Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said that she hopes to stay on the bench for another five years on Sunday speaking in New York City.
“My senior colleague, Justice John Paul Stevens, he stepped down when he was 90, so think I have about at least five more years,” Ginsburg said. Ginsburg was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton in 1993
Ginsburg an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump. During an interview with The New York Times, Ginsburg said, “I can’t imagine what this place would be — I can’t imagine what the country would be — with Donald Trump as our president,” she said. “For the country, it could be four years. For the court, it could be — I don’t even want to contemplate that.”
For progressives, Ginsburg’s fear has turned to reality as President Trump first solidified the court’s slightly conservative bent by replacing Antonin Scalia with Neil Gorsuch. Now Trump is set to push the court further right by replacing swing-voting Justice Anthony Kennedy with staunch textualist Brett Kavanaugh. Trump’s judicial quest has also put numerous conservative judges into empty slots at every level of the federal judiciary.
The success at “nudging” the court to the right is likely the reason for Ginsburg toughing it out and the timing in her statement is an expression of hope that Trump isn’t re-elected.
