Commentary

Have you noticed the increasing public presence of liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg?

During the last presidential election, the Supreme Court Justice made numerous political statements, which raised eyebrows in some quarters. Since President Trump’s election, Ginsburg has become even more outspoken in her politics and public criticism of the president’s agenda.

This past week, she made a trip to George Washington University to encourage the liberal faithful. It seems the 83 year-old jurist has become more of a cheerleader for the Left than a Supreme Court Justice.

She made it clear that she has no intention of leaving the bench to make room for another Trump appointee.

Ginsburg also went out of her way to praise the liberal press, defending outlets like the New York Times as purveyors of truth.

And then she went into her admiration for the thousands of women who turned out in Washington to defend legalized abortion and protest the anticipated policies of a Trump Administration.

“I have never seen such a demonstration, both the numbers and rapport of the people in that crowd. There was no violence, it was orderly.  So yes, we are not experiencing the best of times, but there is reason to hope that we will see a better day.”

It is unseemly for a sitting justice to publicly advocate for such a blatantly partisan agenda, as if she were a candidate for the U.S. Senate. There can be no serious debate that such political organizing confirms our worst fears of a badly compromised federal judiciary.  So we can’t feign surprise that judges like Ginsburg are partisan hacks; but it is nevertheless sad that she is so brazen about leading the liberal social revolution. And even sadder that her behavior has largely gone without criticism.

UPDATE:

In a rather amazing turn of events, Judge Laurence Silberman of the US Court of Appeals for DC wrote a guest opinion in the Wall Street Journal this weekend, lamenting Justice Ginsburg’s sharpening political posture.  He writes that Ginsburg’s comments are, perhaps, the most political ever made by a sitting Justice of the Supreme Court.

“I knew Justice Ginsburg once as a disciplined, relatively restrained colleague on the District of Columbia Circuit, and therefore I regret very much her evolution,” Silberman wrote.

Some might be tempted to dismiss Judge Silberman’s public protest because he was appointed by President Reagan in 1985.  But we should cheer his courage in standing up to defend the ideal of a truly independent judiciary.