History-Making Jurist US Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg Dies

WASHINGTON: US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the history-making jurist, feminist icon and a champion of women's rights and social justice, has died of cancer. She was 87. Ginsburg became only the second woman ever to serve as a justice on the nation's highest court.

A lifelong advocate of gender equality, she acquired the reputation of a cautious or moderate judge and will be remembered as a legal colossus.

"Our nation has lost a justice of historic stature. We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her — a tried and resolute champion of justice," Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said in a statement.

Her death, less than 50 days before the November 3 polls, could open up another battlefront between President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival and former vice president Joe Biden.

"My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed,” Ginsburg had said earlier this year, according to a statement issued by her granddaughter Clara Spera.

Ginsburg was nominated by former Democratic president Bill Clinton, and she served in the US Supreme Court for 27 years.

President Donald Trump, who was campaigning in Minnesota, said that she led an amazing life. “She led an amazing life. What else could you say, she was an amazing woman. Whether you agree or not, she was an amazing woman who led an amazing life," he told reporters immediately after he concluded his speech on Friday.

"Today, our Nation mourns the loss of a titan of the law. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg served more than 27 years as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States -- notably just the second woman to be appointed to the Court. She was a loving wife to her late husband, Martin, and a dedicated mother to her two children,” Trump said in a statement later, as reported by news agency PTI.

Democratic candidate Joe Biden said that her replacement would be picked up by the winner of the November 3 elections.

“Let me be clear: that the voters should pick the President and the president should pick the justice for the Senate to consider,” he said.

“This was the position of Republican Senate took in 2016. When there were almost 10 months to go before the election. That''s the position the United States Senate must take today. And the election is only 46 days off. I think the fastest justice ever confirmed was 47 days. And the average is closer to 70 days. And so, we should do this with full consideration. And that is my hope and expectation of what will happen,” Biden said.

Former president Barack Obama, in a statement mourning Ginsburg, described her as a "relentless litigator and an incisive jurist."

"Over a long career on both sides of the bench -- as a relentless litigator and an incisive jurist -- Justice Ginsburg helped us see that discrimination on the basis of sex isn''t about an abstract ideal of equality; that it doesn''t only harm women; that it has real consequences for all of us. It''s about who we are -- and who we can be," he said.

Senator and Democratic vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris said that for all who believe in the power of the law as a force for change, Ginsburg was and will always be a titan.

“She was a relentless defender of justice in our country and a legal mind for the ages. She also remained, throughout her life, a proud daughter of Brooklyn, with immigrant roots and a fire lit from an early age as a champion for progress and equality,” she said.