In a rare display of candor by a Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg showed no sign of remorse about her earlier criticism of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. She has used media interviews to tamp down speculation about her retirement, especially after she had an operation for pancreatic cancer in 2009 and following the death of her husband the next year. That her mind is, quote, “shot” and he’s even calling for her resignation. In addition he has an ego. She was also wondering how it was possible that he has gotten away with not presenting his tax returns. But before last week’s comments about Trump, she had never dipped so boldly into partisan politics.
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Trump called Ginsburg’s comment a “disgrace to the court”.
Ginsburg, appointed to the Supreme Court in 1993 by former President Bill Clinton, doesn’t hesitate to trash Trump. Ginsburg’s critics say she crossed a line. It would be a stretch to suggest that anything she has said is as controversial as what Ginsburg’s close friend the late Justice Antonin Scalia said in reply to a 2012 question about why he would compare laws banning homosexuality to laws against murder: “If we cannot have moral feelings against homosexuality, can we have it against murder?” In a subsequent interview with The New York Times, she repeated herself.
Other Republicans have chimed in, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who called Ginsburg’s remarks “totally inappropriate”. But right in says she shouldn’t have said these things.
Donald Trump has clashed with judges before, accusing them of being biased against him.
Ginsburg had previously said she expected a Democrat to win in 2016, meaning she could delay retiring because her replacement would be chosen by a member of that party. “The whole reason we expect the court is because it stays out of politics, it is not majoritarian, it doesn’t do what it thinks the majority wants, it interprets the Constitution and and sometimes frustrates the majority”.
It’s my sense that as the election goes forward, more Americans will find themselves in Ginsburg’s camp, so to speak: Although they normally don’t concern themselves with political matters, this year they’ll feel compelled to speak out and take a stand.
Trump’s gloves are off and he came out tweeting that Ginsburg has “Embarrassed all by making very dumb political statements” about him.
Some Democrats said Ginsberg may have stepped too far as a judge on the country’s top court.
President Barack Obama’s spokesman on Wednesday declined to respond directly to Ginsburg’s comments, but praised her overall competence. “It’s not outside the realm of possibilities that we could end up with a Bush v. Gore type of dispute at the end of this election cycle”, Lee said during a Fox News interview, alluding to the 2000 presidential election. “I couldn’t believe it when I saw it”.
Trump on Tuesday night said Ginsburg should simply quit the bench.
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So Justice Ginsburg has made several statements of fact and opinion that fit very much into the mainstream of contemporary discourse.
