Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she’s not stepping away from her Supreme Court seat, no matter what liberal commentators say.
Talk had swirled in recent weeks that the oft-leader of the court’s liberal faction, who’s 80 years old and still recovering from a May fall that broke several of her ribs, might step down as a means of ensuring a ideologically similar replacement, The Hill reported.
President Obama has time to nominate a new justice, and send the name on to the Democratic-controlled Senate for vetting and approval, before his second White House term ends.
With that in mind, Harvard University law professor, Randall Kennedy, recently suggested she might want to consider that political scenario and do what’s best for the country and like-minded politicos.
But Ms. Ginsburg put a stop to that talk. She told Reuters this week she’s not planning a departure.
“It really has to be, ’Am I equipped to do the job?’ I was so pleased that this year I couldn’t see that I was slipping in any respect,” she said, in the Reuters interview.
She said she would like to stay at least as long as Justice Louis Brandeis did — 23 years.
Ms. Ginsburg has served as a Supreme Court justice since 1993.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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