Ruth Bader Ginsburg a liberal Supreme Court justice in the United States of Americ has died after 27 years in the country’s highest court.
Ginsburg, Reuters reported, died on Friday at age 87 of complications from pancreatic cancer.
Her death could upend the upcoming presidential elections in the US as it raises passion on both the left and the right of the political spectrum in the fight to replace her.
Conversative and religious voter who are not keen on reflecting Donald Trump may be motivated to vote for him so as to strengthen the balance of power in favour of conservative judges in the highest court, for decades to comes.
Justices in the US Supreme Court, once appointed, serve for life.
Ginsberg was a an advocate for women’s rights – winning major gender-discrimination cases before the Supreme Court – before being appointed to the top US judicial body by Democratic President Bill Clinton in 1993. The diminutive dynamo became the court’s leading liberal voice.
She became only the second woman ever to serve on the nine-member Supreme Court.
Her small stature – she stood 5-foot, 1-inch tall (155 cm) – and frailty in later years belied an outsize persona and clout.
Fans called her “The Notorious R.B.G.,” inspired by the late American rapper The Notorious B.I.G.
Ginsburg was a reliable vote in favor of liberal causes on the court on other issues as well including defending abortion rights, expanding gay rights, preserving the Obamacare healthcare law, and advancing the rights of racial minorities the poor and disenfranchised.
Her death gives Republican President Donald Trump the opportunity to make his third appointment to the court and expand its conservative majority to 6-3.
Ginsburg had experienced a series of health issues.
In July she disclosed she had a recurrence of cancer after bouts with pancreatic cancer in 2019 and 2009.
She also survived bouts with lung cancer in 2018 and colon cancer in 1999.
President Jimmy Carter made Ginsburg a federal appellate judge in 1980 and Clinton elevated her to the Supreme Court 13 years later.
She joined Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who became the first woman justice in 1981, on the bench.
During her tenure, two more women were named to the high court: Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
