Women Criminal Defense Attorneys: Please Don’t Go, Justice Ginsburg!
There has been rampant speculation about who would be the next Supreme Court Justices replacing Justice Ginsburg and Justice Kennedy, since President Obama made a comment at a fundraiser in Massachusetts about future Supreme Court vacancies. From my point of view, The ABA Journal got it one hundred percent right when they said that Justice Ginsburg would be replaced by a woman, and that the appointment of a justice to replace Justice Kennedy would result in a political World War III. One of names that has been floated as a possible replacement to Justice Ginsburg was Patricia Millet who was appointed last year to the DC Court of Appeals. We highlighted her work on a significant insider trading case before she took the bench.
Without question the replacement of Justice Ginsburg needs to be a woman. And if you remember her comment about when there would be enough women on the Supreme Court, I think she was correct when she stated, “When There are Nine.” Just recently Justice Ginsburg spoke at an address at Duke University about her desire for ‘Equal Dignity for Women in the Court Decisions’. She told the audience that the Court speaks of equal dignity in recent LGBT rights decisions but the court has yet to embrace “the ability of women to decide for themselves with what their destiny will be.” Obviously this is not to say that Justice Ginsburg is unsupportive of LGBT rights but she is correctly noting that women deserve as much equality as any group in this country. Justice Ginsburg continues to voice her concern over the Hobby Lobby decision. In her blistering dissent she said the court “has ventured into a minefield.” The New York Times wrote about her comments and noted that “She said the court’s five-justice conservative majority, all men, did not understand the challenges women face in achieving authentic equality.”
What a concept! Authentic equality. Not lip service or token positions but real authentic equality. Isn’t that what is at the heart of the debate to reenergize the women’s movement? We will need many more authentic woman leaders and champions like Justice Ginsburg to get us there. I know that there are many capable candidates out there to replace her, and surely Patricia Millet is one of them, but these are huge shoes to fill not only as a legal scholar but as a voice for women’s rights everywhere. In spite of the obvious politics surrounding Supreme Court appointments that are in place to ensure the appointment of a replacement liberal justice, I just can’t help but think… Please don’t go Justice Ginsburg!