SCMP Editorial

Editorial | Last wish of Ruth Bader Ginsburg must be granted

With the US presidential election just weeks away and the Supreme Court so delicately balanced, Donald Trump should not be allowed to name his conservative replacement for the late legal legend of the left

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A mourners holds up a sign at a makeshift memorial during a vigil for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg outside of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. Photo: Bloomberg

SCMP Editorial

Published: 9:55pm, 22 Sep 2020Updated: 10:36pm, 22 Sep 2020

The United States Supreme Court has been the battleground of some of the great issues of American society, from gender equality and abortion, to voting rights, discrimination, gun laws, gay rights and publicly financed health care.

That is why such significance is attached to the ideological leanings of the nine justices that reflect those of the president who nominated them and the Senate which confirmed them.

It also explains why the choice of the nominee to fill the Supreme Court seat left vacant by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is shaping as a defining issue of the presidential election campaign, setting opposing lawmakers on a collision course.

The bench is currently balanced between four voices each on the left and the right, with Chief Justice John Roberts occasionally confounding conservative leanings by voting with liberal judges on social issues.

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President Donald Trump has already pushed the court further to the right by filling vacancies left by moderate nominees of previous Republican presidents with more conservative choices. Ginsburg, a hero of the left and champion of women’s rights, is the nominee of former Democrat president Bill Clinton.