At the age of 80, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is hanging on, despite liberal worries that she is missing the opportunity to be replaced by President Barack Obama. She is quite happy to be part of what she herself calls, unabashedly, “one of the most activist courts in history,” according to the New York Times.
Ginsburg has been quite candid before about the Court’s role in pushing liberal policy priorities, even against all judicial logic. She has admitted, for example, that Roe v. Wade was poorly decided, but justified it partly on the grounds that there was “growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of.”
She is also an ardent admirer of the South African Constitution, which grants sweeping socioeconomic rights and is enforced by a judiciary that is slightly less activist than the Court on which Ginsburg serves (owing to its general pattern of deference to the ruling party, which effectively controls judicial appointments).
Ginsburg’s interest in the Court, in other words, is driven solely by power. She is not the Chief Justice, but fancies herself as the “most senior justice” among the Court’s liberals. She understands the absolute power wielded by the Court in recent years, and relishes the occasional chance to be among the majority.
There could be no better argument for term limits for federal judges, a cause that Mark Levin has taken up in his #1 bestselling book. Ginsburg is not interested in judicial independence, but judicial supremacy, as exercised by an effective dictator-for-life convinced of her absolute moral, as well as legal, authority.
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