Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the only Democratic appointee on the high court when she joined, a lonely minority. Trump's pick would cement a conservative majority.
When Ruth Bader Ginsburg joined the Supreme Court in 1993, she was its lone Democratic appointee, the first in 26 years. Her eight colleagues were named by the four Republican presidents from Richard Nixon to George H.W. Bush.
By contrast, if President Trump succeeds in putting a conservative woman in her place, the new justice will join five other Republican appointees and could play a major role in shifting the law to the right on abortion, religion and guns.That prospect, compared with Ginsburg’s career, shows how fully a justice’s legacy depends on the timing of her appointment and the politics of the era.
After a bruising confirmation fight, Thomas was confirmed to succeed him by a 52-48 vote in a Senate where Democrats held the majority. The most liberal justice had been succeeded by one who became its most reliable conservative. In 1992, the year before Ginsburg arrived, Justices Antonin Scalia and Thomas issued angry dissents when the court fell one vote short of overturning Roe vs. Wade. Both vowed they would continue the fight and never accept the right to abortion as a settled precedent.
Clinton nominees Ginsburg and Breyer replaced Byron R. White, a moderate Democrat, and Harry A. Blackmun, a liberal Republican. The court’s balance stayed about the same.
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