Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Dies

On September 18, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died at her home in Washington, D.C., of complications from pancreatic cancer. She was 87. 

Ginsburg served on the Supreme Court for 27 years after being nominated in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, a Democrat. She was the second woman chosen to serve on the Court and has long been an advocate of women’s rights. Over the years, Ginsburg emerged as a champion of progressive causes and became the leader of the Court’s liberal justices. She has spoken out against the gender pay gap, upheld the right of same-sex couples to marry, and voted in favor of protecting all Americans’ right to vote, among other issues. 

One of her most famous decisions came in 1996, when she wrote the Court’s 7-to-1 landmark ruling in United States v. Virginia. That ruling struck down the Virginia Military Institute’s policy of only admitting men. Ginsburg wrote that “generalizations about ‘the way women are,’ estimates of what is appropriate for most women, no longer justify denying opportunity to women whose talent and capacity place them outside the average description.”

“Our nation has lost a jurist of historic stature,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said in a statement following Ginsburg’s passing. “We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her—a tireless and resolute champion of justice.”

Ginsburg’s death has set off an enormous battle over who will replace her on the nation’s highest court. Many Republicans, including President Donald Trump, have vowed to immediately fill her seat. (The president has the power to nominate Supreme Court justices, but they must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.) But many other Americans, including Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee for president, say that the winner of the election should choose her successor.

This isn’t the first time the passing of a Supreme Court justice months before a presidential election has caused controversy. In February 2016, Justice Antonin Scalia died, almost nine months before the election. At the time, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, refused to consider President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to fill the empty seat. 

McConnell said then that the Senate shouldn’t confirm a nominee so close to a presidential election. His unwillingness to give Garland a Senate hearing meant that the seat remained empty until after the election when President Trump took office and named a new nominee.

“The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice,” McConnell said at the time. “Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.”

Yet just hours after Ginsburg’s death, McConnell vowed to move ahead quickly with approving whomever Trump nominates to replace her.

“President Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate,” McConnell said.

The stakes of such a vote are very high. Since taking office, Trump has named two conservative justices to the nine-member Supreme Court. If a third Trump nominee is approved by the Senate, it would expand the Court’s conservative majority, possibly for decades. 

Republicans currently control the Senate 53 to 47. A simple majority vote is all that’s needed to confirm a Supreme Court nominee. That means that Democrats won’t be able to stop the confirmation process unless four Republican senators decide they won’t support it. (Democrats need four Republican senators to oppose the nomination because, under the Constitution, Vice President Mike Pence, a Republican, would break a tie vote in the Senate.) 

Despite the massive political battle set off by her passing, in the days after Ginsburg’s death, political leaders from both major political parties took time to remember her as a trailblazer and a warrior for justice.

Hillary Clinton, who was the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, said on Twitter that Justice Ginsburg had “paved the way for so many women, including me.” 

“There will never be another like her,” she added. “Thank you RBG.”

Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator from South Carolina and close ally of President Trump, called Ginsburg “a trailblazer who possessed tremendous passion for her causes.”

“She served with honor and distinction as a member of the Supreme Court,” he said on Twitter. “While I had many differences with her on legal philosophy, I appreciate her service to our nation.”

Meanwhile, across the country, ordinary Americans organized candlelight vigils honoring Ginsburg. Samia Assed of Albuquerque, New Mexico, helped put together one such vigil. “I think that I can speak for most women that we are devastated by her passing,” she said. “We know we lost a champion.”

With reporting by The New York Times

1. Describe Justice Ginsburg’s impact on the Supreme Court—and the nation.

2. What effect is Ginsburg’s death likely to have on the makeup of the Court?

3. Who nominates Supreme Court justices?

4. Do you think a new justice should get a vote in the Senate before or after the next president takes office? Explain.