WASHINGTON: US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died at the age of 87.
Ginsburg died of complications from metastatic pancreas cancer at her home in Washington, DC, surrounded by her family, the court said in a statement on Friday evening.
“Our nation has lost a jurist of historic stature,” Chief Justice John Roberts said in the statement.
“We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn, but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her – a tireless and resolute champion of justice.”
Giant of jurisprudence
Ginsburg was a giant of American jurisprudence and a stalwart defender of women’s and voting rights. She was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1993 by then US president Bill Clinton – becoming only the second woman ever to serve on the court.
Ginsburg’s death a little more than six weeks before the 3 November presidential election is likely to start a fight in the US Senate over whether she should be replaced by a jurist nominated by US President Donald Trump.
Trump has already has named two conservative justices to the court.
According to National Public Radio, just days before her death, Ginsburg dictated this statement to her granddaughter Clara Spera: “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”
Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer echoed that on Friday, saying the “vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president”.
He described Ginsburg as a “giant in American history” and said, “she would want us all to fight as hard as we can to preserve her legacy”.