I love Ruth Bader Ginsburg as much as the next person, but I’m also one of those people who wishes that she had retired when President Obama had a majority in the Senate. RBG is 85 years old right now, and there’s been speculation about her health and frailty for years. Last night, in her Supreme Court office, RBG had a bad fall. She’s been hospitalized.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg fractured three ribs after falling in her Supreme Court office Wednesday night, the Supreme Court said in a statement. According to the statement, Ginsburg, 85, experienced discomfort after going home following the fall and was admitted to George Washington University Thursday morning for observation and treatment.
As one of the court’s older members, Ginsburg’s health has become the subject of much attention in recent years. In November 2014, she underwent a heart procedure to have a stent placed in her right coronary artery, and in 2009, she was treated for early stages of pancreatic cancer. In 1999, just six years after being sworn in as an associate justice, Ginsburg successfully underwent surgery to treat colon cancer.
If Ginsburg leaves the court during Trump’s presidency, it… will just be the literal worst thing that has ever happened. Morons in Missouri, Indiana and North Dakota all voted out their Democratic senators in this week’s midterms, and those were three senators who voted against Brett Kavanaugh. Now Republicans have an even bigger majority in the Senate. Any SCOTUS nominee would only need Senate confirmation, not House confirmation.
Ten bucks says that Brett Kavanaugh pushed RBG.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
I’m so sorry. Hope she recovers soon. She’s so great.
Donald pushed her.
Do you know that when I read the title I honestly believed that someone had pushed her?
I love the mighty RBG–and since she’s our last hope and democracy’s best advocate–and all that is left standing between Trump and another Kavanaugh fiasco–we can only hope she’ll recover and be able to resume her duties.
Terrible news. Get well soon notorious RBG.
I honestly don’t know how much more craziness I can take. I think the rapture happened and we’re the left behinds.
So with you two. I was anxious as soon as I saw the headline and I’m glad she’s so tough. Sending the best and healing thoughts.
My god this woman is tough. Pancreatic cancer, colon cancer, a stent for her heart, and she went home after fracturing 3 ribs and felt ‘discomfort’. That’s impressive by all counts.
Speedy recovery, RBG.
Yes, she’s a mighty soul, and I just pray that her body can keep up with her soul.
NOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!
+1, exactly what I was going to say. Falls are really bad for the elderly, I hope she didn’t break anything.
Fortunately, it appears to be “just” cracked ribs. As long as she keeps moving (which she will, she is very fit for an elderly person) to prevent pneumonia, she will be OK. The biggest contributor to the high death rate after falls in the elderly is hip fractures, and she didn’t get one of those, THANKS BE TO ALL THE GODS I DON’T EVEN BELIEVE IN.
Don’t look at the statistics. My grandpa fell broke his arm and died a month later this summer. Your risk of death after falling and breaking something at her age within the next year is something like 80%. The stats when elderly falls are super grim. Even at age 65 a fall that breaks something you have an over 50% risk of dying in the next two years :(. This is what the hospital told us. The stats for elderly falls are very bad so mentally prepare yourselves.
Yup. Stats say once the elderly fall they will most likely not make it another year. I hope she proves them wrong…
This was my first thought. My grandmother defied the odds, living for more than a decade after breaking both her arms (in my kitchen, on Thanksgiving, sigh). And she was very sedentary and didn’t comply with her PT. RBG is much more spry and fit, I think, so her chances of recovery are likely better.
I just saw this and was like Noooo! By the way, if you haven’t gotten the chance to see the RBG documentary, it’s available on Hulu right now and I highly suggest everyone watch it. She has led such an interesting life! My mom watched part of it with me and my mom didn’t know much about her and was very impressed by her career and the things she has accomplished. I also wished I had paid attention to RBG while her husband was still alive because her husband was quite amazing (he’s the one that used his contacts and pushed her to get nominated by Clinton in the early 90s, Ruth was quite happy to be like “Well if they think I’m worthy they’ll pick me!). I also own the book The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, it’s the book with Ruth wearing the Biggie Smalls lopsided crown on the cover and it’s an entertaining read and well researched.
I really hope she recovers but a fall at this age can be so devastating. People who seemed ageless just seem to age overnight. As for wishing she retired during the Obama administration–sure we can say that now but we had no idea at the time Trump would be president so blaming her for not stepping down won’t do anything. The woman is a workhorse, she LOVES to work. She still has all her mental faculties which at her age is amazing and honestly I don’t see why someone should stop working if they are capable of doing it and love what they do. I’m just wondering how this fall will impact her. Obviously I don’t want her to leave the bench and give Trump the power to appoint another Justice but I’m more worried about her well-being right now.
Great post! And, yes, watch to doc.
We shouldn’t blame her for wanting to work as long as she wants, but perhaps this whole fiasco will be a lesson to future justices not to roll the dice and to retire when there is a sweet spot, like back when Obama had the majority.
@Amelie – Yes, when a person in their 80’s starts to fall that signals the beginning of the end. I have seen this so very often over the past two years with elderly relatives, and my mother last year. She passed at 88 y.o. in December, and it was very hard to watch a once strong woman become so frail so quickly. No matter how much protection was provided it became impossible for her to stay steady on her feet.
Thank you for the recommendation on the RBG documentary. I will watch it. She is an interesting and vital person, and I am hoping she has a steady, if not quick, recovery. That would bode well for her lasting through the next two years. Broken ribs are so very painful and can bring even the strongest to their knees.
I also recommend reading “Sisters in Law” by Linda Hirschman. She tracks the careers of RBG and Sandra Day O’Connor to the Supremes. We take so much for granted that we don’t realize what those women did for us. A jury of OUR peers? Meaning a jury that’s not all men? The right to pass spousal share in veterans or Social Security or a pension to our spouse when we die? Credit in our home names? So much more. Those two women!
Thanks for the rec! I was actually on Amazon the other day seeing if there were any other books about RBG that were well-written and there seemed to be a few but the one I have is so great, I wasn’t sure how others would measure up. I remember doing a book report project on Sandra Day O’Connor in elementary school. To be honest I can’t remember much about her life apart from her being the first female Supreme Court Justice. I know for awhile it was just Sandra and RBG together on the bench and it was awhile before Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor were appointed. I will definitely make a point to read this book!
Sandra grew up on a ranch in Arizona. The two women had very different family backgrounds, very different personal histories.
The RBG documentary is wonderful! I saw it twice at the cinema
I saw it with another lawyer friend and we were both inspired. She faced so much sexism from day one and crafted an amazing career. Now mind you some of the crap she faced still exists for female lawyers, but not to the same degree.
She is a very strong woman and she has the will to outlast the orange monster.
Yes she should have retired years ago when Obama had a majority. She is amazing but I think her refusal to step down will taint her legacy.
Highly disagree. And look – there was no way McConnell was going to let Obama name any more justices. She did the right – and only – thing.
When Obama had a majority. McConnel world have had nothing to do with it.
I agree, Michel.
Obama had a senate super majority for only about 5 months, because in 2007 Franken didn’t get seated until late July. Kennedy and Bird were out in August, and Kennedy died by September. Dems only had senate super majority available to vote from Sept.2007 to mid-January 2008 (and the holiday season contains a lot of breaks).
Remember, back then you needed more than 51 votes to confirm a SCOTUS.
As much as I love RBG, she should have retired once Obama won his 2nd election. Also, there needs to be a term limit for Justices, 15 years or up until 70, whatever comes first. It makes no sense that all that’s good and decent in this country has to be protected by a frail 85 yo.
That being said, she can’t step down in the next 2 years and she can’t die. I don’t care what’ll be needed to keep her alive, hyperbaric chamber, organic juices hand-pressed by virgins during a full moon, whatever, but she has to be sitting for another 2 years.
There should be a term limit for SCOTUS justices, absolutely, but it would have to be long enough to last through at least two, two-term presidencies, so sixteen years, minimum. Justices are supposed to be above party politics, so the term would have to last long enough to theoretically serve under both parties. A twenty year term would probably have the best chance of satisfying both sides of the aisle needed to set such a limit. It could not, however, be pegged to age, because there is no way it would stand up to a challenge on the grounds of ageism.
ETA, there should also be a term limit for congresspeople and senators.
I agree that anything between 14 to 20 years would be a good limit, I’d tend to go with anything that isn’t a multiple of 4 so that it wouldn’t be tied to election outcome (because SCOTUS and POTUS should be separated branch of power). Most other countries have an age limit for SCOTUS (in Canada, it’s 75) and it works; if the will is there, it could be doable. I mean, there’s a retirement age isn’t it, you get Medicare once you reach 65, those aren’t considered ageism. No one should be dying on the job; the only other jobs that require such a thing is being Pope and being a country’s monarch… Neither are examples of the principles on which America was build upon.
And yes, there should be term limits at every level. People that we elect should be our contemporaries and should go back to being a simple civilian at some point so that they think a little bit more about how their decision impact the population
I’ve heard this discussion among federal workers and there is a feeling they could pass term limits as long as it wasn’t tied to age, because of the inevitable discrimination suit that would invite, but a twenty year term would mean the average justice, who is appointed in their 50s, would term out in their 70s, so effect achieved (and John Roberts would be out in his 60s). I believe the point of the twenty year term was to make it so that every president has a chance to appoint a justice. It was a federal judge I heard explain this and he explained that it would roll out at a staggered interval so the current justices start phasing out on a specific schedule, and then the replacements would term out in a staggered pattern and the end result is every four years the president picks a new justice. That way, even a one-term president gets a pick, but a two-term president, indicating a level of popularity, gets rewarded with two picks. It was the most fair proposal I heard when this discussion was happening, and that judge said that plan has been discussed before and if there ever is a term limit for SCOTUS, it would probably be this twenty-year plan, and it would also likely apply to all federally appointed judges. Scheduled term replacements would mean no party could stuff the courts (like 45 is doing) because vacancies would arrive on an ordered, staggered, pattern. There would not only be a limit to how long judges serve, but also to how many benches any one president can fill.
However, everyone seemed very pessimistic about congressional term limits because while they *should* exist, the people in power would have to vote to remove themselves from power, and they will never do that.
Any 85 y/o involved in a bad fall is bad news.
Recover quickly, please.
IMO, she should be allowed to wear comfy pj’s, eat cookies, and recover at her own pace while still being an excellent member of SCOTUS.
And yes, I agree on term limits need to be in place. For all Gov’t. positions in the future.
She will have the best medical care but oh my couldn’t happen at a worse time for America. Its reported it is fractured ribs which is recoverable.
It’s recoverable of course. But bed rest and hospitalization takes a huge toll on the elderly general health. And falling is always a bad sign at that age… I’m really afraid but I wish her (and the US, you guys need her!) well.
Agreed! Love her, but she should have retired under Obama’s watch! I hope she gets well soon.
Agree. There were rumors at the time Obama may have talked to her about it.
Doesn’t anyone recall merrick garland? So…she was supposed to know what would happen in Obama’s second term and leave ten years ago? I’m certainly pulling for her.
I know it was a joke about Brett Kavanaugh pushing RBG, but with awful people in and attached with this administration. When I saw the headline I immediately thought of someone pushing her.
I wouldn’t put anything by that bunch.
I’m sure I am in the minority here but there needs to be an age limit to serving as a Justice or any other position like House, Senate, Presidency, Congress, etc.. I am not saying that a 75 year old isn’t as sharp as a 30 year old, but don’t these people have lives outside of work? Do they really want to spend the final years on earth fighting for/against things that they will probably never benefit from? There was a SC senator that served until he was 100. Most of them are white men who won’t just let it go. I hope RBG bounces back after this stronger than ever.
We have some real dunder heads in the SC like Thomas & now Kavanaugh. Young and dumber than 1/3rd of an 85 year old Ruth.
Article III judges of a certain age has to undergo a physical and cognitive tests every year. If they are up to serving and can mentally and physically do it, they can remain on the bench.
Someone at RBGs level of intelligence and wisdom would have much more insight than someone in their 30s. And, yes, for someone in their later years it would mean a great deal to them that they are making a significant contribution for the betterment of society, whether or not THEY would benefit from it. Aren’t politicians PUBLIC servants? At least that’s how I think they view themselves starting out their political careers. I do agree with term limits, however. Someone in their mid-80’s physically is entering a risky time, even if they are an exceptionally strong individual.
Age is not a problem as long as frequent cognitive tests are given. The term limits, however, should be in place. There’s no way somebody born in the 1940s can really have a full grasp of the changes in the world in 2018.
As it stands a cognitive test should be required for the president. The current one is showing signs of dementia. Reagan did too, but he had better people to hide his condition in the second term.
Ah $hit! I really want her to hang in there until the clock runs out on that traitor or the disgraced NY senator and the other bum are hauled to jail for insider trading and misuse of campaign funds. Seriously, that’s how we will get a foothold on the Senate.
I come from a line of women who live well into their 90’s. Both my mom and grandmother broke a shoulder when they were 87 and lived another 6 years. In fact my mom had her leg amputated right above the knee at 90 and lived another 3 years. To me some has to do with heredity and also the person’s state of mind. Hopefully she can stay until after the 2020 elections and we can elect a Democratic president.
If Ruth goes, here comes another conservative justice. Ramifications for decades to come. The Blue puddle will not stop the Infant and all those who readily fall in line with him.
The blue puddle can’t. The Senate verifies SC candidates, and Republicans solidified their hold in this past election. There is literally nothing we can do if she passes.
Which is EXACTLY what Hillary Clinton warned everybody about, and too many people wanted to play games pretending like it wasn’t a real issue.
Hillary gets some of the blame. More time should have been spent building her platform instead of pointing out that at least she wasn’t as bad as Trump. She was completely tone death with how the campaign was going.
Yes, I know it’s the Senate, I am saying overall, the supposed Blue Wave changes nothing. We are still stuck in Trumplandia.
No, Hillary does not get the blame. Voters are to blame. Period, end of story. Voters are to blame for refusing to show up in the midterms, voters are to blame for putting Trump in office either directly or indirectly, and voters are to blame for the shit show we have now. I have reached the end of my patience hearing otherwise. Politicians are not superheroes who swoop down and save everybody from ourselves. We are the ones who have the power to put people in office, not her. We are the ones responsible for our actions and inaction. I don’t care if her campaign was “tone deaf” – although your comment reveals about how little you actually paid attention to what she was actually saying in the campaign because “I’m not Trump” was not the thrust of her message. It only became that at the end when the media became infatuated with the shit show he was providing they hammered her with real questions and softballed him non-stop. Regardless, when you have racist demagogue using Nazi-esque language and fascist commentary to drive a party, you do the responsible thing and make certain those people don’t get into power. Christ, I’m not even a registered Democrat, and I knew better than to vote independent or stay at home in 2016.
The blue wave was never going to change everything. That’s ludicrously naive thinking. What the “blue puddle” did was buy us some more time, which was always the intent. Now comes the hard work – which Americans are notoriously shy to do when it comes to politics. If people want to win in 2020, they have to put the groundwork in now, getting out of the vote, working with local reps and organizations, forming that progressive platform. There is no quick and easy fix to fascism.
Gigi- Hillary spent plenty of time talking about the issues and her plans. The media simply ignored her, preferring to focus on crazy Trump. It was really hard to find anything about what she was doing and saying.
The media didn’t start to wake up to how they were being played until quite late in the game, after Trump gathered everybody for a “special announcement” at his new DC hotel, spent a few seconds saying he no longer thought Obama was born in Kenya or something like that. And then he went on to promote the opening of his new hotel.
The media were angry enough that as I recall, only one set of cameras took a tour of the hotel and that was just so they could check the origin of all the stuff in the rooms (not made in USA, of course). They didn’t show the photos of the tour on tv. After that, Trump lost his absolute allure for them.
Trump spent very little money on ads and such because he didn’t need them. He got all the free publicity he wanted from the media, including shows like Morning Joe (he was constantly calling into that show). It wasn’t only Fox News that was promoting him.
But for Hillary? It was all pretty much crickets. She was telling the truth and saying sensible things but just not covered. I think when we still had the Fairness Doctrine, coverage of candidates was more even-handed and serious.
I’m sorry, but it is my opinion she get some of the blame and I’m sticking to it. I’m a Democrat but a lot of what I saw was a person who came across as if she was entitled to have the position and she didn’t take the fact that he could win seriously. A lot of Democrats didn’t. Six months before the election I was telling my friends she is not going to win. I was argued with, I was shouted down and I was told no, you’re crazy. Just like we’re not going to win in 2020 either if we don’t get with it and find a platform to develop. This past election has shown me Trump’s base is not getting weaker.
The BLUE PUDDLE?!?! No…NO!!! Nationwide…we moved over 45 million Americans to Democratically controlled states…took majority of the House…AND kicked MAJA A– in statewide/local elections…which is WHERE THE CORRUPT GOP LIVES/BREATHE/FEED!
Don’t get it twisted just because we didn’t get the “Glamma Shots”…THIS TIME…we set the stage for that to happen…NEXT TIME! Florida passed the bill allowing former felons to vote…at this VERY MOMENT…we are gearing up to fight for our VOTERS RIGHTS AS IF IT IS 1964!!!
BLUE WAVE IS CORRECT!!!!
Btw…the Senate was NEVER in play for Dems, because of horrific gerrymandering…however..in 2020…when TRUMP will also be on the line…
OH…IT WILL BE ON AND POPPPING…and btw…the 3 states that CHEATED using HORRIFIC voter suppression/hacking thanks to their corrupt GOP state officers….that gave Trump his electoral college win? They…ALL TURNED BLUER THAN BLUE ON TUESDAY!
That’s a wave you can WASH AWAY YOUR SINS WITH!
She took it ABSOLUTELY seriously. I don’t know how you think a woman who has spent her entire life in politics since her twenties, who lived through the women’s rights movement, who spent her tenure as first lady being told she was “too political,” is somehow magically unaware of how the odds were stacked against her. She warned us about the Supreme Court. She warned us about the fascist dialogue he was using. Time after time again, this woman made it perfectly clear in debates and in rallies what her platform was and what we were up against. (I mean, literally, how many of us have goddamn smart phones. It takes two seconds to google a goddamn candidate’s website.) People chose not to hear because Americans prefer political spectacle over political realities, which is why the Internet fell all over Bernie Sanders and overlooked the fact that his platform was far less substantially outlined than hers.
At the end of the day, it’s not the job of politicians to educate America. It’s the job of voters to pay attention to their country, understand the issues, and acknowledge what’s at stake when they vote. I’m sure plenty of Democrats didn’t take Donald Trump as seriously as they should have – because the media sure as shit didn’t. I knew some of them. Most of them were middle class white Americans that didn’t want to believe America was that stupid, racist, and backwards. Minorities knew better. And, well. Aren’t we learning quite the lesson about taking democracy for granted.
Hillary would talk about her issues for an hour straight at her rallies, and then the press would just feature the few seconds where she made a general reference to her opponent. To act like Hillary wasn’t out there talking at length about the issues is to re-write history.
I spent the morning have a total freak out over this. Bone breaks at her age can absolutely create complications, and while I trust that she is getting proper care (that so many poor Americans don’t have access to, by the way), MY GOD, CAN I HAVE ONE DAMN WEEK IN 2018 THAT ISN’T FILLED WITH MINDLESS TERROR OF WHAT COULD GO WRONG NEXT.
A week? I would like a day. Just one day.
I’m trying to be optimistic here. I only have weekends to drink away my problems.
She reportedly uses weights and has a trainer. Hopefully her bones are healthier than most people her age. Also ribs are so easy to break even in a younger person. Falling can be determental to a lot of people. I would love to think she has an aid/assistant that lives with her?
A fall like that at her age is bad news bears.
Prayer circle around RBG! 1) because she’s BADASS! and 2) because the Orange Menace should not be able to choose ANOTHER SCOTUS!
What moron made supreme court judges a lifetime appointment? Such a bad idea.
honestly i’m getting to the point where emptying out my savings account and just bailing sounds the best option. this is so depressing. I fear if she’d retired under Obama the same would’ve happened with his nominee to replace her that happened with garland
The hits just keep on coming…
Get well soon RBG!