The feminist icon and LGBTQ ally, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the US Supreme Court, has died at her home in Washington, DC at the age of 87.
The death of Ginsburg marks for troubling times in the high court as this would give President Donald Trump a chance to fill the vacancy with a conservative justice.
The passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
The Supreme Court reported Ginsburg’s death in a statement on Friday and cited complications from metastatic cancer of the pancreas as the cause of her death.
Ginsburg, who was with her family when she died, had served in the Supreme Court for 27 years.
“Our nation has lost a justice of historic stature,” Chief Justice John Roberts said.
“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,” Roberts said.
Ginsburg suffered from five bouts of cancer between 1999 to 2020. Because of this, she endured chemotherapy and radiation despite being on the bench.
Trouble in the Supreme Court as polls near
Ginsburg’s passing will have an effect not only for the high court but also for the country. Ginsburg was the leader of the liberal wing in the Supreme Court.
Even Ginsburg knew it. Before her death, she told her granddaughter Clara Spera: “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”
This is because Republicans can now tighten their grip on the high court with Trump appointing another conservative justice to give them a 6-3 majority.
The irony here is that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will allow the appointment after refusing for nearly a year to consider then-President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee.
Before, McConnell had justified his decision by saying the 2016 presidential election would allow voters to weigh in. This time, despite the upcoming November polls, McConnell said, “Oh, we’d fill it.”
The legacy of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Ginsburg was a historical figure by changing the world for American women, at least by law, as she led the fight in courts for gender equality.
She was nominated to the Supreme Court in 1993 by then-President Bill Clinton, the second woman appointed to the position.
Throughout her tenure, she provided key votes in landmark rulings that secured equal rights for women, expanded gay rights, and safeguarded abortion rights.
In response to her death, Human Rights Campaign (HRC) declared that “Justice Ginsburg has long been on the right side of history in the fight for LGBTQ equality.”
HRC president Alphonso David said: “Her decades of work helped create many of the foundational arguments for gender equality in the United States, and her decisions from the bench demonstrated her commitment to full LGBTQ equality.”