Tag Archives: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Pioneering Justice Ginsburg makes history again with U.S. Capitol honor

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a champion of gender equality, will make history again on Friday as the first woman and the first Jewish person to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will be among those who will visit to pay their respects on Friday, when the late justice’s casket will be placed in National Statuary Hall, encircled by sculptures of prominent Americans.

Ginsburg, a stalwart liberal on the high court since 1993, died last Friday at age 87. Known simply as RBG, she was an icon to millions of Americans – including young girls – after a long legal career built on fighting for women’s rights.

Her ceremony will feature remarks by a woman rabbi, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

“We have a lot of cause for … observance of a historic time, for a historic woman who did more for the equality of women than anybody in our history,” Pelosi told her weekly news conference on Thursday.

“Her passing is like a death in so many families in our country because so many people pinned their hopes, heeded her guidance, admired her stamina, her love of the arts, bringing civility to her relationships in the court and in the country,” Pelosi said.

Civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks was also mourned at the Capitol in 2005, but as a private citizen, she lay “in honor,” not “in state.” A statue of Parks, placed in 2013, will overlook Ginsburg’s casket during the ceremony.

Biden, who presided over Ginsburg’s confirmation hearings as a senator in 1993, said the judge was a “voice for freedom and opportunity.” He has called for Republicans to honor her wishes and not consider a nominee until after the Nov. 3 presidential election. Also visiting the Capitol on Friday will be Biden’s running mate, Kamala Harris, and Biden’s wife, Jill.

Statuary Hall was prepared for the ceremony by Thursday afternoon. Thick black ribbons were affixed to the colossal marble columns around the room’s perimeter, surrounding the area where a catafalque was to hold Ginsburg’s flag-draped coffin.

Crowds of mourners have flocked to the U.S. Supreme Court, across the street from the Capitol, since Ginsburg’s death was announced, standing vigil and leaving flowers and signs.

Just down a hallway from Statuary Hall, Trump’s fellow Republicans – who narrowly control the bitterly divided Senate – have pledged to confirm his as-yet-unidentified nominee to replace Ginsburg within the next few weeks, angering Democrats who feel he should wait until after the election.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Ginsburg’s admirers have had to pay their respects outdoors at her coffin for two days of public viewing under the Supreme Court’s soaring portico.

The Capitol ceremony on Friday morning will be limited to invited guests because of concerns about the virus.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Mary Milliken and David Gregorio)

Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s coffin arrives at Supreme Court as three days of tributes begin

By Lawrence Hurley and Andrew Chung

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States began three days of tributes to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Wednesday, as pallbearers carried her flag-draped coffin into the white marble court building and members of the public lined up to pay their respects.

Wearing dark suits and black face masks due to the coronavirus pandemic, dozens of the liberal icon’s former clerks stood at attention as the coffin was carried up the court’s broad steps and into the Great Hall, where a private ceremony was planned for friends and family.

Members of the public watched from behind barricades as they awaited a public viewing due to start at 11 a.m. (1500 GMT).

“It’s almost like I felt the hand of God on my shoulder saying you have got to come and pay your respects to this person who was a fierce champion of women’s voices and women’s rights,” said Cecilia Ryan, 64, who drove 12 hours from the Chicago area.

Ginsburg, who over the course of her long legal career championed gender equality and other liberal causes, in recent years became something of a pop icon for the American left. She died on Friday at age 87.

After two days of public viewing under the neoclassical court building’s massive Corinthian columns, Ginsburg will on Friday become the first woman to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol when her casket is placed in National Statuary Hall.

Civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks was also mourned at the Capitol in a similar ceremony in 2005, but as someone who did not hold government or military office, she lay “in honor,” not “in state.”

Both historic events for Ginsburg, however, come with modifications due to the coronavirus pandemic.

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that, due to the pandemic, a formal ceremony to be held on Friday morning will be limited to invited guests only.

At the courthouse, which remains closed to the public due to the pandemic, the justice will lie in repose under the portico outdoors to allow for public viewing starting at 11 a.m. (1500 GMT).

Officials said social distancing and face coverings will be required to participate to guard against the spread of the virus. Flowers and other offerings are forbidden on the court’s plaza or its great flight of steps.

The justices for the first time in the court’s history heard oral arguments in May by teleconference, and will do so again next month. Though the building is closed, Ginsburg’s courtroom chair and the bench in front of it have been draped with black wool crepe to mark the occasion, a tradition that dates back at least to 1873. A black drape has also been hung over the courtroom doors.

“On a personal level, she was such an amazing person. She had a mind like a steel trap,” said Jill Alexander, 59, whose husband served as a clerk for Ginsburg when she was an appeals-court judge.

Inside the courthouse, the coffin was due to be moved on to the Lincoln catafalque, a pine board platform draped in black cloth that was used to support President Abraham Lincoln’s coffin when he lay in state in the Capitol’s Rotunda after his assassination in 1865. The catafalque was loaned to the court by the U.S. Congress for the ceremony. A 2016 portrait Ginsburg by Constance P. Beaty will be on display in the hall.

Public viewing runs until 10 p.m. on Wednesday and between 9 a.m. until 10 p.m. on Thursday. A private interment service is planned for next week at Arlington National Cemetery. Ginsburg’s husband, Martin Ginsburg, was buried there in 2010.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley and Andrew Chung; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Will Dunham and Scott Malone)

U.S. Justice Ginsburg, 85, has malignant nodules removed from lung

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen during a group portrait session for the new full court at the Supreme Court in Washington, U.S., November 30, 2018. REUTERS/Jim Young/File Photo

By Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had two cancerous nodules removed from her left lung on Friday in a surgical procedure in New York, the latest health issue experienced by the 85-year-old liberal jurist, a court spokeswoman said.

Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said Ginsburg, one of the court’s nine justices, underwent a procedure known as a pulmonary lobectomy on Friday at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Arberg said that according to the thoracic surgeon, Dr. Valerie Rusch, “both nodules removed during surgery were found to be malignant.”

After the surgery, there was “no evidence of any remaining disease,” Arberg added.

“Currently, no further treatment is planned. Justice Ginsburg is resting comfortably and is expected to remain in the hospital for a few days,” Arberg said.

Ginsburg broke three ribs in a fall last month. The nodules were found as part of the tests the justice underwent after the earlier fall, Arberg said.

Ginsburg, appointed by Democratic President Bill Clinton in 1993, is the senior liberal member of the court, which has a 5-4 conservative majority.

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority was restored in October when the Senate confirmed Republican President Donald Trump’s nominee, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, after a contentious nomination process in which Kavanaugh denied a sexual assault allegation dating to the 1980s when he was a high school student.

As the oldest justice, Ginsburg is closely watched for any signs of deteriorating health.

If she were unable to continue serving, Trump could replace her with a conservative, further shifting the court to the right. A potentially dominant 6-3 conservative majority would have major consequences for issues including abortion, the death penalty, voting rights, gay rights and religious liberty.

Ginsburg has recovered from previous medical issues. She was treated in 1999 for colon cancer and again in 2009 for pancreatic cancer, but did not miss any argument sessions either time. In 2014, doctors placed a stent in her right coronary artery to improve blood flow after she reported discomfort following routine exercise. She was released from a hospital the next day.

The court is not in session until early January.

Ginsburg is considered a hero by many liberals. She has helped buttress equality rights during her time on the high court, including in sex discrimination cases.

In recent years she has become something of a cult figure, particularly on the left, known by the nickname “Notorious RBG,” after the late rapper Notorious BIG.

A documentary film, “RBG,” was released earlier this year. A feature film about her life, “On the Basis of Sex,” is being released in theaters next week.

Ginsburg was the second woman to become a member of the Supreme Court, following Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who retired in 2006. O’Connor, 88, said in October she is suffering from dementia.

Ginsburg called Trump an egotistical “faker” when he was running for president in 2016. Trump responded by saying her “mind is shot” and she should quit the court. Ginsburg later expressed regret for her comments, saying “judges should avoid commenting on a candidate for public office.”

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham)