The death of Ruth Ginsburg, a Supreme Court judge, left the United States in anticipation of what President Donald Trump will decide in the coming hours about filling this vacancy, adding to the heat in the election debate less than 50 days before the presidential election.
Ginsburg was deported on Friday evening while she was at her home in Washington, DC, after a bitter struggle with cancer, at the age of 87.
Just days before her death, as her hope for life diminished, Ginsburg read out to her granddaughter Clara Spira a statement saying, "My most important wish is not to replace my position in the Supreme Court until a new president is installed."
Next battle
The leader of the Democratic Senate, Senator Chuck Schumer, in a tweet, called for not filling the vacant position in the Supreme Court until the citizens cast their votes and there is a new president.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio also warned of the difficulty of the coming weeks for American democracy, and said in his tweet, "It is now upon us to bear the burden of the most difficult months in modern history. Pray for God to protect our country and provide wisdom to our people."
For his part, Democratic candidate Joe Biden said in a speech, "Voters should choose the president, who must choose the judge installed by the Senate. This was the position that the Republican Senate took in 2016, and it is the same position the Senate should take today."
Ginsburg is one of the most prominent judges in the United States (Reuters)
Republican Senator Ted Cruz, in an interview with Fox News, called for the need to expedite the nomination and approval of a new judge as soon as possible.
Cruz’s demand was based on the premise that the presence of only 8 judges could cause an unprecedented crisis if votes were equal in important cases.
Many experts speculate that the decision to decide the outcome of the upcoming elections may be in the hands of the Supreme Court, due to the uncertainty and controversies associated with the mail vote.
It is noteworthy that Trump appointed two judges to the Supreme Constitutional Court, which moved it from a court controlled by liberals to a conservative arena.
What happened during the Obama era?
On February 13, 2016, and 9 months before the presidential election, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Scalia, one of the most important conservative judges in the history of the US Supreme Court, passed away, and former Democratic President Barack Obama chose Judge Merrick Gerland to replace him.
However, the 11 Republican members of the Judiciary Committee, in the Senate at the time, refused to appoint a new judge in an election year, and in a letter to Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader in the House, they expressed their intention to withhold approval of any candidate by President Obama, and that no hearings will be held until after 20 January 2017 is the date of the inauguration of the new president.
Senator McConnell repeated the same position that the Senate will not confirm any nomination for the Supreme Court by Obama, and the vote will not take place in a presidential election year out of respect for the choice of voters.
Republicans did not allow a new judge to be appointed between the death of Judge Scalia and the scheduled presidential election in November 2016, even though it was a full 9 months.
As a result, Democrats were shocked when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced, in a statement issued yesterday after Ginsburg's death, his pledge to go ahead with the House voting procedures to appoint a successor to the late judge if Trump nominates her successor to fill the vacant position.
Democrats are calling for the need to involve the people in appointing the next judge, by postponing the appointment process until after the elections.
Democratic candidate Biden said the appointment of Ginsburg's successor should be postponed until after the country's president is elected.
Many Americans were shocked and sad about Ginsburg's departure (Reuters)
Ongoing controversy,
contrary to the wishes of the early fathers, the Supreme Court turned into a subject of intense controversy among the main political players due to the politicization of judges ’appointments in it, according to their ideological leanings between conservatives, moderates, and liberals in their philosophical interpretation of the constitution.
It is customary for judges to be divided between the Democratic and Republican parties, so that each one of them gets 4 judges, and the president of the court is chosen from among the impartial, but because of the climate of sharp polarization that the United States has known since the end of the eighties of the last century, and the intensification of this polarization after Obama came to power in 2008, he is exploiting Each party has any opportunity to appoint judges in order to ensure future influence in potential political cases brought before the court.
The Supreme Court consists of 9 chief judges, 8 appointed by the president and approved by the Senate, and judges remain in their positions for life, and their service ends only with death, resignation, or retirement, and each judge has one vote, and court decisions are issued by a simple majority.
In an election year witnessing an intense race with different calculations, Republicans need to secure 50 votes in the House to pass any candidate to succeed Ginsburg if Trump decides to present him before the next elections, knowing that they have a majority of 53 members in the House.
Ginsburg, appointed by former President Bill Clinton in 1993, was a vocal advocate of women's rights and gender equality, in addition to other liberal issues such as same-sex marriage, the right to abortion, and militancy on the right to bear arms.
In addition to messages of condolences and praise for her track record during 27 years in the Supreme Court, the departure of Ginsburg sparked a debate about the imbalance in the Supreme Court in favor of the Republicans, as it now includes 5 conservative judges compared to 3 liberals.
Conservatives are expected to dominate the court with the death of Ginsburg and the prospects for retirement of Judge Stephen Brier, 82, both of whom were chosen by Democratic President Clinton.