Trump says he is obligated to nominate a replacement for RBG without delay 

President Donald Trump has signaled that he will nominate a replacement for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg ‘without delay’, setting up an extraordinary confirmation battle in the Senate just weeks before the elections. 

‘We were put in this position of power and importance to make decisions for the people who so proudly elected us, the most important of which has long been considered to be the selection of United States Supreme Court Justices. We have this obligation, without delay!’ Trump tweeted on Saturday morning from the White House. 

The tweet was addressed to the Republican Party’s main account, in an apparent rallying cry to the party to move forward to confirm his nominee before the November 3 election. 

Trump also retweeted a comment noting that the filibuster for judicial nominees had been abolished by former Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid, eliminating the 60-vote supermajority once needed to confirm justices.

‘Thank you Harry!’ commented Trump. 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has vowed that Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the Senate floor, but in a letter to his caucus on Friday he urged Republicans: ‘keep your powder dry.’

‘Over the coming days, we are all going to come under tremendous pressure from the press to announce how we will handle the coming nomination,’ he wrote in the letter addressed, ‘Dear Colleagues.’

‘For those of you who are unsure how to answer, or for those inclined to oppose giving a nominee a vote, I urge you all to keep your powder dry,’ McConnell wrote. ‘This is not the time to prematurely lock yourselves into a position you may later regret.’

Republicans could secure a confirmation with up to three defections in the Senate. Senator Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, has already signaled she could defect, citing the close timing of the election.

Senator Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican, is considered the party’s least reliable vote, but has yet to issue any public statements on his views on confirming Trump’s nominee.  

Ginsburg had hoped that the selection of the next Justice was held after November’s election, stating her ‘most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.’ 

Trump’s attempts to hurry through his own pick, the third Supreme Court Justice he would have nominated, has already been met with backlash from his rival, Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

Biden demanded that Trump waits until after the election so the winner can put forward the nomination.

It comes as insiders suggest that some Republican Senators led by Romney will lead a rebellion to scupper Trump’s chances of a rushed process. 

Trump is expected to whittle down his nomination list from the 20 names he announced last week to one nominee that will then go through the Senate vetting process.  

Among the current front runners is U.S. Circuit Judge Amy Coney Barrett, 48, a devout Catholic who holds a strong pro-life stance. 

Liberals fear her appointment would result in the removal of the Roe v Wade judgement that legalizes abortion nationwide. 

Once a nominee is named and vetted by the Senate, lengthy confirmation hearings in the Senate Judiciary normally follow, culminating with a recommendation on whether the nominee should be confirmed and placed onto the court. 

The decision on the nomination lies solely with the Senate although the Vice President breaks a tie in the event of a 50/50 split. 

Generally the process from nomination to appointment takes about 70 days although some, such as Brett Kavanaugh, take longer and Ginsburg’s appointment only took 50 days. 

Even this, however, was longer than the 46 days currently remaining before the election meaning the vetting and review for a Trump nominee would have to take place at breakneck speed. 

The long-term direction of the nation’s highest court is at stake as the closely divided court had five justices with conservative bents and four liberals, before Ginsburg’s death. 

If Trump were to choose a conservative judge to replace the liberal Ginsburg, as expected, the court’s conservatives would have more heft with a 6-3 majority.  

The president repeatedly touts his success in already nominating two conservative Supreme Court Justices as one of the biggest achievements of his term but wishes to extend his influence further. 

If he loses in November without having secured a third Justice, Trump could still attempt to push a nomination through the Republican-controlled Senate before Biden’s inauguration in January, although this would likely be met with fury by Democrats.

If there was still a vacancy by January, a victorious Biden could appoint a liberal nominee, leaving the conservative-liberal balance at 5-4.

With other current Justices on the court in their 70s and 80s, without the Trump nominee, a Biden presidency could have further vacancies that could swing the balance of the court completely.   

The Senate is currently controlled by 53 Republicans, while Democrats hold 45 seats. Two independents align with Democrats on most votes.

Among the 53 Republicans are some moderates, including Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, who may side with Democrats or oppose a vote before the election. 

Earlier on Friday shortly before Ginsburg’s death was announced, Senator Murkowski said that if she was presented with a vacancy on the court, she would not vote to confirm a nominee before the election. 

‘I would not vote to confirm a Supreme Court nominee. We are 50 some days away from an election,’ she said, according to Alaska Public. 

She said she made the decision based on the same reasoning given by Republican senators to halt the confirmation of former President Barack Obama’s final nominee to the Supreme Court ahead of the 2016 election.  

This comment could place Murkowski among a group of rebel GOP senators, potentially led by Mitt Romney, that will abstain from voting or vote with Democrats if a nominee is presented. 

Romney has previously shown his ability to resist Trump and will likely be targeted by Democrats who will remind him of the 18-month delay caused by Republicans in 2016 when they refused to appoint Obama’s nomination ahead of that election. 

Another Utah senator could also play a prominent role over the next few days although for a different reason. 

Sen. Mike Lee is among Trump’s shortlist for the Supreme Court role, as is his brother, Thomas Lee, who is on the Utah Supreme Court.

Maine’s Collins is another GOP senator who may oppose a Trump nominee due to pressure from voters in her own state. 

She is in a tough race for re-election this year in her home state, which has been trending Democratic.

Ginsburg’s death could have an impact on Collins’ re-election effort and her posture on whether filling the high-court seat should await the outcome of the 2020 presidential race. 

Late on Friday, Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell issued a letter to GOP senators asking them not to reveal whether they will choose to vote before the election.

‘For those inclined to oppose giving a nominee a vote, I urge you all to keep your powder dry. This is not the time to prematurely lock yourselves into a position you may regret later,’ he wrote in a letter, seen by the Washington Post. 

McConnell has said that he still hopes to complete the nomination process before November. 

It can take several weeks to months between the president’s nomination of a Supreme Court justice and a Senate confirmation vote as the nominee must go through a thorough vetting by the Senate and often make visits with individual senators to build support for the nomination.  

Yet there are no set rules for how long the process should take once President Donald Trump announces his pick, and some nominations have moved more quickly. It will come down to politics and votes. 

The last Supreme Court opening was filled in October 2018 by Justice Kavanaugh. 

His confirmation faced strong opposition from Senate Democrats and included bitter hearings amid allegations, which he denied, of sexual misconduct decades earlier.

Having being nominated by Trump on July 6, the Senate voted in favor of Kavanaugh joining the court on October 6. 

Trump has already remade the federal bench for a generation and the new vacancy in the highest court gives the president the ability to shape its future for decades to come if he is re-elected in November. 

The likely bitter fight ahead was reflected in early statements by Republican and Democratic senators taking partisan sides on whether a Ginsburg replacement should await the election results.

Even though Republicans caused a 14-month Supreme Court vacancy by their refusal to consider an Obama replacement for Scalia in 2016, Republican Senator Rick Scott said on Friday: ‘It would be irresponsible to allow an extended vacancy on the Supreme Court’ this time, as he voiced support of Trump filling Ginsburg’s seat.

Democrats reminded Republicans of that 2016 delay. And Democratic Senator Chris Coons said, ‘Given all the challenges facing our country, this is a moment when we should come together rather than having a rushed confirmation process further divide us. 

Since becoming Senate majority leader in 2015, McConnell has focused much of his attention and wielded his power to fill the federal courts with conservative judges nominated by Trump. More than 200 have been installed.

One senior Senate Republican aide said of McConnell, ‘No way he lets a (Supreme Court) seat slip away.’ The aide added that a major question will be whether McConnell, in tandem with Trump, attempts to fill the vacancy before the Nov. 3 election or sometime before Jan. 20, when the next president will be sworn-in.

Trump’s two nominees to the court, Justice Neil Gorsuch, 53, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, 55, are young appointments meaning that their potential tenure could last for decades.

If possible, the president is expected to pick a third young nominee, increasing the length of his influence on the court.

The current front runner is U.S. Circuit Judge Amy Coney Barrett, 48, a devout Catholic and pro-lifer, who will cause major concerns for liberals that her anti-abortion stance will lead to the removal of the Roe v Wade ruling that legalized abortion across the nation. 

Other members of the current court are also in their 70s and 80s, potentially meaning the next president could have the chance to fill yet another vacancy. 

Regardless of party, presidents tend to look for the same characteristics in potential Supreme Court picks.

Stellar legal credentials are a must. And they tend to be old enough to have a distinguished legal career but young enough to serve for decades. That generally means nominees are in their late 40s or 50s.

More recently, nominees have also previously clerked for a Supreme Court justice, an early mark of legal smarts. Five of the current justices previously clerked at the Supreme Court.

Incredible life of the woman who became the Notorious RBG: How Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Brooklyn-born daughter of Russian Jewish migrants became a trailblazer, the second woman to serve as Supreme Court Justice and a feminist pop culture icon

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second woman to serve as a Supreme Court Justice, a legal pioneer who broke barriers for women in law, a feminist icon to many, and the recent pop culture phenomenon known as the ‘Notorious RBG’ has died. 

She passed away from complications of pancreatic cancer at the age of 87.

She served for 27 years on the highest court of the land and was the second woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court.

The collar-wearing octogenarian captured the public’s imagination – especially for those on the left who offered everything from kale to protective bubbles to later on wearing masks on social media to safeguard her continued tenure on the highest court in the land. The list of things that Ginsburg inspired is long: two films, memes that range from the ribald to inspirational, mountains of memorabilia from t-shirts to totes, cocktails, a book on her workout, and even tattoos.

But beyond the persona of the ‘Notorious RBG’ and her groundbreaking law career, Ginsburg was a mother of two, had two grandchildren, and was married to her husband Martin D. Ginsburg for 56 years until his death in 2010. She blazed a path for women in the legal profession, and at five-foot-one had become a towering figure in Washington, D.C. 

Ginsburg battled several bouts of cancer after being first diagnosed in 2009. 

Born on March 15, 1933 in Brooklyn, Joan Ruth Bader was the second daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants, Celia and Nathan Bader. Her older sister, who would later die at aged six from meningitis, nicknamed her ‘Kiki’ for apparently being ‘a kicky baby.’ Her mother, Celia, a garment factory worker, would encourage Ruth – she went by her middle name to distinguish herself from the other Joans in her Brooklyn class – to attain a higher level of education than she did. 

‘My mother told me two things constantly. One was to be a lady, and the other was to be independent. The study of law was unusual for women of my generation. For most girls growing up in the ’40s, the most important degree was not your BA, but your MRS,’ she recalled to the ACLU, referring to the idea that women went to college to land a man, get married and become a missus – not to get a bachelor’s degree. 

Her mother died from cancer right before Ginsburg graduated from high school.

In 1950, Ginsburg started attending Cornell University where she would meet her husband, Martin D. Ginsburg, during a literature class taught by famous novelist Vladimir Nabokov, according to the biography called ‘Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Life’ by Jane Sherron De Hart.

Martin was able to answer Nabokov’s quiz question about Charles Dickens, and Ginsburg was smitten, later saying that Martin was the ‘the only young man I dated who cared that I had a brain.’

‘Meeting Marty was by far the most fortunate thing that ever happened to me,’ Ginsburg said in one of the films about her, the documentary ‘RBG.’ ‘Marty was a man blessed with a wonderful sense of humor. I tend to be rather sober.’

At aged 21, Ginsburg, who majored in government, graduated at the top of her class in 1954 at Cornell and married Martin soon after. Their first child, Jane C. Ginsburg, was born on July 21, 1955. Due to Martin’s military service, they moved to Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

‘After dinner, the newlyweds often spent their evenings reading aloud to each other from Pepys, Tolstoy, Dickens and even Spinoza, although the philosopher was tougher fare,’ De Hart wrote, according to a Washington Post article about the biography.

De Hart emphasized Marty’s ‘proto-feminism’ in the 1950s, and the couple decided they both would pursue careers. After two years in Oklahoma, Ginsburg and Martin went to Harvard Law School in 1956. Women had only started being admitted to the law school six years earlier, and Ginsburg was one of nine women in a class of about 500.

Martin graduated from Harvard in 1958 and practiced tax law in New York. Ginsburg switched schools, attending Columbia Law School to be close to her husband. In 1959, she graduated with her law degree, a Juris Doctor, from Columbia, and was tied for first in her class.

Despite the credentials, Ginsburg, now 26, was still a woman and she had a hard time finding a place at a law firm after graduation.

‘You think about what would have happened… Suppose I had gotten a job as a permanent associate. Probably I would have climbed up the ladder and today I would be a retired partner. So often in life, things that you regard as an impediment turn out to be great good fortune,’ Ginsburg said during the documentary series, ‘Makers: Women Who Make America.’

Ginsburg was also rejected for a Supreme Court clerkship due to being a woman. But there were successes as well: she was the first female member of the Harvard Law Review and was elected to the Columbia Law Review as well. Eventually, Ginsburg landed a clerkship for a judge of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

After two years with the Southern District, Ginsburg was a research associate and associate director for the Project of International Procedure at Columbia Law School. She also learned Swedish, and conducted research in Sweden for a book that she co-authored on civil procedure in the country. 

In 1963, she started teaching at Rutgers University School of Law when there were few female law professors. Also during this time, she and Martin had their second child, James S. Ginsburg, on September 8, 1965. She taught at Rutgers until 1972 and then moved to Columbia Law School, where, at aged 39, she was the first woman put on a tenure track.

She taught at Columbia for eight years, co-authored a law school book, and also worked as general counsel for the ACLU, where she argued several hundred gender discrimination cases, six of which were before the Supreme Court. 

By 1980, Ginsburg, then 47, was selected to be a judge of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which is often a springboard to the Supreme Court. After thirteen years as a judge on that court, President Bill Clinton nominated the 60-year-old Ginsburg for the Supreme Court after Justice Byron White said he was retiring. 

‘The announcement of this vacancy,’ Clinton said on June 14, 1993, according to a YouTube video courtesy of the William J. Clinton Presidential Library, ‘brought forth a unique outpouring of support for distinguished Americans on Judge Ginsburg’s behalf. What caused that outpouring is the essential quality of the judge herself: her deep respect for others and her willingness to subvert self-interest to the interest of our people and their institutions.’

At the announcement, Ginsburg said: ‘Most closely, I have been aided by my life’s partner, Martin D. Ginsburg, who has been, since our teenage years, my best friend and biggest booster.’

On August 4, 1993, the US Senate confirmed her by a vote of 96 to 3, the New York Times reported. She was sworn in as a justice on August 10, 1993.

Later in October 1993, a photo shows Ginsburg and her family at the court. Her daughter, Jane C. Ginsburg, followed in her footsteps, graduating from Harvard Law School, and currently teaches at Columbia Law School. She married George T. Spera Jr and they have two children together: Paul Spera, who is an actor, and Clara Spera, who is also a lawyer and clerked for the US District of the Southern District of New York 

Ginsburg told the New Republic that her grandchildren loved the fact that she had become an Internet sensation. 

‘At my advanced age – I’m now an octogenarian – I’m constantly amazed by the number of people who want to take my picture,’ she said in 2014.

Not only did people want their photo taken, an interest in her workout also took hold. In her eighties, Ginsburg would do exercises such as a wall squat with a yoga ball. So much so that her trainer of many years, Bryant Johnson, wrote the book ‘The RBG Workout.’

When Ginsburg joined the court in 1993, Sandra Day O’Connor had already been on it since 1981. Sandra Day O’Connor became the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court, nominated by President Ronald Reagan. Ginsburg called O’Connor a mentor, and Ginsburg told The Washington Post that they ‘thought it would be appropriate if we included as part of our robe something typical of a woman.

‘So I have many, many collars.’

Fans of Ginsburg have parsed her collars, which were sometimes lace, gold embellished and beaded. One was dubbed ‘the dissenter.’

A feminist icon to many, Ginsburg told ‘Makers,’ the documentary series, that feminism is ‘that notion that we should each be free to develop our own talents, whatever they may be, and not be held back by artificial barriers – manmade barriers, certainly not heaven sent.’  

After O’Connor retired in early 2006, Ginsburg was the only woman on the court until Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed on August 8, 2009. Ginsburg was also close to conservative justice Antonin Scalia until his death in February 2016.

‘We care about this institution more than our individual egos and we are all devoted to keeping the Supreme Court in the place that it is, as a co-equal third branch of government and I think a model for the world in the collegiality and independence of judges,’ Ginsburg said on C-SPAN.

In 2015, Ginsburg told MSNBC how she would liked to be remembered.  

‘Someone who used whatever talent she had to do her work to the very best of her ability. And to help repair tears in her society, to make things a little better through the use of whatever ability she has. To do something, as my colleague David Souter would say, outside myself. ‘Cause I’ve gotten much more satisfaction for the things that I’ve done for which I was not paid.’ 

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dies with her family around her at home after succumbing to pancreatic cancer at 87 after saying: ‘My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed’

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died aged 87 after a battle with metastatic pancreas cancer, the Supreme Court has announced. 

The Democrat judge, only the second woman to serve as a Supreme Court Justice, passed away Friday evening surrounded by her family at her home in Washington D.C. following complications with her illness. 

Ginsburg, who served for 27 years on the highest court of the land, had battled several bouts of cancer after first being diagnosed back in 2009.  

President Donald Trump led the tributes, describing Ginsburg as a ‘titan of the law’ whose legal expertise and historic decisions inspired generations of Americans.

‘Today, our nation mourns the loss of a titan of the law’ who was ‘renowned for her brilliant mind and her powerful dissents at the Supreme Court,’ Trump said in a statement, after a rally in Minnesota.

‘Her opinions, including well-known decisions regarding the legal equality of women and the disabled, have inspired all Americans, and generations of great legal minds,’ he added.

‘May her memory be a great and magnificent blessing to the world.’

Chief Justice John Roberts paid tribute to his colleague Friday describing her as a ‘champion of justice’.

‘Our nation has lost a justice of historic stature,’ Roberts said in a statement.

‘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 tired and resolute champion of justice.’

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden called Ginsburg ‘not only a giant in the legal profession but a beloved figure’ who ‘stood for all of us’ in an interview on CNN. 

He tweeted: ‘Ruth Bader Ginsburg stood for all of us. She was an American hero, a giant of legal doctrine, and a relentless voice in the pursuit of that highest American ideal: Equal Justice Under Law. May her memory be a blessing to all people who cherish our Constitution and its promise.’ 

And he insisted a new justice should not be chosen until after the election in November and said this was the process followed in 2016. 

‘There is no doubt – let me be clear – that the voters should pick the president and the president should pick the justice for the Senate to consider,’ he said to CNN

‘This was the position that the Republican Senate took in 2016 when there were almost 10 months to go.’   

Tributes poured in from both sides of the political line for Ginsburg, a legal pioneer dubbed the Notorious RBG. 

 

Former presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, George Bush and Jimmy Carter, as well as politicians including Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo all paid their respects to the New York great.

The White House lowered its flags to half staff and social media users pointed out that in Jewish tradition, a person who dies on Rosh Hashanah – which started tonight – is regarded as a person of great righteousness. 

Hillary Clinton tweeted that Ginsburg, a staunch advocate for women’s rights, paved the way for other women to succeed. 

‘Justice Ginsburg paved the way for so many women, including me. There will never be another like her. Thank you RBG,’ Clinton wrote. 

Bill Clinton, who appointed Ginsburg to the Supreme Court during his White house tenure, also tweeted calling her ‘one of the most extraordinary Justices’.

‘We have lost one of the most extraordinary Justices ever to serve on the Supreme Court,’ he wrote.

‘Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life and landmark opinions moved us closer to a more perfect union. And her powerful dissents reminded us that we walk away from our Constitution’s promise at our peril.’ 

Barack Obama penned a Medium blog commemorating the strides Ginsburg made for gender equality and saying he ‘admired her greatly’. 

‘Sixty years ago, Ruth Bader Ginsburg applied to be a Supreme Court clerk. She’d studied at two of our finest law schools and had ringing recommendations,’ he wrote.

‘But because she was a woman, she was rejected. Ten years later, she sent her first brief to the Supreme Court — which led it to strike down a state law based on gender discrimination for the first time. 

‘And then, for nearly three decades, as the second woman ever to sit on the highest court in the land, she was a warrior for gender equality — someone who believed that equal justice under law only had meaning if it applied to every single American.’