UNITED STATES: This progressive icon, Ruth Bader Ginsburg will leave a huge void that could be filled by a conservative judge if Donald Trump and the Republicans win the battle that will begin
She fought to the end to hold out until the US presidential election. The dean of the Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, died Friday at 87 years of the continuations of pancreatic cancer, announced the highest court of the United States.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader #Ginsburg dead at age 87. #RBG
— Scotus (@Scotus) September 18, 2020
“She just died?” I did not know. She has led an exceptional life, ”reacted the Republican president, who was on stage giving a speech in the city of Bemidji, Minnesota, when the high court announced the death of the judge. Donald Trump, who said he was “sad” to learn this news, was only made aware of the magistrate’s death at the end of his campaign meeting, a few minutes before boarding the plane presidential.
A “colossus of law”
A little later, he paid tribute to him in a more solemn statement, without revealing whether he intended to name his successor quickly. “Today, the Nation mourns a colossus of the Law”, he wrote. Hailing a “brilliant spirit”, a “fighter”, he judged that his decisions, in particular on the rights of women, “had filled with enthusiasm all the Americans”.
His Democratic rival, Joe Biden, paid tribute to the most famous magistrate in the United States. “Ruth Bader Ginsburg fought for all of us, and she was very loved,” he said, calling not to rush to replace her. “Voters must choose the president, and the president must nominate a judge for the Senate,” he said in a press statement.
Battle in sight for his succession with the presidential election in sight
According to NPR radio, the judge “RBG”, as she had been nicknamed, had herself confided her last wishes to her granddaughter, Clara Spera. “My dearest wish is not to be replaced until a new president has taken the oath,” she told him a few days before her death.
Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell has already made it known that he would organize a vote, even if he refused to audition a judge chosen for the post by Barack Obama in 2016, on the pretext that it was an election year. Even if the Republicans have a majority of 53 seats out of 100 in the upper house, some elected moderate Republicans, who face complicated re-election campaigns, could nonetheless defect and each side will, without a doubt, deploy the big names. means to try to convince them.
“The political battle is going to be huge” because if Donald Trump wins his case, “the Supreme Court will become the most conservative in a century,” predicted law professor Carl Tobias. If the Republicans win it, they would give the conservative wing a clear majority (6-3) and could spell the end of many hot issues like Barack Obama’s health reform and even abortion rights.
