling the plug in order to avoid fueling controversy over the 2024 recipient list.
“Keeping in mind that our goal is only to do good, the foundation is not interested in creating controversy,” Julie Opperman said. “It is not interested in generating a debate about whether particular honorees are worthy or not.”
“The last thing we intended was to offend the family and friends of RBG,” she continued. “Our purpose was only to remember her and to honor her leadership.”
Last week, Trevor Morrison, former clerk to Ginsburg and dean emeritus of the NYU School of Law, sent a letter to Julie Opperman that said family members want Ginsburg’s name removed from the awards unless they return to their roots, including honoring “an extraordinary woman” with each award.
According to the letter, organizers this year opted to include men and changed the parameters of the honors without consulting Ginsburg’s survivors.
Calling the list of honorees a “betrayal of the justice’s legacy,” the letter said, “It is deeply worrisome that the Foundation has decided to apply the new criteria to honor people who exhibit none of the values that animated the Justice’s career.”
Columbia Law School Professor Jane C. Ginsburg, the late justice’s daughter, forwarded the letter, along with her own statement on the matter, which calls the list of honorees “an affront to the memory of our mother.”
She said in the statement that family…
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