Let the Voters, then the President, Choose Justice Ginsburg’s Successor
The passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had, and will continue to have, a profound impact on the residents of our community. I’d like to think that is so regardless of political stripes.
Justice Ginsburg was a role model, a trailblazing, tireless, fighter for women’s rights and equality under law. Her accomplishments and personal sacrifice were heroic.
As a consequential and distinguished jurist, she was so beloved and admired that she was a cultural icon, loved by young and old. She was the Notorious R.B.G.
Her enduring legacy deserves better than the harsh comments uttered the day after she died by Mr. Rik Mehta, the Republican candidate for the United States Senate and the running mate of our two opponents in the Nov. 3 election. Mr. Mehta is running against Senator Cory Booker.
One of the reasons his political comments were so shocking, at least to me, was that they were in direct contradiction to Justice Ginsburg’s wishes that the President-elect (after November) nominate her replacement to the bench.
Mehta said he “wholeheartedly support(s) the President nominating a new justice and the Senate majority leader calling for a vote to confirm a justice” before the November election. That was just blatantly political and just hours after Justice Ginsburg’s death.
And, all the while, he seeks to defeat Cory Booker who stands among the 50 Senators who will vote on Justice Ginsburg’s successor.
Decorum and Decency
We need a lot more decorum and decency in politics. The Republicans could have, should have allowed for Justice Ginsburg to rest in peace and for her family to mourn.
In 2016, the same Republicans who now want to appoint and confirm a Supreme Court Justice on the eve of an election (people have already voted in some states including New Jersey) refused to allow a vote on President Obama’s choice of Merrick Garland almost a year in advance of that year’s presidential contest.
The hypocrisy of Donald Trump and Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is stunning. They act and dictate as if only Republicans can choose judges and not the voters or Democratic presidents.
President Trump’s running mates, GOP Senate candidate Mr. Mehta along with Millburn Republicans Nic Volpicelli and Sujoy Menon need to answer for their like-minded policy views.
After all, they all stood side-by-side this month. They even distributed pictures of the event to the media.
So, I have one question for our opponents Mssrs. Volpicelli and Menon:
Do you believe Justice Ginsburg’s seat on the Supreme Court should be filled by Donald Trump now (as your running mate Mr. Mehta called for) or by the President and Senators elected in November?
Here is our position: We believe the voters matter. The President chosen in November should nominate the next Supreme Court Justice. Elections have consequences and so do decisions that impact our children and our grandchildren.
The new Justice will likely be of a young age and on the court for possibly decades. Roe vs. Wade, Obama Care, Education, Affirmative Action, Women’s Rights and Climate Change will be rulings important for years to come especially when stamped into law.
In that same regard, we wholeheartedly support the re-election of Senator Cory Booker so that he will be in the United States Senate to help choose Justice Ginsburg’s successor.
My running mate Sanjeev Vinayak and I have a different position than our Republican opponents. We respect the memory of Ruth Bader Ginsberg and we oppose Republican efforts to soil her extraordinary legacy. We will bring that same respect to the Millburn Township Committee.
We will follow Justice Ginsburg’s motto: “Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”
(Maggee Miggins is a mom, small business owner and one of two Democratic candidates for the Millburn Township Committee along with her running mate Sanjeev Vinayak.)
As the Constitution prescribes, the President appoints Justices with the advise and consent of the Senate. It doesn’t say when or wait until you have a President of Senate of your choosing. You don’t change the rules because you don’t like the results.Grow up, Snowflakes.
It isn’t just the rules that some want to throw out the window, it is the Constitution itself, if it doesn’t suit their time-frame or their agenda. There is a reason that the founders vested certain responsibilities to be carried out within the Presidency. As the highest elected official he represents the entirety of the people, elected according to the prescribed methodology that was debated very publicly in leading publications made available to a very literate public, probably much more so than today. For example on Constitution Day, the reading of the Constitution was a widely held event throughout the country in previous times, so was Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. It was that 2 minute speech that was one of the most closely held ideas that prompted Chinese leader Sun Yat-Sen to fight for the creation of the Republic of China. So when some would overlook the power behind our own Constitution in the ideas embedded in those “rules”, i think it better that they maybe review the test.
From Abraham Lincoln: The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave their last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.