As Democrats insist that Republicans abide by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s supposed “dying wish” to not be replaced by President Donald Trump, it seems that some of her other wishes regarding the court are being ignored by Democrats.
In contradiction to Democrat contentions, the late Supreme Court Justice had recently disparaged the notion of court packing and affirmed the authority of presidents to fill a Supreme Court vacancy in an election year, The Washington Free Beacon reported.
Flashback: Ginsburg dismisses court packing
As Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) seeks to fill the Supreme Court seat vacated by Ginsburg, Democrats have insisted that he is beholden to her “dying wish” to not be replaced until the next president has been inaugurated — or else.
Warning that “nothing is off the table,” Democrats are threatening to pack the courts as they accuse McConnell of disrespecting not just Ginsburg’s wishes, but the will of the American people by charging ahead to a Senate vote in an election year.
Only last year, however, the justice was dismissive of Democratic proposals to add justices to the court.
“There is no fixed number in the Constitution,” Ginsburg told NPR in July 2019. “So this Court has had as few as 5, as many as 10. Nine seems to be a good number, and it’s been that way for a long time.”
She continued, “I am not at all in favor of that solution to what I see is a temporary situation.”
She called for seat to be filled
Ginsburg also once held the position now shared by Trump and his supporters, as they look to fill her vacant seat: the sitting president does not magically lose the authority to make court appointments during an election year.
The justice shared this view back in 2016, siding with Democrats who were then calling on the Senate to “do its job” and confirm Merrick Garland, Barack Obama’s pick to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
“That’s their job,” she told the New York Times. “There’s nothing in the Constitution that says the president stops being president in his last year.”
Of course, Democrats are singing a different tune now, and it looks like Ginsburg was no exception. Before she died, she allegedly shared her “fervent wish” that Trump not choose her successor, although it is unclear if she was saying that he lacked the authority to make that decision. Perhaps the larger point is that not even Supreme Court justices are immune to political flip-flopping.
Regardless, Republicans say that they now have the votes to confirm a new justice, Fox News reported.
The post Flashback: Ginsburg disapproved of court packing, supported filling court vacancy in election year first appeared on Conservative Institute.
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