When writing this, I want to be clear I mean no disrespect to the late Justice Ginsburg. Instead, this critique is more aimed at the media who are trying to exploit Ginsburg’s supposed dying wish for their own agenda of stopping Trump’s coming appointment of a new justice.
But with all that being said, Justice Ginsburg clearly understood how the Supreme Court worked. She knew the outgoing justice has no official say in their replacement. That job is left to the sitting president at the time the justice leaves or dies.
So it stands to reason that if Justice Ginsburg wanted to be replaced by a president she likes, she had plenty of time to resign from the Supreme Court during either of Obama’s two terms. At that time she was still into her eighties and already had health problems. So for her to retire at that age and in her condition would not be unusual at all. Not only that, it would have been the wise thing to do if the paramount goal was to ensure she would be replaced by a liberal nominee.
But instead she appeared to want to stay on the Supreme Court until she died. That was her choice and there is nothing wrong with that choice. However, since that was her choice, it also means that whoever happens to be president at the time of her death gets to choose her replacement.
So it goes without saying that if the media wants to blame someone for not fulfilling Ginsburg’s final wish, they don’t have to look further than Justice Ginsburg herself. Her choice to stay on the court until her last breath prevented her from being replaced by a liberal justice of her liking.
Of course, we have no idea what her reasons for staying on the court for so long were. Some have guessed that she believed Hillary Clinton would win in 2016, and so the first female president could then be the one who picks her replacement. So she decided to ride out Obama’s two terms and then wait for Hillary’s first year before she retired.
Of course, things didn’t work out that way.
It’s also possible she simply wanted to stay on the court until she died no matter what the consequences were. And like I wrote earlier, she was totally entitled to make that choice. However, upon making that choice, she gave up any input or control over her replacement and instead left it to the sitting president.
Which of course brings us to this week. The media is trying to tug at America’s heartstrings after a recent death to push their political agenda. They want to paint Trump and Senate Republicans as ignoring a dying woman’s last wish when they obviously know that’s not at all how the Supreme Court works.
But direct pleas to the emotions are something Progressives have started to lean on more and more. So there is no reason this situation should be any different. However, being so close to the election and given their previous outlandish behavior when it comes to Supreme Court nominees, I doubt this is as low as we will see them go.
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