Democrats and the mainstream media have attempted to use the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dying wish that she not be replaced until a new president is installed in an attempt to pressure Republicans from filling her seat.
However, some of those same Democrats are ignoring what she said about packing the Supreme Court: that it was a “bad idea” that she was “not at all in favor of” doing.
“What does concern you?” NPR host Nina Totenberg asked Ginsburg. “If you’re not worried about the term limits, what are you worried about?”
“Well, what was the, you mentioned—” Ginsburg responded.
“Adding the number, changing the number of justices—” Totenberg interjected.
“Oh, yes. Yes,” Ginsburg said. “There is no fixed number in the Constitution, so this court has had as few as five and as many as 10. Nine seems to be a good number and it’s been that way for a long time.”
Ginsburg specifically called out the Democrat Party over the idea of packing the Supreme Court, saying that it would undermine the court’s legitimacy because it would “make the court appear partisan.”
“I have heard that there are some people on the Democratic side who would like to increase the number of judges,” Ginsburg said. “I think that was a bad idea when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt tried to pack the court, his plan was for every justice who stays on the court past the age of 70, the president would have the authority to nominate another justice. If that plan had been effective, the court’s number would have swelled immediately from nine to 15 and the president would have six appointments to make.”
“You mentioned before the court appearing partisan, well if anything would make the court appear partisan, it would be that—one side saying, ‘when we’re in power, we’re going to enlarge the number of judges, so we want to have more people who will vote the way we want them to,’” Ginsburg concluded on the matter. “So, I am not at all in favor of that solution to what I see as a temporary situation.”
WATCH:
FLASHBACK: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg chastises Democrats on court packing, calling it a “bad idea” and “partisan.”
"9 seems to be a good number… I think it was a bad idea when President Franklin Roosevelt tried… I am not at all in favor of that…"pic.twitter.com/pLO3MBd2BJ
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) September 19, 2020
Ginsburg passed away late last week at age 87 after losing her fight against her fifth bout with cancer. Ginsburg was widely praised for her toughness and grit in fighting the disease.
NPR reported that Ginsburg “dictated” the following statement to her granddaughter Clara Spera: “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”
Independent Women’s Forum President Carrie Lukas slammed the notion that Ginsburg’s wish should be brought into consideration in nominating a new Supreme Court justice, writing on Twitter: “I’ll add on RBG: If reports of her ‘last wish’ are true, then she had a fundamental misunderstanding of her role. She didn’t own her seat – merely had the privilege of filling it for many, many years – and had no business telling the political branches how it should be filled.”