Ginsburg’s death has put enormous new pressure on the two candidates in a presidential race already roiled by a global pandemic and a summer of civil rights protests, raising the prospect of a contentious Senate confirmation battle waged during the campaign. The fight over a replacement is certain to put a host of hot-button issues—from abortion and gay rights to religious liberty and environmental regulation—in the foreground of national politics.
The 2020 election will decide not only who sits in the Oval Office, but also which party controls the Senate. Some of the senators who will face pressure to wait until after the election to confirm a nominee face tough re-election battles themselves.
In terms of the presidential race, it wasn’t clear which side would benefit most from this new campaign issue. Many Republican voters view the appointment of a conservative justice as a critical issue and a strong reason to vote. But Ginsburg’s death and the battle over her replacement may also fire up liberal voters. In the hours after her death, Democrats raised more than $71 million.
Ginsburg was appointed to the Court in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, a Democrat. Over the years, she emerged as a champion of progressive causes.
In 1996, she wrote the Court’s 7-to-1 landmark decision in United States v. Virginia that struck down Virginia Military Institute’s policy of only admitting men. (Justice Clarence Thomas recused himself because his son was a student there at the time.) Ginsburg wrote that “generalizations about ‘the way women are,’ estimates of what is appropriate for most women, no longer justify denying opportunity to women whose talent and capacity place them outside the average description.”
In the past decade, as the Court grew more conservative and Ginsburg was more often in the minority, she became famous for writing passionate dissents.
Perhaps most well-known was her dissent in Shelby County v. Holder, which in 2013 struck down a key component of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. She wrote that the majority had been shortsighted in saying the law was no longer needed. “It is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm,” she wrote, “because you are not getting wet.”
In the days after Ginsburg’s death, political leaders on both sides of the aisle remembered her as a trailblazer and a warrior for justice.
“Our nation has lost a jurist of historic stature,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said in a statement released by the Court. “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.”
Hillary Clinton, who was the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, said on Twitter that Justice Ginsburg had “paved the way for so many women, including me.”
“There will never be another like her,” she added. “Thank you RBG.”
Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator from South Carolina and close ally of President Trump, called Ginsburg “a trailblazer who possessed tremendous passion for her causes.”
“She served with honor and distinction as a member of the Supreme Court,” he said on Twitter. “While I had many differences with her on legal philosophy, I appreciate her service to our nation.”
Outside the Supreme Court building, hundreds of mourners placed flowers and candles to pay tribute to Ginsburg, who had in recent years become a pop-culture icon known to her admirers as “the Notorious R.B.G.,” a nickname derived from the late rapper the Notorious B.I.G., who, like Ginsburg, was born in Brooklyn, New York.
The emotion surrounding Ginsburg’s death was captured during a candlelight vigil outside the Supreme Court on Saturday. With the American flag flying at half-staff in the background, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, told the crowd of mourners that they should channel their emotions and fight.
“We are here to grieve, but not to despair,” Warren said. “There is too much at stake.”