‘A fierce and fiery champion’
Connecticut lawmakers mourn death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Connecticut lawmakers eulogized Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a champion of women’s rights who shattered glass ceilings and transformed the nation, hours after her death Friday from complications from cancer.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a member of the judiciary committee, immediately called for Gisburg’s successor on the supreme court to be appointed after the election.
“I couldn’t improve on what Mitch McConnell said after Justice Scalia’s death:
The American people must have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president,” Blumenthal said in a prepared statement Friday night.
Ginsburg, 87, died Friday at her home in Washington, D.C. “due to complications of metastatic pancreas cancer,” the Supreme Court said in a statement.
Her death is likely to touch off a contentious fight between President Donald Trump and Democrats over filling the vacancy.
McConnell, the
Republican majority leader in the U.S. Senate, vowed to bring Trump’s nominee for the Ginsburg’s seat on the Supreme Court to a vote, setting up a battle ahead of the election.
Blumenthal, Connnecticut’s senior Democratic senator, called Ginsburg “a giant,” who made the world “a different place because of her.”
“She was soft-spoken and slight in stature, but packed a mighty punch,” Blumenthal said.
In a statement, McConnell justified the move by claiming the GOP’s majority in the Senate shows a mandate from voters to work with the president.
In 2016, Senate Republicans blocked the nomination of Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s pick to replace the seat left vacant by Justice Antonin Scalia, “because we pledged to check and balance the last days of a lame-duck president’s second term.
But in 2018, McConnell said, voters expanded Republicans’ majority in the Senate “because we pledged to work with him and support his agenda.”
“President Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate,” McConnell said.
Democratic nominee Joe Biden vigorously disagreed with McConnell, declaring that “voters should pick the president and the president should pick the justice to consider.”
The former vice president said it was his honor to preside over her confirmation hearing.
:In the decades since, she was consistently and reliably the voice that pierced to the heart of every issue, protected the constitutional rights of every American, and never failed in the fierce and unflinching defense of liberty and freedom,” Biden said.
President Trump said he learned of Ginsburg’s death when asked about it by reporters Friday evening.
“She led an amazing life, what else can you say? Whether you agree or not ... she led an amazing life," Trump said while waiting to board Air Force One.
Sen. Chris Murphy said fairness and justice were Ginsburg’s “north stars.”
The senator said the precedent set by Republicans in 2016 requires the body to wait for a new president to consider a replacement.
“Should Republicans go forward and reverse this precedent, the Senate will never, ever be the same. It will be changed forever,” Murphy said. “I pray tonight that at least a few of my Republican colleagues understand this.”
Beyond the fight over her successor, Connecticut lawmakers delivered an outpouring of grief and respect.
Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz said she had known Ginsburg since since she was a child, when the associate justice and Bysiewicz’mother were both law professors “at a time when very few women worked in the legal profession.”
“She inspired many women, including me, to enter the legal profession. She showed the entire world that with perseverance and tenacity there is no obstacle you can’t overcome,” Bysiewicz said.
Gov. Ned Lamont ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff Friday.
He described the associate justice as “a fierce and fiery champion for fairness and equality for all.”
The governor said even while fighting cancer, Ginsburg rarely missed days in court.
“Our nation is greater for her tenacity, dissension, and adversity against injustice. As Justice Ginsburg put it best, ‘There will be enough women on the court when there are nine,’ ” the governor said.
U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-5, said Ginsburg “lived a uniquelyAmerican life,” as a champion for women, teacher and “resolute justice.”
“My thoughts and prayers are with her entire family. On this first night of Rosh Hashana, we celebrate her life and mourn her death,” Hayes said.
U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4, spoke of how Ginsburg “was an incarnation of those things which truly make America great,” tempering justice with compassion, working for “the protection of liberty and the advancement of opportunity,” and perservering against the odds.
U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2, said Ginsburg had “an exquisite legal mind, and clarity of thought and word” that she used to change the nation for the better.
“Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life was about shattering barriers for women, and all Americans who experience discrimination,” Courtney said in a prepared statement. State Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, said in a tweet there would “never be another like her.”
“Such sad news hearing about the passing of the notorious RBG. A well lived and loved life,” Duff said.
U.S. Rep. John Larson, D-1, said Ginsburg paved the way for millions of women and Americans “who have faced discrimination and inequality.
In a joint statement, state representatives Dorinda Borer, a Democrat from West Haven, and Rosa Rebimbas, a Republican from Naugatuck, called Ginsburg a “champion and pioneer for women's issues.”
“Her courage and resolve paved the way for many others to follow. Her death is a great loss to the entire country,” they said.
Ginsburg was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton in 1993, where she served for more than 27 years.
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, said Ginsburg “changed what it meant to be a woman in America.”
“I reflect on what our world would have looked like had Ruth Bader Ginsburg backed down from a fight,” DeLauro said.
“I wonder what women’s health care would look like and which freedoms would be missing. I wonder what universities would be accepting women and whether I would find a door with my name on it in the halls of Congress,” she said.