Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she hopes to stay on the Supreme Court for five more years — until she is 90.
“I’m now 85,” Ginsburg said Sunday, according to CNN. “My senior colleague, Justice John Paul Stevens, he stepped down when he was 90, so think I have about at least five more years.”
Ginsberg, who has already hired law clerks through 2020, spoke in New York City after the production of a play about the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
“If I had my choice of dissenters when I was writing for the court, it would be Justice Scalia,” Ginsburg said. “Sometimes it was like a ping-pong game.”
Ginsburg told Molly Smith, director of the play “The Originalist,” that her late husband Marty is what keeps her “hopeful.”
“My dear spouse would say that the true symbol of the United States is not the bald eagle — it is the pendulum,” Ginsburg said. “And when it goes very far in one direction you can count on its swinging back.”
Ginsburg, who turned 85 in March, would have to serve on the highest court for another decade to near William O. Douglas’ record of serving for 36 years. She was appointed in 1994, becoming just the second woman justice after Sandra Day O’Connor.
A liberal, she signaled earlier this year that if Democrat Hillary Clinton had won the presidency in 2016, she would likely have announced her retirement by this spring.
When asked in October about possible retirement, she said, “My answer is as long as I can do the job full steam, I will do it.”
President Trump has signaled that he expect Ginsburg to leave so he could replace her with a new, conservative justice.
Trump nominated Bret Kavanaugh, 53, earlier this month to become the next associate justice. If confirmed, he would replace outgoing Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy. Trump saw his first Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, confirmed last year.
[Related: Ruth Bader Ginsburg turns 85, with no signs she’ll retire]
