“It is Time for Justice Ginsburg to Retire”

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor stops to greet Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburgh at the conclusion of a reception in the East Room of the White House, August 12, 2009. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Lynn Wardle, writing in CNS News says it’s time for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to retire. Her frequent partisan statements have made her unfit for the Supreme Court. Justices are supposed to maintain a nonpartisan demeanor, even if they maintain partisan biases in private. He writes (abridged):

Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been an outspoken critic of Donald Trump for a long time. Less than four months before the 2016 election, she criticized Trump in three separate interviews with the media. When she was censured for doing that, she said that she regretted her comments, but she declined to apologize to Mr. Trump.

Her outspoken condemnation of Trump has become major news. For example, less than a week before the President’s address to Congress, The Washington Post carried a story entitled “Rath Bader Ginsburg on Trump’s presidency: ‘We are not experiencing the best of times’.”

Seven months earlier, The Washington Post had written about the “unusual and apparently unprecedented battle of words” between Justice Ginsburg and then-candidate Trump. The Washington Post reported that Justice Ginsburg’s verbal attacks on Trump have been “met with a wave of alarm by many judicial ethics experts.” Her anti-Trump remarks raise serious ethical concerns that could damage the reputation of and public trust in the federal courts, in general, and the Supreme Court, in particular.

Justice Ginsburg’s loudly announced boycott of President Trump’s February 28^th message to Congress generated headlines throughout the country. There is concern that her tactics may be diminishing the credibility of the Supreme Court as a neutral, non-partisan judicial body. If she shows such contempt for the President of the United States, can Americans have confidence that she will fairly judge cases involving the administration, or other persons whose viewpoints or personalities she may dislike?

Justices must refrain from expressing or manifesting contempt, distain and animus for persons who may be bringing cases before the Court. And there is no doubt that the President of the United States will be involved in many cases at the Supreme Court.

It is time for Justice Ginsburg to retire.

She is 84 years old. her recent words and actions demonstrate that she has lost a measure of self-control that is essential for one who sits on the Supreme Court.

It is not just that she is no longer in her prime. Rather, her recent inappropriate comments manifest a disregard for the public expectations that are indelibly attached to the high position she holds as a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

It is time for Justice Ginsburg to retire before her reputation and the reputation of the Court are irreparably damaged by her irresponsible comments.

Her inappropriate criticism cannot continue without causing serious damage to the institutions and reputation that she has worked to protect.