Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, lioness of the left who battled for the equality of women through the legal system, died on Friday night at 87. Ginsburg had a long, on-going battle with.cancer.
Ginsburg, who was the first tenured female professor at Columbia Law School, argued her first case before the Supreme Court in 1971. Ginsburg was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton in 1994 and became only the second woman ever to serve on the nation’s highest court. She was a reliable vote for abortion rights, women’s equality, gay rights and affirmative action on the court. Late in life, she became a cultural icon, even being portrayed on Saturday Night Live as the Notorious RBG by Kate McKinnon.
On Friday night, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) vowed to hold a vote on President Donald Trump‘s nominee to fill the seat as soon as possible. Several Republican senators like Sen. Lisa Murkowski said on that she would not support voting on a replacement until after the election. In a note dictated to her granddaughter, Ginsburg said that it was “her fervent wish that the next president would nominate her replacement.”
