It is nearly impossible to imagine the Supreme Court without the irrepressible Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She was only 87 when she died. In this day and age that is quite young. It took several bouts of cancer and a couple broken ribs to break her will to live. Her body gave out before her mind, which is why she was so succinctly and clearly able to instruct her granddaughter to tell the world that her “most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”
I was moved by President Donald Trump’s comments upon hearing about her death just after his rally in Minnesota. They were kind and caring. I didn’t recognize him. He seemed genuine. I really believed him for the first time in months.
Then, less than 24 hours after Ginsburg’s death, Trump declared he would seek to replace her immediately. Mitch McConnell also announced that he would move forward with a confirmation hearing as expeditiously as possible. This was a political shot off the bow taking full advantage of the untimely death of a Supreme Court justice just hours after her death and before she is properly laid to rest. What is the proper mourning period for a justice of her caliber and notoriety?
Trump should take a cue from his favorite president, Abraham Lincoln. If Trump wants to emulate the man he has compared himself to for four years, he will wait until after the election to nominate R.B.G.’s successor. This is, after all, what Lincoln did in 1864.
Just 27 days before the 1864 election Chief Justice Roger Taney died. This was the chief justice who wrote the opinion in the Dred Scott case in 1857 in which he declared that slavery was protected under the Constitution and Black people were not citizens. It was a turning point for the Union that would lead to the Civil War and eventual abolition of slavery. That is a perfect example of how impactful one Supreme Court decision can be on the republic.
While Lincoln was pleased to be able to replace Taney, he understood the political implications of jumping the gun before the election on Nov. 8, 1864. Perhaps he knew he was going to win re-election at that point, but he also recognized the importance of respecting the will of the people.
Lincoln waited until Dec. 6 to nominate Salmon Chase, his secretary of the treasury and a staunch abolitionist, for the seat. The Senate confirmed his nomination on the same day. Those were the days. Salmon Chase, by the way, was born in Cornish, New Hampshire.
Another reason Trump would be wise to wait to announce a nominee is to avoid making this next election in just over 40 days about the Supreme Court. I believe this will backfire on him. When the laundry list of potential issues that could be affected by adding another member to the five conservative-leaning justices already on the court is revealed, the voters will remember that “it’s the Supreme Court, stupid” and realize how important this election is.
The Supreme Court rules on issues that impact everyday lives, like the right for a woman to choose her reproductive options; the right for women and men to not be discriminated against in the workplace; the right for gays and lesbians to marry; the right for LGBTQ people to be employed free of discrimination; the right for DACA recipients to remain in the country; the right for immigrants to have unimpeded access to the asylum process and not to be put into cages without adequate care, food, and water; the right to adequate health care; the right to free and fair elections; the right to not have the elections funded by corporations and rich people; the right to be free of gun violence; the right to be free of racist policies; the rights of Native Americans to live on their reservations free of unwanted state and federal intrusions; the rights to a fair criminal trial and freedom from cruel and unusual punishment; and on and on.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in an era when women were expected to stay at home, bucked the tradition to honor her mother, who died of cancer the day before her high school graduation. At Cornell University she met her future partner, Martin Ginsburg, and they were each other’s strongest advocates. She experienced her first workplace discrimination when she was working at the Social Security Administration and was demoted for getting pregnant. Ruth was the one of nine women admitted to Harvard Law School in a class of 500 men in 1956. She was chastised for taking up a seat that a man could have had. When Martin was stricken with cancer during law school, Ruth helped him with his classes at the same time she was taking classes. She eventually graduated from Columbia University at the top of her class and went on to experience more gender discrimination until she took up the cause of gender equality and argued her first Supreme Court case on behalf of a man who was denied Social Security when his wife died.
When she was nominated for the Supreme Court by Bill Clinton in 1993, she was confirmed by the Senate on a vote of 96-3. She would join Sandra Day O’Connor as the second woman and first Jewish woman of the Supreme Court. Her record speaks for itself.
All of this is to say that it will be a tall order to replace the notorious R.B.G. The proper person, the person who will understand the importance of this momentous choice, should be Joseph R. Biden. He is obviously the “new president” Ruth Bader Ginsburg hoped would be installed to choose her replacement. The future of the republic balances on the scales of justice in this election.
(Susannah Colt lives in Whitefield. She can be reached at susannahbcolt@gmail.com.)