What Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death means for 2020

RBG’s death brings additional stakes to the 2020 Presidential election and increased tensions between the Democrats and the Republicans. 

Tyler Pugmire / News Editor

Jenny Han / Asst. Opinion Editor

On Sept.18, 2020, Ruth Bader Ginsburg (RBG), one of the nine justices of the United States Supreme Court, passed away at the age of 87. Later that evening, Mitch McConnell, Republican Senator of Kentucky and Senate Majority Leader, announced intent to replace RBG’s vacant seat weeks before the election on Nov. 3.

This announcement particularly angered Democrats who wanted the vacant seat to be filled after the 2020 election process has been finished. 

“There is no doubt — let me be clear — that the voters should pick the president and the president should pick the justice for the Senate to consider.” Joe Biden, presidential candidate to the 2020 election, stated. 

Many Democrats called McConnell’s desire to fill up the seat weeks before the 2020 election hypocritical. Nine months before the 2016 election, McConnell refused to let former President Obama replace former Justice Antonin Scalia’s vacant seat with Judge Merrick Garland. As a result, the seat was left vacant until after President Trump was sworn in. McConnell has responded to that criticism, saying that circumstances are different now because both the presidency and the Senate are held by the same party. Some Democrats have considered McConnell’s reasoning ridiculous and continue to state that the seat should remain vacant until after the new president is sworn in. 

McConnell isn’t the only one Democrats are claiming to be hypocritical. 

“In light of these two events, I will support President @realDonaldTrump in any effort to move forward regarding the recent vacancy created by the passing of Justice Ginsburg.” Republican Senator Lindsye Graham of South Carolina tweeted. 

However, a 2016 video about Graham setting a precedent on how Supreme Court Justices vacancies shouldn’t be filled the same year as a presidential race is circulating the internet. 

“I want you to use my words against me,”Graham explicitly states. “If there’s a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said let’s let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination.” 

Graham states that his position has changed due to changing circumstances due to two reasons. 

“The two biggest changes regarding the Senate and judicial confirmations that have occurred in the last decade have come from Democrats,” Business Insider reports.  “He cited Sen. Harry Reid’s 2013 decision to invoke the ‘nuclear option’ — lowering the vote threshold to end floor debate to 51 on executive appointments and most judicial nominations, excluding the Supreme Court — while accusing Democrats of conspiring to ‘destroy the life of Brett Kavanaugh and hold that Supreme Court seat open.’” 

Democratic politicians aren’t the only one angered about McConnell’s statement. Clara Spera, RBG’s granddaughter, revealed that RBG dictated this statement days before her death: “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.” However, Trump has questioned the legitimacy of Spera’s statement during an interview on “Fox and Friends,” claiming that the statement “came out of the wind. It sounds so beautiful, but that sounds like a Schumer deal, or maybe Pelosi or Shifty Schiff.” 

There have also been numerous protests both honoring RBG’s legacy and criticizing Trump’s decision to fill up her vacant seat. On Sept.19 from noon to 3:30 p.m., a group of over 100 protestors congregated outside of McConnell’s home, chanting “Hey hey, ho ho, Mitch McConnell has got to go” along with “Vote him out.”

On the night of Sept. 20, there was a vigil hosted by a variety of activist groups, including the Women’s March, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and MoveOn Political Action in front of the Supreme Court building. Both Elizabeth Warren, Democrat Senator of Massachusetts, and Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat Senator of New York, were prominent speakers at the vigil. Many of the attendees left candles, flowers, and signs in honor of RBG in front of the Supreme Court. 

Many of the mourners also highlighted RBG’s Jewish heritage as part of her legacy. The Jewish community particularly honored her death by highlighting the importance of the day she died, Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year that took place from Sept. 18 to Sept. 20). They recited the Mourner’s Kaddish, a Jewish prayer for the dead, and celebrated her being a Tzadeikes, a title given in Judaism to a person who dies on Rosh Hashanah as being a person of great righteousness. 

Protestors also jeered and booed at Trump when he came to pay respects to RBG on Sept. 24. According to Associated Press, there were angry chants of “Vote him out” and “Breonna Taylor” in regards to the recent Kentucky grand jury decision as he arrived. However, Trump seemed unbothered, telling the reporters that he could barely hear them.

Trump officially named Amy Coney Barrett as his Supreme Court nominee, on Sept. 26 at the White House. Barrett is a longtime member of the Federalist Society, a group that has helped bring generations of conservative lawyers to serve in government. She has also earned a law degree and worked under Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Currently, she serves as a circuit judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in New Orleans, Louisiana. 

Barrett is regarded as being a textualist, meaning that she applies the words of the Constitution based on what they meant when adopted, and prefers to look at the text of legislation rather than the spirit of what lawmakers are attempting to accomplish. She has a record that aligns heavily with the conservative point of view, and is expected to continue this viewpoint into her seat as a Justice. 

In her past, Barrett has been criticized by the Democratic Party that her Catholic upbringing creates an inability to separate church from state when dealing with secular issues. When Sen. Dianne Feinstein asked Barrett in 2017 if she would uphold Roe v. Wade, she said “I’m being considered for a position on a court of appeals, and there would be no opportunity to be a no vote on Roe.” 

According to analysis from researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, Barrett’s known views fall to the right of the two prior Trump appointees, and somewhat to the left of Justices Thomas and Alito. 

If Barrett is officially confirmed as the newest Supreme Court Justice, it would create a noticeable political shift in the Supreme Court. Before RBG’s death, there was a slight conserative leaning with five Supreme Court Justices identifying as Republicans and four Supreme Court Justices aligning as Democrats. With Barrett, there would be a considerable conservitave majority (six to). Since Supreme Court Justices serve for life, this will have major, long lasting effects that affect America even after the Trump administration.