The Briefing Room
General Category => Politics/Government => Topic started by: Wingnut on February 14, 2019, 02:18:53 am
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By Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has missed a month of Supreme Court arguments as she recovers from lung cancer surgery. But she’s not the first justice to be away for a while and her absence hardly compares with those of some of her predecessors.
The day before the Supreme Court began its term in October 1949, Justice William Douglas broke 14 ribs and suffered a punctured lung when he was thrown from his horse on a trail in the Cascade Mountains in Washington. He didn't return to the bench for nearly a half year, and his long recovery caused delays in several cases, including challenges to segregation.
Like much of what goes on away from public view at the Supreme Court, how the justices deal with a colleague's absence can be opaque. The individual justice decides whether to rule on cases even if she has missed arguments. Indeed, Chief Justice John Roberts already has announced that Ginsburg is participating in the cases she missed.
https://www.cleveland.com/nation/2019/02/ginsburgs-absence-from-supreme-court-not-as-long-as-others.html (https://www.cleveland.com/nation/2019/02/ginsburgs-absence-from-supreme-court-not-as-long-as-others.html)
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FTA:
Douglas already had become the court's longest-serving justice by the time of his stroke on the last day of 1974. Though unable to walk and generally weakened by the stroke, Douglas refused to retire. Because of his illness, the court ordered a new round of arguments in eight cases in the spring of 1975, an unusually large number.
"They agreed to take away his vote because they thought he was incompetent," historian David Garrow said.
Wait, what?
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I remember reading at the time that William O. Douglas was incompetent for a long time before he ever left the bench. Pathetic.
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I remember reading at the time that William O. Douglas was incompetent for a long time before he ever left the bench. Pathetic.
From what I understand, he never was competent in the first place. He's the epitome of what happens when you make judicial appointments a political exercise.
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Also true, jmyrle!
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She's still much older than other justices who have vacated the bench for a period of time. She may be still recovering, but my hunch is her physical and/or mental health may be declining. IF she waits to step down until 2020, I think the DEMS would try to block her replacement until after an election year, much like the GOP did when Bammy tried to place Garland to the court.
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Mid 2020 would be no problem, though Trump should have a team working now to thoroughly vet potential candidates. It's a safe bet that dems are already hard at work digging up every everything they can find and manufacturing whatever they can't on everyone on Trump's list. They'll wait and spring it at the last minute to try to force a delay into 2021.