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Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, an icon of the American legal world, died Friday at the age of 87.
Ms. Ginsburg, who was the second woman to be appointed to the highest court in the United States, was nominated by US President Bill Clinton in 1993 and served 27 years on the nine-member court.
Born in 1933 in Brooklyn, New York, she studied at Cornell University and later Harvard Law School, before building a stellar legal career. She argued six landmark gender equality cases before the United States Supreme Court and was an advocate for women’s rights, particularly in the workplace.
She died surrounded by her family in Washington DC on Friday of complications from pancreatic cancer, the Supreme Court announced.
His death comes a little over six weeks before the November presidential election and is likely to lead to a bitter battle in Washington over whether President Donald Trump will nominate a replacement.
Trump has already nominated two conservative Supreme Court justices to the position, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanuagh, in just over three and a half years in the White House.
Approve
The Senate, which must approve the nomination, could consider a new nominee before the November elections or during the so-called “lame duck” session between the November 3 elections and the inauguration of the new Congress in January.
However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell controversially refused to consider former US President Barack Obama’s candidate for court, Merrick Garland, following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016.
He argued at the time that the decision should be made after the 2016 elections.
“The American people should have a voice in the leadership of the court. It is the constitutional right of a president to nominate a judge of the Supreme Court, and it is the constitutional right of the Senate to act as a check on the president and to deny his consent, “he said in 2016.
But in a statement last night, Mc Connell pointed out that this time the same party is in power in the Senate and the White House.
“Americans re-elected our majority in 2016 and expanded it in 2018 because we committed to working with President Trump and supporting his agenda, in particular his prominent appointments to the federal judiciary. Once again, we will keep our promise, ”he said. “President Trump’s candidate will receive a vote in the plenary session of the United States Senate.”
Yet in a sign of the battle to come, Chuck Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, tweeted:
“The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president. “
Most
A simple majority is required to approve a candidate for the Supreme Court. Republicans currently control 53 seats in the 100-member chamber, while the vice president has the authority to cast a tiebreaker vote. Yet polls show that Democrats can win control of the chamber in the November elections, when one-third of the Senate seats are on the ballot.
If a nomination is put to a vote in the current session of Congress, there is no guarantee that all 53 Republicans would back a Trump nomination. Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski has suggested she would not confirm a nominee in an election year, while questions also remain about how Senators Mitt Romney and Susan Collins would vote.
According to NPR, Ms. Bader Ginsburg told her granddaughter in the days leading up to her death, “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”
The Trump administration, supported by a Republican majority in the Senate, has surpassed a record number of federal judges since Trump’s election in 2016. More than 215 judges have already been approved by the Senate, and the president predicted this month. that this number will have increased to 300 by the end of this year.
Just ten days ago, Trump unveiled a new list of potential Supreme Court candidates that he could select if re-elected in November, including current senators Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton. In announcing the list at the White House on Sept. 9, Trump warned that “radical justices” would “erase the Second Amendment, silence political discourse and require taxpayers to fund extreme late-term abortion. They will give unelected bureaucrats the power to destroy millions of American jobs. “
Voices
With the death of Ms. Ginsburg, the nine-member court has lost one of its most liberal voices. Five Republican-nominated judges now remain on the bench and three Liberal judges.
Ms. Ginsburg, who had suffered several episodes of cancer, participated in a variety of oral trials and arguments until her death. Most recently, she was treated at the Baltimore hospital in August.
In announcing the death of Ms. Bader Ginsburg, Chief Justice John Roberts said:
“Our Nation has lost a jurist of historical stature. We have lost a dear colleague on the Supreme Court. Today we cry, but with the confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her: a tireless and determined defender of justice.
Reporters reportedly informed Trump of Ginsburg’s death when he boarded Air Force One shortly after finishing a rally in Minnesota.
“Did she just die? I did not know. She led an amazing life, what more can you say? “, Said.
“Whether you agree or not … she led an amazing life.”
His presidential rival, Joe Biden, said: “Tonight, and in the days ahead, we should focus on the loss of Judge Ginsburg and her enduring legacy. But for the avoidance of doubt, let me be clear: voters must elect a president, and that president must elect a successor to Justice Ginsburg. This was the position that the Republican Senate took in 2016, with the elections almost nine months away. That is the position that the United States Senate must take now, with the elections less than two months away.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who recommended Ruth Bader Ginsburg to her husband when she was considering Supreme Court nominees in 1993, said it was a very sad night for the United States.
“He was a courageous and historic person who moved our country forward in all the right ways,” he said last night.
Ms. Bader Ginsburg will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, outside of Washington DC, in a private ceremony.
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