am a lowly lawyer who has never argued before the Supreme Court, and never will. I am not a constitutional scholar, Justice Ginsburg has never heard of me, and I know that in the grand scheme of things, my opinion matters to her very little (and almost certainly not at all). Nevertheless, I hope Justice Ginsburg will forgive my presumptuousness, and will entertain this immodest, yet (I believe) very respectful, sincere, timely, and practical proposal.
There is no sense ignoring the herd of elephants stomping around the room, so I’ll just say it: Justice Ginsburg is dying. This is the truth, however unpleasant and (to many) unfortunate. She is a woman of many accomplishments, yet she is now very old and very ill. To quote the immortal words of Ryan Reynolds in “Deadpool”: “Cancer is a shitshow.”
Justice Ginsburg is 86-years-old. (Yes, I looked it up in Wikipedia—she turned 86 in March. Happy Birthday, by the way, Justice Ginsburg!) Even with the best medical care in the world, she can’t hang in there for much longer. This is medical reality. That RBG is still able to function at a high level at age 86 is impressive. But, let’s face it, every extra day is a miracle.
Now, it is true that nobody can make her do anything. So she might stay right where she is for another year, or two, or maybe even three. She could write a few more dissenting opinions, and they will delight the progressive partisans—but they won’t matter one whit out here, in the real world. She can join dissenting opinions written by other liberals, but they would be just footnotes in history—at best. She will get invited to adoring leftist confabs, where she will “accidentally” say nasty things about Trump, and every “news” outlet will quote it with relish. And that won’t matter one whit, either.
Frustrated, Furious and Bitter
The truth is, Ginsburg has more impact now as a movie characterthan as a Supreme Court justice. Her judicial legacy (such as it is) is evaporating, one opinion at a time. She soldiers on, but she will never be in a majority on any opinion of any significance.
She will probably never admit it in public, but all those progressive journos and liberal law profs who begged her to retire back in 2015 were right. Yes, just like everybody else, she thought that Hillary was a done deal, RBG would retire right about now, Hillary would appoint her successor, and everything would hum along according to plan. Justice Ginsburg believed that the emerging Democratic majority, intersectionality, and other postmodern claptrap would deliver for the Left and for her.
It didn’t happen. The Donald surprised everyone (including himself). Liberals lost their collective mind and remind us daily that they are still busy searching for it. It will be a long, drawn out, and probably fruitless search.
Ginsburg must have watched Rachel Maddow on election night. She knew right there and then, from the glum, shocked disbelief on Maddow’s androgynous face, what it all meant for the court—and for her. And she can read the tea leaves now—with the Democratic Party descending into utter nutterism and Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report saying “no collusion,” with the economy humming along and Trump refusing to get us involved in some nation-building adventure or other, it’s sure starting to look like a Trump re-election next November.
https://amgreatness.com/2019/04/14/the-path-forward-for-ruth-bader-ginsburg/