Ginsburg praised by both sides of the political aisle
Justice remembered as trailblazer who served with honor
Political leaders from both sides of the aisle offered tributes to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Friday, remembering her as a trailblazer and a warrior for justice.
But their comments also reflected what is expected to be a bruising fight over her replacement.
Hillary Clinton, who was the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee and whose husband, former President Bill Clinton, nominated the justice to the court, said on Twitter that Ginsburg had “paved the way for so many women, including me.”
“There will never be another like her,” she added. “Thank you RBG.”
The sudden news of Ginsburg’s death jolted the political world in Washington and reverberated far beyond, introducing the potential for a brutal and partisan nomination fight over the final stretch of the 2020 presidential campaign and a new layer of urgency surrounding whom voters will ultimately elect.
President Donald Trump has long brandished his efforts to appoint Republican judges and remake the courts as a reelection argument to weary right-leaning voters, and he released a list of potential Supreme Court nominees this month.
Speaking briefly to reporters before boarding Air Force One on Friday night, Trump did not mention whether he would seek to fill Ginsburg’s seat.
“She just died?” Trump said. “I didn’t know that. She was an amazing woman — whether you agree or not — she was an amazing woman who led an amazing life.”
Before heading to a campaign event Saturday in North Carolina, Trump said his nominee to the high court will “most likely” be a woman and that he expects to announce his pick this week.
One night earlier, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said, “President Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate.”
Sen. Mazie Hirono, DHawaii, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said she had a message for the president and for McConnell: “The best and only way to honor the life’s work of Justice Ginsburg, a giant of a jurist, is to honor her fervent final wish that she not be replaced until a new president is installed.”
Republicans argued four years ago that a vacant Supreme Court seat should not be filled in an election year. Led by McConnell, they denied Judge Merrick Garland — President Barack Obama’s choice to fill a Supreme Court vacancy after the death of Antonin Scalia — a hearing in 2016 and successfully kept him off the court.
Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., said on Twitter that the seat should be filled before the election.
“Our country’s future is at stake & @realDonaldTrump has every right to pick a new justice before the election,” she wrote. “I look forward to supporting a strict constructionist who will protect the right to life & safeguard our conservative values.”
While the political jockeying geared up over what would happen next in filling the vacancy, other leaders offered accolades for the justice’s temperament and achievements.
Bill Clinton called her “one of the most extraordinary justices ever to serve on the Supreme Court.”
“Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life and landmark opinions moved us closer to a more perfect union,” he wrote on Twitter. “And her powerful dissents reminded us that we walk away from our Constitution’s promise at our peril.”
Former President Jimmy Carter called Ginsburg a
“powerful legal mind and a staunch advocate for gender equality” and said she was a “beacon of justice during her long and remarkable career.”
In a separate tweet, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York wrote: “Tonight, we mourn the passing of a giant in American history, a champion for justice, a trailblazer for women. She would want us all to fight as hard as we can to preserve her legacy.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a former Democratic presidential candidate, said that Ginsburg had been “an extraordinary champion of justice and equal rights, and will be remembered as one of the great justices in modern American history.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, DMinn., a former prosecutor, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a former presidential candidate, said of the justice on Twitter: “An icon. A hero. A woman way ahead of her time.”
Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who also mounted a presidential campaign, called Ginsburg “a titan of justice” whose “jurisprudence expanded the rights of all Americans, shaping our lives for the better.”
Former President George W. Bush, a Republican, said in a statement that the justice had “loved our country.”
“She dedicated many of her 87 remarkable years to the pursuit of justice and equality, and she inspired more than one generation of women and girls,” he said.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, RS.C., a close ally of Trump, called the justice “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.”