Death of Justice Ginsburg

By Giuseppe LoPiccolo

September 30, 2020

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second woman to serve as a justice on the Supreme Court and an inviolable voice of women’s rights today, who entered a much younger generation’s consciousness as a cultural icon, died on Sept. 18 at her home in Washington DC.

Nominated to the high court in 1993 by Bill Clinton, Ginsburg spent the next 27 years delivering unsparing dissents on conservative majority decisions. She established herself as a staunch advocate and fierce warrior for women’s equality, the right to aborition, and same-sex marriage.

"Our nation has lost a justice of historic stature," Chief Justice John Roberts said. "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."

Her death comes at a unique time in American history. Racial tensions have boiled over the melting pot. A pandemic that is out of control. Increasing political polarization. The fight for the Supreme Court nomination has become a hot button issue, tossing yet another match into the 2020 political tinderbox.

Despite Ginsburg’s wish for her seat on the Supreme Court to remain vacant until after the election, President Donald Trump has already named a nominee: Judge Amy Coney Barrett. Not only did Ginsburg wish that the high court be kept out of electoral politics, over half of the American public, according to recent poll numbers, would like the next president to fill the seat.

Ginsburg’s death shocked America, rocking the country to its core. Less shocking but equally disheartening, however, is how quickly her death became politicized, her last wish debated over, and the future of the Supreme Court left in the balance of an election that some have characterized as a battle for the soul of the nation.