Justice Ruth Bader Gisnburg is dead at the age of 87, the United States (U.S) Supreme Court announced on Friday, which added that she died of “complications of metastatic pancreas cancer.”
Ginsburg died surrounded by her family at her home in Washington, D.C. Justice Ginsburg was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Clinton in 1993. She was the second woman appointed to the Court and served more than 27 years.
She is survived by her two children, four grandchildren, two step-grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. Her husband, Martin David Ginsburg, died in 2010.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would schedule a vote to confirm Donald Trump’s nominee to succeed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg after her death Friday, giving the president an opportunity to cement a rightward tilt of the Supreme Court for a generation.
With the election less than two month away, McConnell said the Senate would act to fill the vacancy, even though he spent most of 2016 denying a confirmation hearing to President Barack Obama’s pick to fill a vacancy on the high court.
Americans gave Republicans a Senate majority “because we pledged to work with President Trump and support his agenda, particularly his outstanding appointments to the federal judiciary,” McConnell said in a statement shortly after Ginsburg’s death was announced. “Once again, we will keep our promise. President Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate.”
President Donald Trump released a new list of potential appointees earlier this month — revisiting a tactic he used in 2016 to galvanize support among conservatives and evangelicals. “Apart from matters of war and peace, the nomination of a Supreme Court justice is the most important decision an American president can make,” Trump told reporters on Sept. 9.