NYT editorial board remembers Ginsburg: She ‘will forever have two legacies’

The New York Times editorial board remembered the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Saturday, saying she “will forever have two legacies” – the progress she made for women’s equality while on the bench and the gap her exit leaves behind on the Judicial branch.

Editorial board members wrote that Ginsburg will be remembered as a “legal trailblazer” of women’s rights and her absence from the court could alter “the progress she helped the country make.”

The newspaper posted the editorial after the Supreme Court announced that Ginsburg died Friday night due to complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer. She was 87.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) echoed The Times, lauding the liberal justice’s legacy and announcing Saturday a statue dedicated to her in her birthplace of Brooklyn.

“As a lawyer, jurist, and professor, she redefined gender equity and civil rights and ensured America lived up to her founding ideals,” Cuomo said in a statement. “She was a monumental figure of equality, and we can all agree that she deserves a monument in her honor.”

The Times touted Ginsburg’s reputation as the second woman ever appointed to the Supreme Court, and the first woman hired with tenure at Columbia Law School.

In the 1970s, Ginsburg won multiple cases as an attorney fighting to persuade an all-male bench to apply the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause to sex-based discrimination.

She was well known for her majority opinion on United States v. Virginia, which ruled it unconstitutional for the Virginia Military Institute to refuse to admit women.

Ginsburg wrote for a 7-to-1 majority, famously saying, “Inherent differences between men and women, we have come to appreciate, remain cause for celebration,” adding in support of women’s liberties, “but not for [the] denigration of the members of either sex or for artificial constraints on an individual’s opportunity.”

Republicans have signaled they intend to move on another nominee put forward by President Trump to fill the vacancy left by Ginsburg’s death before the November election. If such an effort were successful, it could create a 6-3 supermajority on the high court, establishing a conservative firewall for years or even decades to come.

Trump has already filled two seats with conservative judicial picks – Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh – but has released a list of other candidates he would appoint if given the opportunity.

Ginsburg battled health issues for years and successfully defeated cancer multiple times during her more than 27-year tenure on the Supreme Court.

She previously defended her decision not to retire when President Obama could have picked her replacement, saying, “There will be a president after this one, and I’m hopeful that that president will be a fine president.”

Still, Trump’s win in 2016 was unexpected by the late justice, as she stated prior to his election “I can’t imagine what the country would be with Donald Trump as our president.” 

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) criticized Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) late Friday after the announcement that Republicans would move to fill the now-vacant Supreme Court seat left after the death of Ginsburg.

The Times’ memorial commended the late justice’s fighting efforts to stay on the court during multiple battles with cancer.

“Through it all, she never wavered in her commitment to the court as a vehicle for a more just and more equal America. She was a dogged, tireless fighter — it was easy to imagine she might live another 20 years, battling back whatever came at her. Of course, we knew better,” The New York Times editors wrote.