Ruth Bader Ginsburg will receive this year’s Liberty Medal

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, an associate justice of the Supreme Court, has been selected as this year’s recipient of the Liberty Medal, the National Constitution Center announced Wednesday.

According to Jeffrey Rosen, head of the NCC, Ginsburg will be the subject of a special video tribute in words and music to be broadcast live on Constitution Day, Sept. 17.

The award makes special mention of her lifelong efforts to advance liberty and equality. Past recipients include Muhammad Ali, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Nelson Mandela. Last year’s recipient was former Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.

The program in Ginsburg’s honor will feature performances by internationally known opera singers and tributes from some of her “special friends,” the NCC said. It will be produced by NBCUniversal.

Known for her sharp legal opinions and forceful dissents — especially on behalf of women’s rights — Ginsburg is the first Jewish woman to serve on the Supreme Court. She was inducted late last year into the Only in America Hall of Fame at Philadelphia’s National Museum of American Jewish History and was the subject of the popular “Notorious RBG” exhibition there.

Rosen spent many hours over the last several years discussing Ginsburg’s views on a range of subjects. His book Conversations With RBG: Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Life, Love, Liberty, and Law was published late last year.

Ginsburg, 87, announced in July that she had had a cancer recurrence, and was also hospitalized that month for what the Supreme Court described as a minimally invasive bile duct stent “revision.” She will not travel to Philadelphia to receive the honor.