Ruth Bader Ginsburg is dead

The news came in the early hours of Friday afternoon (local time): Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died of pancreatic cancer in Washington at the age of 87, reported the Supreme Court, the highest US court. Since her nomination by then-President Bill Clinton in 1993, the left-wing attorney had spoken right there.

“Our nation has lost an attorney of historic stature,” Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said in a first reaction. Although Roberts, appointed by Conservative President George W. Bush, too often disagreed with Ginsburg ideologically, he called Ginsburg a “tireless and determined” defender of justice.

Ginsburg was the second woman to be appointed to the highest American court. She was last seen, especially during the Republican presidency of Donald Trump, as something of a figurehead for the left wing of the Supreme Court. Her last wish, according to her granddaughter: “My deepest wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is in office.” At least that’s how she reported on Friday Supreme Court Correspondent Nina Totenberg.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in a group photo with the other justices of the Supreme Court, taken on June 1, 2017.

Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

List of successors drawn up

The vacancy on the Supreme Court, which has a total of nine people, gives President Trump the opportunity to name a successor just under six weeks before Election Day. This person must then be confirmed by the Senate, in which Republicans are currently 53 out of 100 members.

Trump had submitted a list of 20 potential Supreme Court candidates ten days ago, supplementing an existing list of 25 names. Also on the new list are Senators Ted Cruz, 49, of Texas, Tom Cotton, 43, of Arkansas, and Josh Hawley, 40, of Missouri. All three belong to the Republicans and are considered the future hopes of the party.

Trump, who campaigned for the votes in the state of Minnesota on Friday night, was shocked in a first statement about Ginsburg’s death. ‘Did she just die? Wow. She lived an amazing life, what more can you say. Whether you have accepted it or not. She led an incredible life, ”Trump said in Bemidji. In a separate written statement released by the White House, the president recalled Ginsburg’s “brilliant mind” and his “powerful” statements in court cases in which he explained why he did not share the opinion of the majority of the Supreme Court. Trump called the late judge “a titan of jurisprudence.” The US media reported that the White House would announce the name of his successor “sooner rather than later.”

Memories of the election campaign four years ago

In the 2016 election campaign, the debate over a vacancy on the Supreme Court played a central role in mobilizing conservative voters. At that time, the debate revolved around the question of whether the retired president, Barack Obama, a Democrat, had the right to occupy the seat of Antonin Scalia, who died in February 2016. Obama appointed a centrist judge for the figure slight right Scalia; In the Republican-dominated Senate, however, then (and now) Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to deal with staff. Scalia’s seat remained empty; only after Trump’s inauguration and the nomination of Neil Gorsuch, a conservative, was he replaced in the spring of 2017.

With his blockade, McConnell managed to turn the presidential election into a referendum on the future composition of the Supreme Court. The American people deserve to be heard before the next Supreme Court justice is determined, said John Thune, now number two in the Senate Republican faction, also referring to the fact that a Democrat is currently in charge of government in the Senate. White House. .

Now that there is a party member in the White House, the Republican seems to disagree. In the summer, when asked about speculation about a possible vacancy on the Supreme Court, he said: The Republican majority in the Senate would deal with a personnel matter, if necessary in the post-election session on 3 May. November, which runs until the end of the year. This was later confirmed by Majority Leader McConnell in a statement. The Senate will vote on President Trump’s candidate, the Kentucky Republican announced in a written statement. Note that McConnell was silent on the timing of this vote.

On November 3, 35 of the 100 Senate seats, including McConnell’s, will be redefined in addition to the President. Observers predict Democrats will win seats; Some predictions even assume that today’s minority party will have a majority in the next session, which begins in January 2021.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, for his part, said in an initial statement near Wilmington, Delaware: “There is no question, I am saying this very clearly, the voters must first choose the president.” Then you could name a successor to Judge Ginsburg. Biden called Ginsburg a “beloved figure.” And he mentioned that he was president of the Senate Judicial Committee in 1993 when that body was discussing the appointment of the lawyer.

In the breaking news, in lieu of this story, a typo was made in the name of Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg. We apologize for any inconvenience.