Patterico's Pontifications

7/10/2016

Ginsburg: It Could Have Been Worse. Scalia Could Have Lived.

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 11:42 pm



You think I’m exaggerating with that headline? I wish I were. Justice Scalia and Justice Ginsburg were friends, we were told. I bet Justice Scalia believed it. But this New York Times interview suggests . . . something different:

One of the 4-4 ties, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, averted what would have been a severe blow to public unions had Justice Scalia participated. “This court couldn’t have done better than it did,” Justice Ginsburg said of the deadlock. When the case was argued in January, the majority seemed prepared to overrule a 1977 precedent that allowed public unions to charge nonmembers fees to pay for collective bargaining.

A second deadlock, in United States v. Texas, left in place a nationwide injunction blocking Mr. Obama’s plan to spare more than four million unauthorized immigrants from deportation and allow them to work. That was unfortunate, Justice Ginsburg said, but it could have been worse.

“Think what would have happened had Justice Scalia remained with us,” she said. Instead of a single sentence announcing the tie, she suggested, a five-justice majority would have issued a precedent-setting decision dealing a lasting setback to Mr. Obama and the immigrants he had tried to protect.

“Think what would have happened” if my friend had remained alive.

Things could have been worse.

If my friend had remained alive.

Beware befriending a radical leftist. Yes, they might like you. But if it would further their political agenda, they might like you better dead.

79 Responses to “Ginsburg: It Could Have Been Worse. Scalia Could Have Lived.”

  1. Awful. If this was a slip of the tongue, she owes a giant public apology.

    I’m going to predict that we won’t see one. That’s not how radical leftists roll.

    Patterico (86c8ed) — 7/10/2016 @ 11:43 pm

  2. It’s all about advancing an agenda.

    Dejectedhead (d243ce) — 7/11/2016 @ 12:29 am

  3. I’ve been in the #NeverTrump camp so far, but Ginsburg is doing her level best to persuade me to vote for him regardless. Because yes, he’s a Democrat at heart, and will probably appoint squishes to the Court rather than another Scalia. But Clinton would certainly appoint another Ginsburg, and that’s something we just can’t afford.

    Dammit, GOP, would it have killed you to support Cruz from the start, instead of leaving us with a Dem-in-GOP-clothing as the best chance we have?

    Robin Munn (5158c8) — 7/11/2016 @ 12:51 am

  4. Pathetic Ginsburg.

    mg (31009b) — 7/11/2016 @ 3:10 am

  5. nonono

    stinkypig will do so good on the judges

    delicious judges from harvard or yale

    or harvard!

    or yale!

    happyfeet (28a91b) — 7/11/2016 @ 3:53 am

  6. Scalia may have been brilliant and innocent as a dove,
    but apparently the wise as a serpent part he underestimated.

    MD in Philly (f9371b) — 7/11/2016 @ 3:54 am

  7. Ginsburg is reprehensible, but this is low, even for her.

    However… I hope she does not resign, because I have every confidence that Obama would choose someone even worse as her replacement.

    Arizona CJ (da673d) — 7/11/2016 @ 3:57 am

  8. Disgusting old bag. I had her number from her confirmation hearings. It could have been Hillary sitting there, alternately evading, lying, and self-righteously arrogant.

    nk (dbc370) — 7/11/2016 @ 4:29 am

  9. And Hillary will appoint many Ginsbergs to SCOTUS.

    cedarhill (b72470) — 7/11/2016 @ 5:21 am

  10. Beware befriending a radical leftist. Yes, they might like you. But if it would further their political agenda, they might like you better dead.

    And since when is this news?

    Rev. Hoagie® (0f4ef6) — 7/11/2016 @ 5:31 am

  11. Ruth Buzzy Ginsberg is a gem. Never met a government program or a way to skirt Constitutional restrictions that she didn’t love.

    Ghost Rider (7b3b90) — 7/11/2016 @ 5:34 am

  12. “But if it would further their political agenda, they might like you better dead.”
    And sooner or later that will be true.

    pst314 (ae6bd1) — 7/11/2016 @ 5:53 am

  13. Or perhaps just scalded….?

    Richard Aubrey (472a6f) — 7/11/2016 @ 6:22 am

  14. You remember the plot of the pelican brief?

    narciso (732bc0) — 7/11/2016 @ 6:41 am

  15. Craven Raisin Craisin Power!

    Colonel Haiku (7d48bb) — 7/11/2016 @ 7:12 am

  16. I do indeed, and the circumstances surrounding Scalia’s death don’t pass the smell test. If we had a Justice Department worthy of the name, Scalia’s death would have been investigated as a homicide.

    ropelight (596f46) — 7/11/2016 @ 7:15 am

  17. Look at the way Tip O’Neill trashed President Reagan in the media, calling him, “an amiable dunce” after Ronnie tried to engage The Speaker with friendly chats at cocktail hours. And Ted Kennedy knifed Bush 43 in the back, after W believed he had be-friended Teddy.

    These leftists are nasty.
    Too bad the leftists don’t harbor as much anger toward Jihadists as they do toward Republicans.

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a) — 7/11/2016 @ 7:26 am

  18. A hateful, spiteful remark by an embittered leftist.

    Scalia had more intellectual honesty in his little finger than the four (five, if you include Kennedy) leftist judges combined.

    orcadrvr (3cc3b1) — 7/11/2016 @ 7:35 am

  19. Re: 11 – Ghost Rider, don’t insult Ms Buzzi – Ruth Buzzi has integrity.

    Re: 18 – We have 6 leftist Justices in practice – Roberts and Kennedy are sleepers, they betray the Nation, the Constitution, and the US Public when it matters.

    Steve Malynn (1d7837) — 7/11/2016 @ 7:43 am

  20. Read Ginsburg’s plurality opinion in the ACA case

    Her legal rationale is “We need health care reform and I like the policy – therefore it is constitutional “

    joe (debac0) — 7/11/2016 @ 8:30 am

  21. 16. Well, why on earth would Scalia choose a ranch near the Mexican border, when the same experience could be had in several upland Western states. That alone put him in close proximity to several bad actors (although, he was not as stalwart as Alito and Thomas WRT, letting his Catholicism and immigrant upbrining sometimes guide him leftward on some occasions).

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb) — 7/11/2016 @ 8:37 am

  22. Meh. I have plenty of disagreement on the merits with Justice Ginsburg. But she’s a wolf in wolf’s clothing, and no one has ever been fooled into thinking for a moment that she’s anything but a far-left judicial activist.

    But although she’s dangerous and misguided, she’s not evil. I don’t think she intended any slight to Justice Scalia or his memory here. I’m sure he’d have been the first one to laugh at this post.

    Beldar (fa637a) — 7/11/2016 @ 8:52 am

  23. If only Ginsberg had dropped dead instead. Then Justice Kennedy could only get a majority on the Right.

    Kevin M (25bbee) — 7/11/2016 @ 10:00 am

  24. Ginsberg is an unspeakably vile and evil enemy of America. Silly to pretend she has anything but the worst intentions for our country.

    Brian (a8fd83) — 7/11/2016 @ 10:06 am

  25. Ginsberg just provided proof as to why she should have never been appointed to the Supreme Court.

    John (8364b5) — 7/11/2016 @ 10:16 am

  26. Liberal Friends is an Oxymoron

    Frederick Manteghian (c790fc) — 7/11/2016 @ 10:18 am

  27. In the course of an interview, she was deep into a discussion of how the composition of the court, and in particular the 4-4 split created by the failure to confirm Merrick Garland, had affected the way cases turned out. It was then almost impossible for her not to say that things would have turned out even worse (from her point of view) if Scalia had not died.

    Sammy Finkelman (c82029) — 7/11/2016 @ 10:34 am

  28. Actually make that from both her and the interviewer’s point of view. She was commiserating woth him. Yes, a vacancy was bad for what I wanted, but if there had been no vancancy at all things would have been even worse, so don’t feel so bad about the vancancy.

    Sammy Finkelman (c82029) — 7/11/2016 @ 10:38 am

  29. Vile words from a vile little woman.

    Sgt. Hulka (c6eb0d) — 7/11/2016 @ 10:41 am

  30. RBG has shown herself to be a politician in a robe; as if there was any doubt before.

    Cornhead (53f28a) — 7/11/2016 @ 10:42 am

  31. An airplane trip (and high altitudes) increases the risk of a fatal heart arrhythmia , and the doctor he saw that week might have missed an incipient medical crisis, instead attribting Scalia’s pain to a torn rotator cuff. He did have that. but it was old.

    Sammy Finkelman (c82029) — 7/11/2016 @ 10:46 am

  32. recall in the book, john grisham seemed to have been so deranged over bush and atwater, that he though a contributor would actually put out a contract on two supreme court justices, in reality it only takes one, the rest fall in line,

    narciso (732bc0) — 7/11/2016 @ 10:46 am

  33. If this was a slip of the tongue

    It wasn’t.

    egd (1ad898) — 7/11/2016 @ 11:18 am

  34. Leftists are the scum of the earth.

    ccoffer (4d405c) — 7/11/2016 @ 11:27 am

  35. Not surprising. From Jonathan Adler:

    In NYT intrvw, Notorious RBG mused about possibility of overturning Heller, but lines no longer in published story.

    Dana (995455) — 7/11/2016 @ 11:33 am

  36. 35. Jonathan Adler is right. It’s online (and will be seen whenever anyone looks up the article online:)

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/11/us/politics/ruth-bader-ginsburg-no-fan-of-donald-trump-critiques-latest-term.html

    She mulled whether the court could revisit its 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder, which effectively struck down a key part of the Voting Rights Act. She said she did not see how that could be done.

    The court’s 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, establishing an individual right to own guns, may be another matter, she said.

    “I thought Heller was “a very bad decision,” she said, adding that a chance to reconsider it could arise whenever the court considers a challenge to a gun control law.

    But not all of that is in the printed paper.

    The words: “…may be another matter, she said.

    “I thought Heller was…adding that a chance to reconsider it could arise whenever the court considers a challenge to a gun control law are missing from the printed paper.

    It does say near the bottom of the web page:

    A version of this article appears in print on July 11, 2016, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Ginsburg Has a Few Words About Trump.

    A version.

    On Page A1 = starting on page A1. (which is the front page. Leftmost column only, below the fold)

    Sammy Finkelman (c82029) — 7/11/2016 @ 11:50 am

  37. The words:

    “…may be another matter, she said.

    “I thought Heller was…adding that a chance to reconsider it could arise whenever the court considers a challenge to a gun control law.

    are missing from the printed paper

    Sammy Finkelman (c82029) — 7/11/2016 @ 11:52 am

  38. What a pig.
    The absolute ugliest individual on the face of the earth. Typical Lib pic for supreme court.
    Looks like ginzburg’s had too many stays in the barrel

    Gary hench (992b7a) — 7/11/2016 @ 11:53 am

  39. More clearly:

    She mulled whether the court could revisit its 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder, which effectively struck down a key part of the Voting Rights Act. She said she did not see how that could be done.

    The court’s 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, establishing an individual right to own guns, may be another matter, she said.

    “I thought Heller was “a very bad decision,” she said, adding that a chance to reconsider it could arise whenever the court considers a challenge to a gun control law .

    Sammy Finkelman (c82029) — 7/11/2016 @ 11:58 am

  40. There is a lot of ruin in a once-great nation, and the left is using every jot and tittle of ruin available as we move from a free nation to a nation ruled from Washington, DC.

    Steve Malynn (1d7837) — 7/11/2016 @ 12:15 pm

  41. Ruth Bader Ginsberg is the face of #NeverTrump.

    Dystopia Max (76803a) — 7/11/2016 @ 1:00 pm

  42. This is true.

    aclu (31588f) — 7/11/2016 @ 1:14 pm

  43. Any truth that Scalia was writing the decision in Friedrichs? Making his untimely death somewhat…timely. I doubt we’ll ever know for sure but wouldn’t put it past the unions to call in some favors to prevent what would have been a huge blow.

    Todd G (c2f25e) — 7/11/2016 @ 1:42 pm

  44. Ruth Bader Ginsberg is the face of #NominateTrump.

    Ginsbergs going forward as far as the eye can see.

    Kevin M (25bbee) — 7/11/2016 @ 2:17 pm

  45. what could go wrong, he says,

    http://freebeacon.com/politics/clinton-doesnt-regret-republicans-enemies-terrible-things/

    narciso (732bc0) — 7/11/2016 @ 2:27 pm

  46. Ruth Bader Ginsberg is the face of #NeverTrump.
    Obvious troll is obvious.

    scrubone (c3104f) — 7/11/2016 @ 2:47 pm

  47. I’ve said it before; I’ll say it again.

    We are at war. The other wide will say anything, do anything, to win.

    The question is, what are we willing to do? (Aside from taking The High Road off the side of a mountain.)

    Deuce Frehley (73c323) — 7/11/2016 @ 3:11 pm

  48. This woman is pure evil. Too bad her sagging skin is hiding her 666 tattoo and pentagram.

    Blain (ea2f87) — 7/11/2016 @ 3:22 pm

  49. @ Arizona CJ (#7): Let her go. Then we might have a shot at some decent 4 to 3 rulings so long as the GOP holds the Senate and refuses to consent to any of BHO or HRC’s nominees.

    Mark L. (6b966a) — 7/11/2016 @ 3:24 pm

  50. #47 Deuce Frehley,

    Team Democrat always brings a gun to a knife fight, while our guys usually only come armed with a plastic spoon.

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a) — 7/11/2016 @ 3:29 pm

  51. Ginsberg is not #NeverTrump, she is #NeverGOP

    But she really hates Trump.

    “I can’t imagine what this place would be — I can’t imagine what the country would be — with Donald Trump as our president,” Ginsburg told the Times’ Adam Liptak. “For the country, it could be four years. For the court, it could be — I don’t even want to contemplate that.”

    Ginsburg also recalled something her late husband said about such matters: “Now it’s time for us to move to New Zealand.”

    This appears to be a joke, but Ginsburg’s sentiment here is crystal clear: She thinks Donald Trump would be a dangerous president. And in saying it, she goes to a place justices almost never do — and perhaps never have — for some very good reasons.

    Ginsburg is known for pushing the bounds of a justice’s public comments and has earned something of a cult following on the left. But some say she just went too far.

    “I find it baffling actually that she says these things,” said Arthur Hellman, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh. “She must know that she shouldn’t be. However tempted she might be, she shouldn’t be doing it.”

    Similarly, Howard Wolfson, a former top aide to Hillary Clinton and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, said Ginsburg shouldn’t have said it.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/11/in-bashing-donald-trump-some-say-ruth-bader-ginsburg-just-crossed-a-very-important-line/

    Kevin M (25bbee) — 7/11/2016 @ 3:30 pm

  52. I see no way that what Ginsburg said implied that she wanted Scalia to die
    so the court rulings would go her way. Scalia was appointed for life, so it
    seems that Ginsburg was merely stating the facts that because Scalia died
    it changed the court’s rulings in a way more to Ginsburg’s liking.

    Daniel (3747aa) — 7/11/2016 @ 4:12 pm

  53. he was a stumbling block, because he was on the ‘wrong side of history, got it amirite,

    http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2533698

    narciso (732bc0) — 7/11/2016 @ 5:11 pm

  54. what do you expect from trashy trashy harvardtrash like ruth

    class?

    happyfeet (28a91b) — 7/11/2016 @ 5:14 pm

  55. How about Trump stands aside, and whoever gets the nomination promises to put Trump on the Court.

    This would cause the liberals to resign en masse and move to New Zealand.

    Everyone wins, and we get entertainment to boot. We’d could televise the Court arguments in prime time, and pay for the court with the commercials.

    Kevin M (25bbee) — 7/11/2016 @ 5:23 pm

  56. #21, ulb, Scalia didn’t go to the Texas ranch to hunt. He went there to play pattycake.

    ropelight (596f46) — 7/11/2016 @ 5:33 pm

  57. If either Clarence Thomas or Sam Alito had made public comments about how Hillary is Satan, every left wing media outlet would be screaming for them to recuse themself from all sorts of future appeals to the Supreme Court on account of “bias.”

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a) — 7/11/2016 @ 5:36 pm

  58. OT but if you guys do any trading and have not done so since Brexit you are missing the boat. I DOUBLED one of my short term trading accounts over the last three weeks betting the “elites” were asses. Guess what? They’re asses. Today I turned around one particular stock four times for a +40k position at close. ( I always close in a cash position win, loose or draw with my short term accts ).

    Rev. Hoagie® (0f4ef6) — 7/11/2016 @ 5:39 pm

  59. well that’s been clear for some time, rev, the chimp circle couldn’t explain why the market took a dump, soros shorting it, probably had something to do with it,

    narciso (732bc0) — 7/11/2016 @ 5:42 pm

  60. good to know you profited from their stupidity,

    narciso (732bc0) — 7/11/2016 @ 5:43 pm

  61. http://www.fashiongonerogue.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ruth-bader-ginsburg-time-100-influential-people.jpg

    papertiger (c2d6da) — 7/11/2016 @ 5:55 pm

  62. Rev. Hoagie® (0f4ef6) — 7/11/2016 @ 5:39 pm

    oh, I’m right there with you. I shorted the panic. A fool and his money are soon parted.

    felipe (2457e9) — 7/11/2016 @ 6:20 pm

  63. #62 felipe,

    Once Hillary’s elected, a lot of fools (and wise people) will be parted from their money.

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a) — 7/11/2016 @ 6:45 pm

  64. At least she waited until the body of her “friend” was almost cold

    steveg (fed1c9) — 7/11/2016 @ 7:03 pm

  65. what’s a ministry of truth for, after all,

    http://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/pj-gladnick/2016/07/11/msm-joyously-hypes-evan-bayh-senate-run-skips-obamacare-switch

    narciso (732bc0) — 7/11/2016 @ 7:08 pm

  66. there is a certain amoral pragmatism, along with a lack of empathy in all of her public statements,

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/magazine/12ginsburg-t.html?_r=1

    narciso (732bc0) — 7/11/2016 @ 10:07 pm

  67. a commenter on althouse reminded me of this, which may have been a thread here,

    narciso (732bc0) — 7/11/2016 @ 10:18 pm

  68. “If either Clarence Thomas or Sam Alito had made public comments about how Hillary is Satan, every left wing media outlet would be screaming for them to recuse themself from all sorts of future appeals to the Supreme Court on account of “bias.””

    Maybe we should elect a guy who treats them as his personal chew toys.

    Dystopia Max (76803a) — 7/12/2016 @ 8:36 am

  69. #58, Hoagie, and # 62, felipe, way to go boys, water your flowers and pick your weeds.

    ropelight (596f46) — 7/12/2016 @ 8:40 am

  70. Ginsburg is an eugenics supporter, a racist, and a fascist enforcer of totalitarianism. May she rot for eternity.

    njrob (7929fa) — 7/12/2016 @ 8:55 am

  71. About what was cut from the New York Times artivle:

    The New York Sun (online only) seems to indicate it was cut online as well, but later restored:

    http://www.nysun.com/national/ginsburg-vows-to-retire-to-far-away-new-zealand/89649

    Justice Ginsburg also daydreamed-out-loud about overturning the gun-rights case known as Heller. The Times even seemed to want to protect Ginsburg from the fallout from this error of judgment, deleting it from the article until sharp-eyed readers called out the paper and the lines were restored.

    This is also in the New York Post today (page 25)

    Sammy Finkelman (643dcd) — 7/12/2016 @ 11:54 am

  72. Ginsberg doubles down:

    http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/12/politics/justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-donald-trump-faker/index.html

    Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s well-known candor was on display in her chambers late Monday, when she declined to retreat from her earlier criticism of Donald Trump and even elaborated on it.

    “He is a faker,” she said of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, going point by point, as if presenting a legal brief. “He has no consistency about him. He says whatever comes into his head at the moment. He really has an ego. … How has he gotten away with not turning over his tax returns? The press seems to be very gentle with him on that.”

    I am getting the feeling that she may resign.

    Kevin M (25bbee) — 7/12/2016 @ 4:39 pm

  73. “Awful. If this was a slip of the tongue, she owes a giant public apology.
    I’m going to predict that we won’t see one. That’s not how radical leftists roll.”

    This ain’t a left right thing at all. It’s age. You haven’t spent much time around tending to the over-80 crowd, have you. At that age the elderly speak their minds, even when they aren’t hitting on all cylinders. She popped off at Trump today as well. The court, like many institutions, needs not a term limit, but an age limit or a re-certification process of some sort.

    DCSCA (a343d5) — 7/12/2016 @ 5:13 pm

  74. Look, before she was appointed to the D.C. Circuit by Carter in 1980, Ruth Bader Ginsburg had been a leading hard-left law professor at Columbia, and also served as the general counsel and a longtime board member of the American Civil Liberties Union.

    So who here is surprised that she’s not a Trump fan?

    Who here thinks Justice Alito is an Obama fan?

    This is just a complete non-story.

    Beldar (fa637a) — 7/12/2016 @ 5:51 pm

  75. She’ll resign when and if the Dems win the WH in November; otherwise they’ll carry her feet-first from the SCOTUS in the proverbial pine box.

    This is not a surprise. Democrat judges view their job as only a pseudo-legal one: They’re charged with dressing up political decisions to benefit Democrat constituencies in the fake clothing of legal precedent, as continually re-spun by the living-breathing-Constitution priesthood, of which Justice Ginsburg is currently the senior High Priest.

    She plays hard, well, and consistently for her team, and has now, day in and day out, for decades. It’s genuinely impressive.

    But we’re supposed to be surprised that she has a distaste for Trump?

    Beldar (fa637a) — 7/12/2016 @ 5:56 pm

  76. there is no doubt the absolute contempt she has for the right, even her presumed friend, nino,

    narciso (732bc0) — 7/12/2016 @ 5:58 pm

  77. Being singularly unattractive can warp a person. Let’s face it, the lady is a two-bagger. I bet that even Bill Clinton did not make a pass at her. Part of her pique at Trump has to be sour grapes — knowing that he never would have given her a second look at any age.

    nk (dbc370) — 7/12/2016 @ 6:10 pm

  78. You give Slick too much credit. His comment upon seeing a deteriorating female mummy, somewhere in the neighborhood of a couple of thousand years old, was: She looks pretty good to me.

    ropelight (596f46) — 7/12/2016 @ 6:18 pm

  79. Beware befriending a radical leftist. Yes, they might like you. But if it would further their political agenda, they might like you better dead.

    Amen.

    http://freenorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2016/07/ginsburg-it-could-have-been-worse.html

    Brock Townsend (bb7d42) — 7/13/2016 @ 7:06 pm


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