July 12, 2016--Ruth Bader (Goodbye) Ginsberg

It is rare for Supreme Court justices to speak publicly. Unless they are making the rounds hustling a book. In that case mammon trumps courtly custom.

But just yesterday one of the Supremes trumped all of this--Ruth Bader Ginsburg not only spoke publicly but politically--trashing Donald Trump and bemoaning the possibility that he might be elected president.

She didn't do a Madeleine Albright, relegating people who do not vote for Hillary to "rot in hell."

Ginsberg did Albright one better, sputtering, "I can't imagine what this place would be--I con't imagine what the country would be--with Donald Trump as our president. . . .  For the country it could be four years. For the court it could be--I don't even want to contemplate that."

But contemplating that, quoting her husband, smiling to the New York Times reporter, she added, "Now is the time for us to move to New Zealand."

Among other things, I hope she has an updated passport since I think that's a fine idea. At 83, with little energy or discretion remaining, even having not said something this outrageous, it is long overdue for her to head for the Antipodes or Boca.

In the same Trump interview, she also rued the fact that the Senate has refused to vote on President Obama's nominee to replace the recently-departed Anton Scalia.

But she failed to mention her own situation and inevitable replacement because as an old and ailing octogenarian soon to be departing or retiring in New Zealand, with the possibility that Trump might be in a position to nominate a replacement for her (she, not I, brought up the subject) as concerned as she now is about the ideological balance on the court, she should have stepped down during Obama's first term to assure that a liberal would take her seat.

But no. There she more-or-less still sits. Full of herself and hypocrisy.