Trailblazing US SC Justice Ginsburg dies at 87

Washington, September 19

US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the history-making jurist, feminist icon and a champion of women’s rights and social justice, has died of cancer at the age of 87.

Ginsburg became only the second woman ever to serve as a justice on the nation’s highest court. A lifelong advocate of gender equality, she acquired the reputation of a cautious or moderate judge and will be remembered as a legal colossus.

“Our nation has lost a justice of historic stature. We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today, we mourn, but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her — a tried and resolute champion of justice,” Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said in a statement.

Ginsburg’s death on Friday, less than 50 days before the November 3 presidential election, could open up another battlefront between President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden.

Nominated by the former Democratic president Bill Clinton, Ginsburg served in the US Supreme Court for 27 years. She was battling cancer for the past several years.

President Donald Trump, who was campaigning in Minnesota, said, “She led an amazing life. What else could you say, she was an amazing woman,” he told reporters.

As one of four liberal justices on the Supreme Court, Ginsburg’s health was watched closely. Her death raises the prospect of President Trump, a Republican, trying to expand its slender conservative majority, even before the presidential election. — PTI