Ruth Bader Ginsburg lies in repose, her casket is being placed outside the court

 Ruth Bader Ginsburg lies in repose, her casket is being placed outside the court.

Three days of public mourning for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a champion of equality and women's rights, began Wednesday when her casket arrived at the Supreme Court for a dramatic procession up the court steps lined by more than a hundred of her former law clerks.

Her casket was placed on the Lincoln Catafalque, once used for President Abraham Lincoln, before a ceremony inside the court's Great Hall attended by family, friends and her fellow justices at which Chief Justice John Roberts spoke, calling her a "fighter" for equal justice and saying while "her voice was soft, but when she spoke, people listened."

Roberts, who sat next to Ginsburg on the Supreme Court bench, said her life was a reflection of the American Dream, calling her “a star” who “found her stage in our courtroom.”

One of her “many virtues” that defined her time on the bench, he said, was her “humility.”

“The court was her family, too. This building was her home,” he said. “Ruth is gone and we grieve.”

"May she rest in peace," Roberts said, standing alongside a portrait of Ginsburg.