The truth is, there’s not really much of a history of these sorts of decisions. And if she wants to support the ideals she’s worked for, turning the seat over to a younger liberal is really the only reasonable option. No, if she’s going to resign while Barack Obama is still in office, the time to do it (conditional on confirmation of a replacement) will be this year. And after that, the odds are pretty good that Democrats will lose ground in the 2014 elections and that they could even lose their majority in the Senate altogether.Īnd then every month that goes by brings us that much closer to January 2017 and makes it that much easier for Republicans to just implement a confirm-nobody strategy to run out the clock. Next year is an election year, and Republicans fearing a Tea Party challenge will be even more reluctant to let the Kenyan socialist in the White House have a third Supreme Court nominee confirmed. Right now, the 55 Democrats (including two independents who caucus with the Democrats) may be enough, combined with a handful of Republicans who are moderate enough or simply oppose knee-jerk filibusters, to get a nominee confirmed. Moreover, the simple fact is that most Republicans will support a filibuster against any Supreme Court nominee. Realistically, anyone planning for the future has to assume there’s a 50 percent chance of that successor being a Republican. Ginsburg will turn 84 soon after Obama’s successor will be sworn in. There’s every possibility she could not only continue in office beyond the Barack Obama presidency but that she could survive even eight years of a Republican in office after that, if that’s what’s in the cards.Īnd yet: “Every possibility” isn’t good enough.
Her health is apparently fine now, although she’s a two-time cancer survivor. But just as she was a liberal hero before serving on the Supreme Court, she can be a liberal hero again by leaving it. Retiring and giving up her final years on the nation’s high court is a lot to ask from Ginsburg, who has been a liberal hero for many years. It’s time for Ruth Bader Ginsburg to step down.
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