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Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the oldest justice on the United States Supreme Court, and certainly the best known, has died at the age of 87. Ginsburg, as the court explained, died Friday night of pancreatic cancer at her home in Washington. “Our country has lost a jurist of historic magnitude,” said John Roberts, chief justice of the United States Supreme Court. Former President Barack Obama has referred to her as an “advocate for gender equality.”
Former President Barack Obama on Friday called Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg “a warrior for gender equality” who helped Americans see the dangers of gender discrimination. https://t.co/ACy4hk2MRf pic.twitter.com/omnR0rOrex
– The New York Times (@nytimes) September 19, 2020
Ginsburg, the second woman to become a Supreme Court Justice, was appointed in 1993 by then-President Bill Clinton and was considered a progressive judge, already very famous and respected. Her appointment was ratified by the Senate with 96 votes out of 100, something that has never happened again.
There had been a lot of talk about Ginsburg’s health in recent years. The judges of the Supreme Court, in fact, are chosen by the president and their appointment, which is for life, must be confirmed by the Senate. In theory, therefore, even before the next election on November 3, Donald Trump and the Senate could appoint a new judge and elect someone with positions and ideas far more conservative than Ginsburg’s. Trump seems ready to do so and this will be discussed a lot in the coming days of the election campaign.
Today, after Ginsburg’s death, there are eight justices on the Supreme Court, five considered conservative and three progressive. In these four years, in addition, Trump had already had the opportunity to appoint two other judges, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, both quite conservative. If Republicans appointed another conservative judge, the imbalance would still deepen, with consequences that could be seen for years, perhaps decades.
Second NPRBefore dying, but already knowing that she was ill, Ginsburg had written in a kind of will: “My greatest wish is not to be replaced until a new president arrives.” After being informed of his death, Trump said: “I didn’t know. He had an amazing life, what else can you say? ‘He then published a statement on his profile in which he referred to her as a “giant of the law.”
“She led an incredible life,” President Trump said when he learned that Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died on Friday. “What else can you say? She was an amazing woman.” https://t.co/XVNIqgnDRe pic.twitter.com/oLw304yrQ7
– The New York Times (@nytimes) September 19, 2020
Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1933, Ginsburg had studied law at Harvard and was one of nine women among 500 men enrolled. Despite being among the best of her class, she struggled to find work, did various activities more or less related to the law, and in 1972 founded the Women’s Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, a non-profit organization that works for uphold civil rights and constitutional liberties, and began teaching at Columbia Law School. She then continued her career in various positions, including one as a prosecutor, and in 1993 she became a judge of the Constitutional Court, the largest possible position for a jurist. For years, Ginsburg had been widely known and reported in the media, and her fame surpassed that of her colleagues. A recent documentary has dealt with her story, among others. The title recalls a nickname by which she had become known: “Notorious RBG”.
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