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Before the Washington Supreme Court, the people said goodbye to Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The fight for the judge’s successor has already begun.
Over the weekend, people in Washington mourned the death of Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg and asked that her last wish be respected: that her successor be determined only after the presidential election.
Photo: Yuri Gripas (Reuters)
Mary Fitzgerald struggles to calm down. She blinked tears away, looked at the flowers on the floor, the candles, and the mourning cards. It is Saturday morning in Washington and hundreds of people have turned up to the Supreme Court to say goodbye to Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Mary Fitzgerald is one of them, a lobbyist in her sixties in a mask and sun hat. “She was so small and yet so strong,” she says of the 87-year-old judge. “I know she wanted to go to the elections, I just know. And now … Mary Fitzgerald apologizes, tears, again.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg didn’t make it. She died of cancer Friday night, a few weeks before the election. “That fits with this year,” says Mary Fitzgerald, “anything that can go wrong will go wrong in 2020.” With Ginsburg, the country loses a brilliant lawyer, a defender of women’s rights, but also much more (read here the obituary of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Supreme Court educator). He has always been impressed by his friendship with arch-conservative judge Antonin Scalia, says Fitzgerald. “That says a lot about them and how things were in our country. When people could still talk to each other. “And today?” It’s over. “
More and more people are laying flowers at the Washington Supreme Court. Candles and papers in memory of Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who passed away on Friday.
Photo: Michael Reynolds (Keystone)
The American flag in front of the Supreme Court hangs at half mast, not only there, but also in the other government buildings in the capital. Even Donald Trump found some suitable words when he learned of Ginsburg’s death: She was an incredible woman who had led an incredible life.
But already on Saturday the president spoke almost exclusively of the enormous opportunity that now opens up to him, in the middle of an electoral campaign in which otherwise he had not done much good: he can appoint another conservative judge instead of the liberal one from left Ginsburg – and move the Supreme Court to the right (Trump could also lose his office: Read here why Trump faces RBG’s successor with a dilemma).
Trump promises: it will be a woman
Next week he will introduce a successor to Ginsburg, Trump said, and it will be a woman. According to media reports, favorites include conservative judges Amy Coney Barrett and Barbara Lagoa, whom Trump publicly praised. Their names are also on a list of 20 possible candidates that the president put forward ten days ago. The issue was already important to Trump in 2016 in order to get voters to the polls who don’t like him as a person, but who want as many conservative judges as possible, especially in constitutional court.
In the conservative media, for example on Fox News, the euphoria of the commentators has been palpable ever since. Before the Supreme Court, on the other hand, on Saturday completely different feelings prevail: pain and fear. “Next time it will be very, very ugly,” says Mary Fitzgerald.
A man passes by with a sign. “Honor here,” he says, off to the side. “Stop him,” he says in the other. Her, that’s Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her wish that a successor is not decided until after the election. He, that’s Donald Trump, who wants to ignore this desire, regardless of the protests that may arise.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a photo from 2017.
Photo: Jonathan Ernst (Reuters)
In this he is supported by the man whom many Ginsburg supporters and Democrats detest almost as much as the president: Mitch McConnell. The Republican Majority Leader in the Senate has announced that he will let the House of Parliament vote on Trump’s proposal in any case.
He left open whether he would do this before Election Day on November 3 or only after, in the transition period, at the end of which Trump will no longer be in office, and the Senate may be in the hands of Democrats.
Democrats are invoking a precedent
McConnell will certainly act differently than he did in 2016. At the time, he refused to vote on a Supreme Court vacancy that Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama wanted to fill with Justice Merrick Garland. McConnell justified this breaking of the taboo with the fact that voters should have a voice in replacing the seat. Taking such a far-reaching decision shortly before the next presidential election is not allowed.
That was nine months before the election date. Now there are 44 days until the elections.
Democrats are excited about this. Chuck Schumer, leader of the party’s parliamentary group in the Senate, called for a decision on Ginsburg’s successor until after the election. Schumer did it in exactly the same words that McConnell had used four years ago to justify his own actions. Democrats argue that the Republican set a precedent that he cannot break again now.
“She was a warrior for justice”
This is how some of McConnell’s party colleagues now see it. “The decision on a replacement in the Supreme Court must be made by the president, who will be elected on November 3,” Senator Susan Collins said Saturday. To prevent McConnell from voting soon, Democrats would need at least three other Republican senators in addition to Collins. Whether they will get all these votes is questionable.
To be seen in many places this weekend: protective mask with many little heads from Ginsburg.
Photo: Andrew Kelly (Reuters)
So it’s no wonder that at least the people who appeared before the Supreme Court on Saturday show some anger. For young women like her, Ruth Bader Ginsburg meant a lot, says Madeline Morgan. The tax advisor wears a mask with many small Ginsburg heads printed on it. “He not only fought for women’s rights, but for equal treatment for all. She was a warrior for justice. “Expect the Senate to wait until after the election to vote, Morgan says.” But McConnell has shown many times that he puts usefulness above decency. “
