Friday night I had a dream about the iconic jurist Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It may have been because her death that day hit me hard.
In my dream, she was visiting San Diego to speak to a large group, and I met her (I never had that privilege). She had taken the opportunity to visit Balboa Park and was so struck by its beauty that, unbeknownst to us, she decided that she wanted to be buried there. ( it was a dream.)
She spoke at a sold-out event. I don’t where. I don’t who attended. I just being riveted by her telling the story of her life and her ions as a jurist on the highest court in the land.
I had the opportunity to visit with her and, for whatever reason, I asked, “Do you have a final resting place? We would be so honored if you chose Balboa Park, one of the most beautiful locations on earth!”
My dream woke me up, as dreams sometimes do. At first, I lay in bed wondering what it all meant. Then I made myself get up and dictate my dream and my thoughts into my iPhone for fear of forgetting them.
I ed her extraordinary life and her impact because of her lived experience: Being the only woman or the first woman at a time when women were not hired and put on a partner track in law firms, when women could be demoted or fired for being pregnant, when women were not allowed to serve on juries, when military families didn’t receive housing allowances or medical benefits if the officer was a woman, and even where husbands could not receive Social Security survivor benefits to raise a child if the mother died. I could go on and on because I grew up in those years. It made me a feminist.
I also thought about her nearly 60-year marriage to Marty Ginsburg, a legal scholar in his own right, who treated her as fully equal in a time when women faced barriers to fulfilling their own dreams. And her personal accomplishments: successfully arguing about equal rights and their impact on men, not just women. A rich history in arguing successfully in front of the Supreme Court and then sitting on the other side, making nuanced interpretations of the law. Someone who revered the Constitution, not a dusty historical document. And an individual who loved opera, which brought her unexpected and enduring friendships with people like fellow Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
In fact, I learned that an opera, Scalia/Ginsburg, had been written by Derrick Wang to capture that friendship. RBG said that her favorite part was an aria, “We are Different. We are One.”
I also checked my Oura Ring and found that my resting heart rate had spiked during the dream. I don’t know whether it was because of the power of the dream, the sadness of her loss, or the distress I have with the state of our politics today.
Eventually I turned on the news and heard Jeff Rosen, CEO of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, talk about her and the book he wrote about their long friendship, bonded by opera and the love of the Constitution. His book is “Conversations with RBG: Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Life, Love, Liberty and Law.” I immediately ed it to my iPhone and read it. I highly recommend it.
The news inevitably turned to President Donald Trump’s plans to rush through a new Supreme Court justice before or after the election, depending on political calculations. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who in 2016, a full eight months before the election, blocked President Barack Obama’s nomination of distinguished Judge Merrick Garland, said, “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.”
Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, went even further: “I want you to use my words against me. If there’s a Republican senator in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say, ‘Lindsey Graham said let’s let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination, and you can use my words against me and you’d be absolutely right.”
Why do we let politicians like these make clear, unequivocal statements like these and then back off those commitments a month and a half before an election? Why can’t we spend a few days — a few hours! — just honoring the legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsberg?
Today the lifetime appointment of a jurist to the highest court in our land has become a political food fight more focused on “packing the court” ideologically, selecting young judges to serve longer, and rushing through partisan confirmation. The Supreme Court does not “belong” to one party or another. It is the place where we entrust the honest interpretation of laws as intended by the Constitution. It deserves the most distinguished jurists in our nation, fully and deliberately vetted.
This close to an election, we should hold our elected officials to the promises they have made. As Majority Leader, McConnell can honor his previous comment and say that we will not have confirmation hearings until we have a new president elected in less than 45 days, whoever that may be.
It would be the finest way that we could honor the life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who believed that the people should select their president and the president should select the justice.
Longer term, I believe that the law should be changed to say that any judicial appointment must be bipartisan with at least 10% of the of the party not in power of the Senate voting in favor of confirmation. We would end up with judges who would honor the legacy of Antonin Scalia, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the other giants of our judicial system who honor the idea, “We are Different. We are One.”
