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FILE - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaks at the University of California at Berkeley, in Berkeley, California, Oct. 21, 2019.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been awarded this year's Berggruen Prize for philosophy and culture, given annually to a "thinker whose ideas are shaping human self-understanding to advance humankind."

Ginsburg will donate the $1 million prize to a charity of her choice, the Los Angeles-based Berggruen Institute announced Wednesday.

"Throughout her career, Ginsburg has used the law to advance ethical and philosophical principles of equality and human rights as basic tenets of the USA," Berggruen Institute Founder and Chairman Nicolas Berggruen said in a statement. "Her contributions have shaped our way of life and way of thinking and have demonstrated to the world the importance of the rule of law in disabling discrimination."

Before joining the Supreme Court, Ginsburg, now 86, worked at the American Civil Liberties Union where she led a team of lawyers that brought six cases before the Supreme Court in the 1970s. Their work established constitutional equal protection for women in the U.S.

Ginsburg will receive the award in a private ceremony on December 16 at the New York Public Library.