Breaking News: Supreme Court Justice Passes Away

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second woman on the nation’s highest court, has passed away from complications of metastatic pancreas cancer.

Justice Ginsburg, the leader of the liberal wing of the Supreme Court, died Friday evening at her home in Washington, D.C. surrounded by her family.

The Supreme Court has released a statement:

“Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died this evening surrounded by her family at her home in Washington, D.C., due to complications of metastatic pancreas cancer. She was 87 years old. Justice Ginsburg was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Clinton in 1993.

She was the second woman appointed to the Court and served more than 27 years. She is survived by her two children: Jane Carol Ginsburg (George Spera) and James Steven Ginsburg (Patrice Michaels), four grandchildren: Paul Spera (Francesca Toich), Clara Spera (Rory Boyd), Miranda Ginsburg, Abigail Ginsburg, two step-grandchildren: Harjinder Bedi, Satinder Bedi, and one great- grandchild: Lucrezia Spera. Her husband, Martin David Ginsburg, died in 2010.”

The statement continues, discussing her life and career:

Justice Ginsburg was born in Brooklyn, New York, March 15, 1933. She married Martin D. Ginsburg in 1954. She received her B.A. from Cornell University, attended Harvard Law School, and received her LL.B. from Columbia Law School. She served as a law clerk to the Honorable Edmund L. Palmieri, Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, from 1959–1961.

From 1961–1963, she was a research associate and then associate director of the Columbia Law School Project on International Procedure. She was a Professor of Law at Rutgers University School of Law from 1963–1972, and Columbia Law School from 1972–1980, and a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Stanford, California from 1977–1978. In 1971, she was instrumental in launching the Women’s Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, and served as the ACLU’s General Counsel from 1973–1980, and on the National Board of Directors from 1974–1980. She was appointed a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1980. During her more than 40 years as a Judge and a Justice, she was served by 159 law clerks. While on the Court, the Justice authored My Own Words (2016), a compilation of her speeches.”

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John G. Roberts, put out a statement about his long-time colleague: “Our Nation has lost a jurist 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 tireless and resolute champion of justice.”

According to CNBC, this vacancy will enable President Trump to nominate his third justice “to swing the bench further to the right, setting up what’s certain to be a colossal battle perhaps even bigger than those of his nominations of Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.”

Health Problems

Ginsburg has survived a myriad of health problems over the past few years. Doctors removed two cancerous nodules from her left lung in December of 2018. She also underwent treatment for a tumor on her pancreas in August 2019. Ginsburg was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1999, and had surgery for pancreatic cancer in 2009.

In early January this year, Ginsburg announced on CNN that she was “cancer free”, but unfortunately had to take that statement back when she announced she was being treated for liver cancer in July.

In November 2018, the Supreme Court justice was hospitalized for broken ribs after falling in her office. This was when the nodules in her lung were discovered. Recovering from lung surgery was the first time Ginsburg had missed hearing a Supreme Court case in 25 years.