A widely shared story that claims Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told The Associated Press that she plans to resign from the Supreme Court in protest of Republican President-elect Donald Trump is false.
The story was posted by several websites in December and versions of it have been in circulation since soon after the AP published its interview with Ginsburg on July 7.
Ginsburg told the AP when asked about a potential Trump presidency: “I don’t want to think about that possibility, but if it should be, then everything is up for grabs.”
The false story cites that factual quote from the AP interview but adds several paragraphs of fabricated quotes attributed to Ginsburg in which she expresses an unwillingness to serve under a Trump presidency. The story falsely quotes Ginsburg as saying, “I can tolerate this charade of a presidential campaign, but I could not live with him as president.”
At 83, Ginsburg is the court’s oldest justice, but she has announced no plans to retire from her lifetime appointment.
The story appeared to have originated in July on therightist.com, which bills itself as a “hybrid site of news and satire.” It says in a disclaimer that “not all of our stories are true.” A slightly modified version of the story was published in December by rumorjournal.com and success-street.com.
(AP)
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8 Responses
She will stay on the bench even on life support. She would rather suffer than let the court swing to the right.
Such a story is obvious satire. It wouldn’t even qualify as “fake news.”
why should bubby ruth resign? how many AK’s at her age make the kind of money she makes? and she has a lifetime guaranteed job to boot!
chaiml, she makes $213,900 a year. When she retires, her pension will be $213,900. Supreme Court justices have been entitled to a pension equivalent to their highest salary due to an 1869 law.
This situation is long overdue for a change. Life on the bench is ridiculous and should be changed to either 85 yrs. or, better still, 80 years.
And a pension equal to the highest income earned is totally insane. Which morons made that a law of the land??
Izzyg,
The law was made precisely to allow Supreme Court justices to retire gracefully, instead of holding on with last senile breaths, in order not the jeopardize their income.
Also, judges never really retire. They keep on hearing cases. In the case of Supreme Court justices, they can serve as “guest” judges on Federal appeals courts. Judges too old to function has been a problem in the past on the Supreme Court.
She will probably retire next time there is a Democratic president with a Democratic Senate, and probably regrets not retiring during the window in 2009-2010 – or she will die in office and be replaced by a conservative which will radically shift the court (plus one othe liberal and the lone moderate, are also at an age where their continued service is dubious – meaning that if Trump manages to last eight years and the Republicans keep the Senate, there is likely to be radical shift in the judiciary).
Too bad it is not true. Her successor would definitely be an improvement. One consolation – though…the house that she grew up in (east 9th between Ave O and Ave P in Brooklyn) has a shared driveway where every year Zevi Trenk puts up his famous sukkah…this makes up for all the garbage Ms. Ginsberg spouts.