Top Liberal Scholar Calls On Justice Ginsburg To Resign

SAHIL KAPUR – MARCH 17, 2014, 3:00 PM EDT

A leading progressive legal scholar is calling on Justice Rush Bader Ginsburg to retire, elevating the pressure on the leader of the Supreme Court's liberal wing to avoid the prospect of a Republican president picking her replacement.

Erwin Chemerinsky, the Dean of UC Irvine School of Law and a prominent legal mind, made his thoughts known in a Los Angeles Times op-ed on Saturday, when Ginsburg turned 81. He called on the justice, whom he praised, to step down after the current term ends in June because "only by resigning this summer can she ensure that a Democratic president will be able to choose a successor who shares her views and values."

He elaborated:

A great deal turns on who picks Ginsburg's successor. There are, for example, four likely votes to overturn Roe vs. Wade on the current court: Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel A. Alito Jr. If a Republican president selects Ginsburg's replacement, that justice easily could be the fifth vote needed to allow the government to prohibit all abortions. On many cases — including ones involving environmental law, healthcare, gay marriage, the death penalty and the rights of those in Guantanamo — the four liberal justices have joined with Justice Anthony M. Kennedy for a progressive result.

But if a conservative had been occupying Ginsburg's seat when the court heard those cases, the rulings might well have been very different, and if a conservative takes her seat when she leaves, they might not survive.