Ginsburg's death sparks notorious divisions, exposes frailty of US judicial system
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s mortality haunted liberals in recent years and the death of the country’s beloved “RBG” has exposed the frailties of the US judicial selection process. But can the world’s leading democracy shed the American exceptionalism woven into its national DNA and heed the lessons?
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US Supreme Court justices have life tenures, a sneer-worthy feature for citizens of any democracy since the USA and Iran are the only countries in the world without term limits, or a mandatory retirement age, or both, for their highest judicial authorities. But it does little to erode American exceptionalism or the conviction that the nuts and bolts of a government “of the people, for the people and by the people” envisaged by the Founding Fathers in the late 18th century need oiling or replacements more than 200 years later.
The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday has sparked another American drama and a level of trauma befitting ancient kingdoms confronting chaos after a monarch’s death rather than a 21st century democracy.
The stakes, as commentators repeatedly stress, could not be higher. Ginsburg’s death gives President Donald Trump the opportunity to pick his third Supreme Court nomination, and with it, the chance to cement a 6-3 conservative majority in a court whose decisions influence most spheres of American life, from healthcare to abortion rights to voting access and possibly, a ruling on the November 4 election results if it ends up in the courts.
https://www.france24.com/en/20200922-ginsburg-s-death-sparks-notorious-divisions-exposes-frailty-of-us-judicial-system
