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Ginsburg’s health had been a subject of public concern for years. She was first diagnosed with colon cancer in 1999, which she overcame, and then with early-stage pancreatic cancer in 2009, treated surgically with no initial recurrence. Later, in 2018, cancerous nodules were removed from her lung, and in 2019, she underwent radiation for a pancreatic tumor. By July 2020, she revealed she was undergoing chemotherapy for a recurrence of cancer, with lesions found on her liver, yet she insisted she remained “fully able” to serve on the Court. Her resilience was legendary—she rarely missed a day of work, even during treatment, and maintained a rigorous schedule that included her famous exercise routine. But by September 2020, the cancer had progressed beyond her ability to fight it, and she died surrounded by her family, including her daughter Jane and son James.
Her death came at a pivotal moment, just 46 days before the U.S. presidential election on November 3, 2020, pitting incumbent President Donald Trump against Democratic challenger Joe Biden. Ginsburg, appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1993 as the second woman ever to serve on the Supreme Court, had been a leading voice in the Court’s liberal wing. Her passing left a vacancy that threatened to shift the Court’s ideological balance, then narrowly conservative at 5-4, further to the right. Days before her death, she dictated a statement to her granddaughter Clara Spera: “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.” This reflected her awareness of the political stakes and her desire to preserve her legacy of progressive rulings on issues like abortion rights, same-sex marriage, and voting rights.
The news of her death triggered an immediate outpouring of grief and tributes. Chief Justice John Roberts called her “a jurist of historic stature,” adding, “We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague.” Former President Clinton praised her as “one of the most extraordinary Justices ever to serve,” while countless Americans—from legal scholars to young feminists who dubbed her the “Notorious R.B.G.”—mourned the loss of a figure who had reshaped the law to dismantle gender discrimination. Vigils sprang up outside the Supreme Court and in cities nationwide, with people leaving flowers, candles, and white jabots (collars reminiscent of those she wore) as symbols of her influence.
Politically, her death ignited a firestorm. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who in 2016 had blocked President Barack Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland after Justice Antonin Scalia’s death citing an election year, reversed course. Within hours of Ginsburg’s passing, he declared that Trump’s nominee would receive a Senate vote, despite the even closer proximity to the 2020 election. Trump, speaking at a rally in Minnesota that evening, called her “an amazing woman” and, less than two weeks later, on September 26, nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative federal appeals court judge. Barrett was confirmed by the Republican-led Senate on October 26, 2020, just eight days before the election, cementing a 6-3 conservative majority on the Court—a shift that has since influenced rulings on abortion, religious liberty, and other contentious issues.
Ginsburg’s funeral proceedings reflected her stature. She became the first woman to lie in repose at the Supreme Court on September 23–24, 2020, and then the first woman and first Jewish person to lie in state at the U.S. Capitol on September 25. A private interment followed on September 29 at Arlington National Cemetery, beside her husband Martin Ginsburg, who had died in 2010. Her death on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, added a poignant note—some noted the Jewish tradition that a person who dies then is a “tzaddik,” a righteous individual.
Ginsburg’s death remains a defining moment in American judicial and political history. It underscored the fragility of the Court’s balance, the intensity of partisan divides, and the enduring impact of her work. Her legacy—forged through landmark opinions like United States v. Virginia (1996), which struck down the male-only admissions policy at the Virginia Military Institute—continues to inspire debates about equality, justice, and the role of the judiciary. Though the “boat” of the Court, to borrow Benedict’s metaphor, did not capsize, Ginsburg’s absence has undeniably altered its course.
