Ever since his nomination, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh has been attacked by those on the left. But there’s at least one left-wing figure who hasn’t joined the fray.
In July, fellow jurist Ruth Bader Ginsburg was asked a question by Duke Law professor Neil Siegel. Once a clerk for Ginsburg, he wanted to know whether it’s “a loss for all of us” that “nominees for the Supreme Court are not chosen primarily anymore for independence, legal ability, [and] personal decency.”
Her answer was unequivocal.
“Very decent”
“My two newest colleagues,” she said of Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, “are very decent, very smart individuals.”
Ginsburg’s response may have been surprising, but she actually has a long history of saying positive things about others on the bench, including her conservative counterparts.
When Siegel asked if it was “awkward” that the late Justice Scalia was sharply critical of her arguments, Ginsburg said it wasn’t, and then went on to talk about their friendship.
“Justice Scalia and I became friends when we were buddies on the D.C. Circuit,” she said. “What did I love most about him? His infectious sense of humor. When we were three judges on the Court of Appeals, he would sometimes whisper something to me. It would crack me up. It was all I could do to contain hysterical laughter,” she recalled.
“We had much in common,” Ginsburg went on. “True, our styles were very different. But both of us cared a lot about writing opinions that at least other judges and lawyers would understand.”
She also revealed that Scalia would review her grammar while she would offer style advice that he was loath to take.
That warm relationship was in sharp contrast to the reaction that some on the left had when Scalia passed away in 2016. Upon hearing of his death, critics took to to Twitter in celebration.
There he was reviled for his supposed sexism and racism. One user said Scalia had “finally raised the standard of American Jurisprudence” by dying.
Another quoted Mark Twain, declaring, “I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure.”
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