This year continues to throw difficult situations at everyone, but especially now the patience and grit of U.S. citizens are tested. One of the most prominent and influential figures on the U.S. Supreme Court bench has passed away and has left the nation grieving. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a force to be reckoned with as she battled for women’s rights as a lawyer and judge throughout her career. 

Ginsburg made bipartisan efforts and was best friends with now passed Justice Antonin Scalia, once saying, “I disagreed with most of what he said, but I loved the way he said it.” When she was nominated, she was voted to the court with a vote of 96-3, further demonstrating her bipartisan, widespread popularity.

“Some of her greatest impacts that are most inspiring to me are the cases that she argued and won before the Supreme Court which changed the lives of women everywhere,” Tucker White ‘23 said.

She is known to be a true trailblazer. “She is the reason I want to be a civil rights attorney,” Olivia VanEss ‘21 said. “She is the reason why I’ve worked so hard in school. She has faced so many challenges in her life but she persevered.”

VanNess in particular felt the full impact of her loss. “I was up till about 1 am, which I hate staying up late because I couldn’t stop crying. It still doesn’t feel like she’s gone,” said VanEss. She isn’t alone. Many people stood outside the Supreme Court for people to pay their final respects. 

“Both Justice Ginsburg and I’s favorite amendment is the 14th. All I hope to do someday is continue her legacy and fight for the ‘equal protection of the laws’ as she has done her entire career,” VanEss said.

White also remembers the night of her death as one of despair and anguish. “I first just felt a wave of sadness when she died, then I felt fear for the future of the Supreme Court,” he said. 

The main controversy surrounding the Notorious RBG’s death is the now empty seat she left in her wake. The Trump administration has spoken of having all intents to fill her seat before the election this Nov. 

About four years ago, the Republican party had shut down all of President Obama’s efforts to elect a new Judge for the same reasons they are now pushing to nominate one. 

 “Trump and most Republican members of the Senate said Obama should wait so that the people should have a voice, and to go back on that now is just hypocritical,” White said.

The Supreme Court was meant to be separated from the politics of the day by being appointed for life and therefore able to escape the passions of voters since they won’t have to campaign for their seats, but both VanEss and White believe that the court has become overly politicized.