Supreme Court Justice and feminist icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died of complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer, the Supreme Court said on Thursday.
“Our nation has lost a justice of historic stature. We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her, a tired and resolute champion of justice,” Chief Justice John Roberts said.
Ginsburg was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1993 and has since become one of the most prominent justices on the Supreme Court and a hero to liberals across the country as she delivers votes on a number of key progressive issues including same-sex marriage, abortion, and health care.
Her death gives Donald Trump and Republicans the chance to solidify their hold on the nation’s high court, pushing the court to a 6 to 3 conservative majority for decades.
Ginsburg’s death also set into motion what is largely expected to be a nasty political battle over who will fill her seat and once again place the Supreme court at the center of the 2020 political campaign.
Before Donald Trump was elected, Ginsburg called Trump “a faker” and added that he had “gotten away with not turning over his tax returns.”
Days before her death, Ginsburg reportedly told her granddaughter, “my most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”
Justice Ginsburg was 87.
