Kamala Harris hailed Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a “historic icon” and a “relentless defender of justice” following her death.
Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff eulogized Ginsburg in a statement released shortly after midnight on Saturday.
“For all who believe in the power of the law as a force for change, Justice Ginsburg was and will always be a titan. She was a relentless defender of justice in our country and a legal mind for the ages,” she said in the statement.
Harris and Emhoff touched on the late justice’s life story. Ginsburg, born in Brooklyn to a family of Jewish immigrants, attended Cornell University before getting her law degree from Columbia University. She eventually became the second woman to sit on the nation’s highest court.
The statement notes that Ginsburg used to quip, “What is the difference between a bookkeeper in the Garment District and a Supreme Court justice?”
“One generation,” she said.
Harris and Emhoff said that “even as we focus on the life that she led and process tonight’s grief, her legacy and the future of the court to which she dedicated so much can’t disappear from our effort to honor her.”
President Trump indicated on Saturday that he intends to put up a nominee to replace her prior to the November election against Joe Biden, a move that Ginsburg reportedly opposed. During the 2016 election when Justice Antonin Scalia died, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to consider a nominee chosen by then-President Barack Obama.
“In some of her final moments with her family, she shared her fervent wish to ‘not be replaced until a new president is installed.’ We will honor that wish,” Harris and Emhoff said.
“Justice Ginsburg used every ounce of life she was bestowed to urge our nation down a path toward equal justice,” the statement read.
