GINSBURG EXPECTED TO LIE IN REPOSE AT COURT

Services for justice will include burial at Arlington cemetery

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is expected to lie in repose at the Supreme Court for two days, according to two people familiar with the preliminary plans, a public ceremony that is expected to draw large crowds of admirers who have come to view her as a feminist icon and liberal hero.

A ceremony inside the court is expected as early as Tuesday, according to someone familiar with the plan, followed by an outdoor viewing that would adhere to socialdistancing guidelines.

A small funeral service is also expected to be held for Ginsburg, who died Friday at 87, as well as burial at Arlington National Cemetery later in the week. Her husband, Martin Ginsburg, was buried at Arlington in 2010.

On Saturday, however, those plans were still not made final and were subject to change. A spokeswoman for the Supreme Court did not respond to emails about the arrangements.

It is not clear whether President Donald Trump, who suggested on Saturday that he would move swiftly to nominate her replacement, will pay his respects in person. Ginsburg had reportedly said before she died that her “most fervent wish” was that she not be replaced before a new president took office.

The White House, which had lowered its flags to halfstaff Friday night, did not reply to a request for comment.

A two-day public commemoration would be somewhat out of the ordinary — Justices Antonin Scalia, William Brennan, John Paul Stevens and even Chief Justice William Rehnquist all lay in repose for one day, said Barbara Perry, the director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. Justice Warren Burger lay in repose for only 12 hours.

But a crush of admirers was expected to turn out to mourn the passing of the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court, who had become in recent years an unlikely cultural icon. Ginsburg was not only a barrier breaker in her field but also, late in life, the subject of children’s picture books and a film.

Ginsburg was deeply identified with her Jewish faith and did not sit in court on High Holy Days, even though she was not particularly observant and rarely attended services, former clerks said.

Jewish custom would mean that Ginsburg would have to be buried Monday, but Judaism is also flexible on matters of burial, and a rabbi could preside over a private funeral days later.

For justices who die while still sitting on the bench, the long-standing tradition, dating to the late-19th century, is to drape the doors of the courtroom and the justice’s seat in black wool crepe.