Rest easy, liberals. The Notorious RBG said once again that she is not going anywhere.
On Sunday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg suggested she plans to stay in the bench at least until she is 90 years old. "I'm now 85," Ginsburg said. "My senior colleague, Justice John Paul Stevens, he stepped down when he was 90, so think I have about at least five more years."
She made the remarks following a production of "The Originalist," a play about the late Justice Antonin Scalia, in New York.
Her comments shouldn't come as a surprise. Ginsburg has promised in the past that she wouldn't leave the bench until it was absolutely necessary. When asked about her retirement at an event last fall, she said: "My answer is as long as I can do the job full steam, I will do it."
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And back in January, the self-proclaimed "flaming feminist litigator" announced that she hired law clerks for the next two Supreme Court terms. Historically, when a justice plans on retiring, they don't hire a full slate of clerks for the upcoming term — much less for a term beginning in so far into the future.
At 85, Ginsburg is the oldest Supreme Court justice. Liberals have been fearing (and conservatives have been hoping) that she might retire in the next few years. That notion has felt more urgent in light of the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy this month. If Ginsburg leaves it would give President Trump the chance to nominate a third conservative to the bench. This would inevitably tilt the court even more to the right, which would impact the outcome of thousands of cases related to civil rights, criminal justice, environmental issues, and other topics for generations.
But Ginsburg told the crowd Sunday that she remains hopeful.
"My dear spouse would say that the true symbol of the United States is not the bald eagle -- it is the pendulum," Ginsburg said, citing her late husband Marty Ginsburg. "And when it goes very far in one direction you can count on its swinging back."
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