Two Reasons There Could Never Be Another Justice Like Ruth Bader Ginsburg
(Thought this an interesting read, well worth it)
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who’s previously hinted that she would retire from the Supreme Court in 2015, told Reuters’ Joan Biskupic last week that Court watchers shouldn’t gear up for a confirmation fight quite yet. Indeed, Ginsburg now labels Justice John Paul Stevens, who retired at age 90, as her new “model.”
The 80 year-old justice’s announcement certainly raises the stakes for the next presidential election, but it also extends the period that the Supreme Court’s most accomplished litigator will remain on the Court. Even before joining the bench, Ginsburg was the single most important women’s rights attorney in American history. She authored the first brief to convince the Supreme Court to hold that the Constitution’s guarantee of “equal protection of the laws” applies to women. And her brief in Craig v. Boren led the Court to hold that laws that engage in gender discrimination are subject to heightened constitutional scrutiny. Next to Thurgood Marshall, the late Supreme Court justice who argued Brown v. Board of Education, it’s unlikely that any other future justice did more for the cause of equality than Ginsburg did before joining the Court.
For this reason alone, the president tasked with replacing Ginsburg will be hard-pressed to find a similarly accomplished lawyer. Admittedly, there are potential Supreme Court nominees who have won major women’s rights victories — the most notable being United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit nominee Nina Pillard, who argued and won Nevada Dept. of Human Resources v. Hibbs. But Hibbs merely warded off an effort to convince the Court to reduce existing legal protections for women (and men) with families. For most of American history, the Supreme Court has shown little interest in improving the lives of the marginalized, and Ginsburg rose to prominence during a rare period when the justices were actually interested in expanding the blessings of liberty.
There is, of course, one area where a bare majority of the conservative Roberts Court has been willing to expand freedom: gay rights. And there are a number of attorneys engaged in this fight — Paul Smith and Pam Karlan probably the most prepared among them for a seat on the Supreme Court — who could conceivably fill the Ginsburg seat.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/07/08/2262221/two-reasons-there-could-never-be-another-justice-like-ruth-bader-ginsburg/?mobile=wt
