US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dies at age 87, reshaping election race

Ginsburg, the court’s second female justice and a towering champion of women’s rights, died of complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer

Her death six weeks before the US election sets off a debate on whether Donald Trump should nominate and Senate should confirm her replacement

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Progressive icon and doyenne of the US Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, affectionately known as the Notorious RBG, is seen here in 2018. Photo: AP

Published: 7:52am, 19 Sep 2020Updated: 12:48pm, 9 Oct 2020

US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a diminutive yet towering women’s rights champion who became the court’s second female justice, died on Friday of complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer, the court said. She was 87.

Her death, at her home in Washington, comes just over six weeks before Election Day and is likely to set off a heated battle over whether President Donald Trump should nominate, and the Republican-led Senate should confirm, her replacement, or if the seat should remain vacant until the outcome of his race against Democrat Joe Biden is known.

Candles are lit next to pictures of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in Washington. Photo: Reuters

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said late on Friday that the Senate would vote on Trump’s pick to replace Ginsburg, even though it was an election year.

Trump called Ginsburg an “amazing woman” and did not mention filling her vacant Supreme Court seat when he spoke to reporters following a rally in Bemidji, Minnesota.

“Renowned for her brilliant mind and her powerful dissents at the Supreme Court, Justice Ginsburg demonstrated that one can disagree without being disagreeable toward one’s colleagues or different points of view. Her opinions, including well-known decisions regarding the legal equality of women and the disabled, have inspired all Americans, and generations of great legal minds,” Trump later said in a statement.