Ginsburg on Trump: 'I don't even want to contemplate' his potential effect on the Supreme Court
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. (Photo by Sam Kittner)
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is praising Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland but expressing much less enthusiasm for Donald Trump.
In an interview, Ginsburg offered “an unequivocal endorsement of Garland,” the New York Times reports.
“I think he is about as well qualified as any nominee to this court,” she said of Garland. “Super bright and very nice, very easy to deal with. And super prepared. He would be a great colleague.”
Ginsburg’s enthusiasm for Garland was matched by her apparent distaste for Trump. “I can’t imagine what this place would be—I can’t imagine what the country would be—with Donald Trump as our president,” she told the Times. “For the country, it could be four years. For the court, it could be—I don’t even want to contemplate that.”
The Times asked Ginsburg if the Senate had an obligation to consider Garland’s qualifications. “That’s their job,” she said. “There’s nothing in the Constitution that says the president stops being president in his last year.”
Ginsburg said that even if Garland is confirmed immediately after the election, there will still be only eight justices deciding many of the court’s cases next term because Garland won’t be able to vote in missed-argument cases.
Ginsburg also praised Chief Justice John G. Roberts for doing a hard job “quite well” and said it was a credit to the court that it had deadlocked only four times. And she called Justice Anthony M. Kennedy “the great hero of the term” because of his votes on affirmative action and abortion restrictions.
