Chapter 14Chapter 14 || The CourtsThe Courts14
In the heat of the 2016 presidential campaign, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg cut loose
with a series of comments about a possible Trump presidency. In addition to labeling
Trump a “faker” in an interview conducted by CNN,^1 Ginsburg told the New York Times,
“I can’t imagine what this place would be—I can’t imagine what the country would be—
with Donald Trump as our president.”
These comments set off a firestorm, not just from Trump and his supporters but
also from left-leaning editorial boards such as that of the Washington Post. It called
her observations “inappropriate,” noting that the Code of Conduct for United States
Judges “flatly states” that a “judge should not... publicly endorse or oppose a
candidate for public office.”^2 Under the headline “Donald Trump Is Right about Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg,” the New York Times was even more critical, saying, “Justice Ruth
Bader Ginsburg needs to drop the political punditry and the name-calling.”^3 We have
come to expect such personal attacks from politicians, but not from Supreme Court
justices, which is why Ginsburg’s words were so jarring.
Bowing to the public pressure, Justice Ginsburg backed off, saying, “On reflection,
my recent remarks in response to press inquiries were ill-advised and I regret making
them. Judges should avoid commenting on a candidate for public office. In the future
I will be more circumspect.”^4
Why all the fuss? Why should the political comments of a sitting justice be so
controversial? The simple answer is that our political system is strongly committed
to the image of the blindfolded Lady Justice, holding the scales, neutrally applying
the law. As Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. famously said, justices are like baseball
umpires, just calling the balls and strikes within the constitutional system. After all, the
guiding principles of the “rule of law” in the American political system—embodied in
the words carved above the entrance to the Supreme Court (“equal justice under the“He is a faker. He has no consistency about him. He says whatever comes
into his head at the moment.”
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, commenting on Donald Trump“Justice Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court has embarrassed all by making
very dumb political statements about me. Her mind is shot—resign!”
Donald TrumpJustice Ginsburg broke from the
image of the blindfolded Lady Justice
when she expressed her opinions on
a Trump presidency. Here, Justice
Ginsburg (far left), along with other
Supreme Court justices, looks on as
President Trump makes a speech
during the swearing-in ceremony
for Judge Neil Gorsuch in the Rose
Garden.The Courts
What is the role of courts in
our political system?
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