United States Supreme Court dean Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on Friday at the age of 87, leaving a position with great powers vacant, heralding an intense political battle ahead of the November 3 presidential election .
This progressive judge, who has become a true icon on the left, died of pancreatic cancer, surrounded by her family, the highest court of the United States announced in a statement.
Fragile for a few years, this champion of the cause of women, minorities or the environment, had been hospitalized twice this summer and her health reports were closely followed by Democrats who fear that President Donald Trump will hasten to name his successor.
"An American heroine"
The Republican billionaire, vying for re-election, was informed of his death by reporters at the end of a campaign rally in Minnesota.
He was content to greet an “exceptional life”, without revealing his intentions before qualifying it a few hours later as “colossus of the Law”.
President @realDonaldTrump on the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: "She led an amazing life ... She was an amazing woman, whether you agreed or not ... I am sad to hear that." # RIPRBG pic.twitter.com / VTqNfohK8X
- Team Trump (Text VOTE to 88022) (@TeamTrump) September 19, 2020
His Democratic rival, Joe Biden, paid tribute to the most famous magistrate in the United States.
“Ruth Bader Ginsburg fought for all of us, and she was very loved,” he said, calling not to rush to replace her.
“Voters must choose the president, and the president must nominate a judge for the Senate,” he said in a press statement.
She was "an American heroine" and "a tireless voice in the quest for the supreme American ideal: equality of all before the law", he also praised.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg "fought to the end", "with unwavering faith in our democracy and its ideals," said Barack Obama, Donald Trump's predecessor in the White House, on Twitter.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg fought to the end, through her cancer, with unwavering faith in our democracy and its ideals.
That's how we remember her.
But she also left instructions for how she wanted her legacy to be honored.
My statement: https://t.co/Wa6YcT5gDi
- Barack Obama (@BarackObama) September 19, 2020
According to NPR radio, the judge "RBG", as she had been nicknamed, had herself confided her last wishes to her granddaughter, Clara Spera.
“My dearest wish is not to be replaced until a new president is sworn in,” she told him a few days before her death.
Political battle in sight
Donald Trump said in August that he would not hesitate to appoint a Supreme Court judge even very close to the election.
"I will move quickly," he said on a conservative radio.
Anxious to galvanize voters on the religious right, he has since published a pre-selection of candidates, conservative judges, mostly opposed to abortion and in favor of carrying weapons.
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According to the Constitution, once he has made his choice, it will be up to the Senate to endorse it.
Its leader, Republican Mitch McConnell has already made it known that he would organize a vote, even if he had refused to hear a judge chosen for this post by Barack Obama in 2016, on the pretext that it was a election year.
Even if the Republicans have a majority of 53 seats out of 100 in the upper house, some elected moderate Republicans, who face complicated re-election campaigns, could nonetheless defect and each side will, without a doubt, deploy the big names. means to try to convince them.
"The political battle is going to be huge" because if Donald Trump wins his case, "the Supreme Court will become the most conservative in a century," predicted law professor Carl Tobias.
Today, the five conservative judges - out of nine - are in fact not united, and it is common for one of them to vote with his progressive colleagues.
However, the Court is the arbiter of all major issues of society in the United States: abortion, minority rights, the carrying of arms, the death penalty, etc.
Extremely popular
Appointed to the high court in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, after having distinguished herself by advancing women's rights in the 1970s, Ruth Bader Ginsburg had become extremely popular despite the seriousness of her position.
Thanks to its positioning in phase with the aspirations of the youngest, it had conquered them, to the point of earning the nickname of "Notorious RBG" in reference to the rapper Notorious BIG.
Friday evening, a few hundred people spontaneously gathered in front of the columns of the Supreme Court to pay homage to him.
The flags of Congress and the White House were half-masted in his honor.
Vigil before the Supreme Court in Washington, September 18, 2020. / AFP / Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images
Despite his positioning on the left, Republicans and Democrats immediately paid tribute to him.
“Every woman, every girl, every family in America has benefited from her brilliant intelligence,” Congressional Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said.
“We lost a giant in the history of the country,” added the youngest of the House and representative of the left wing of the party, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Same praise at the other end of the political spectrum.
She was "a champion of the law" for the head of American diplomacy Mike Pompeo, a lawyer "brilliant", "admired" and "influential" according to the Minister of Justice Bill Barr.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a close friend of the president, even said he was "sad" at his death.
Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who is on President Trump's list of potential Supreme Court candidates, did not wait to demand that she be replaced.
If he hailed a "legendary lawyer", he also demanded on Twitter that the president announces his successor next week and that the Senate confirms it before the election.
“This appointment, that's why Donald Trump was elected,” he said.
Tonight, we mourn the passing of a historic Justice and a legendary advocate.
pic.twitter.com/2ZQ8eD9C3D
- Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 19, 2020
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