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The flags at half mast, the country is in mourning and the fight begins for the successor of the late American judge Bader Ginsburg. Will President Trump be able to take her place on the Supreme Court before the election?
The death of Constitutional Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg has caused great sadness in the United States. In Washington, people laid flowers in front of the Supreme Court. The president of the United States, Donald Trump, and leading politicians of the Democratic opposition paid tribute to the life of the popular judge. She was an icon, especially for the liberal left camp.
Ginsburg died yesterday of cancer at the age of 87. She has been a Supreme Court Justice since 1993, appointed by the then President of the United States, Bill Clinton. She became known, among other things, for her commitment to women’s rights. Despite her serious illness, Ginsburg had also worked from a hospital bed for the past two years. “Our nation has lost an attorney of historic stature,” said Chief Justice John Roberts.
Republicans want a quick succession decision
Trump hailed the deceased as the “titan of the law.” Ginsburg is famous for “her brilliant thinking and powerful contradictions on the Supreme Court.” “Her trials, including her well-known decisions on equality between women and the disabled, have inspired all Americans and generations of lawyers,” said the president.
Trump did not initially comment on his successor. Under the Constitution of the United States, the president appoints the justices of the Supreme Court and the Senate must approve the proposal. Ginsburg’s death offers Trump a chance to secure a conservative majority there, possibly for decades. In the nine-member college of judges, the conservative forces already have a preponderance, which could now increase.
Trump had said in August that he would have no problem with a date shortly before the upcoming November election. Last week he presented a list of 20 possible candidates, all of them deeply conservative. A vote in the Senate so close to an election would be extremely rare. The Republican Majority Leader in the House of Lords, Mitch McConnell, has already announced that his House will not refuse to do so.
Democrats remember 2016
The opposition Democrats are excited about this. Because it was precisely this Mitch McConnell who rejected a vote in February 2016 on the appointment of a new judge to the Supreme Court. It was a staff proposal from then-Democratic President Barack Obama. McConnell cited the election, which was scheduled ten months later, as one reason.
“That is the position that the Senate should take today,” demanded the Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, who, according to polls, has a good chance of winning the election in a month and a half. He urged that the decision on Ginsburg’s successor stand until after the election: “Voters must choose the president, the president must choose the judge who will be examined by the Senate.”
Conservative influence for decades?
Trump has already appointed two new constitutional justices since 2017. Ginsburg was one of four remaining Liberals. The appointment of a sixth conservative judge could affect American jurisprudence for decades. The possible consequences would be the lifting of the right to abortion, further liberalization of the economy and restrictions on the rights of sexual minorities.
According to a report by broadcaster NPR, Ginsberg himself had expressed hope shortly before his death that his successor would only be determined after the elections. A few days before his death, he dictated his “last will” to his granddaughter Clara Spera: “My greatest wish is that they do not replace me until a new president has been appointed.”
