And as a reminder how tense things really are: Ginsburg hospitalized with “chills and fever”

Ginsburg hospitalized with “chills and fever”

Ruth Bader Ginsberg is 86 years old and has been in and out of the hospital constantly this past year.

Everyone who follows the Supreme Court knows the score.  She's the liberal force on a sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court.  Should she die, or step down, from the Court, the Senate will confirm a conservative justice for her replacement.  That's a judicial conservative, of course, and we've gone over the difference between judicial conservatives, political conservatives and jurisprudential conservatives before, something that's rarely appreciated in the press, or anywhere else seemingly.

Anyhow, Ginsberg shows no signs of resigning and is now in the position of nearly admittedly hanging on in anticipation of a Democrat taking Trump's place in 2020.  Should that not occur, I suspect she will resign.  Indeed, I suspect she'll resign following the next Presidential election no mater what.

That assumes that she lives to that point, which is not a safe assumption.  While liberal tweeters are rejoicing with the news its "just a cold", anyone who has dealt with end of life issues in the elderly can read the signs. She's rapidly failing.  She's a frail woman as it is, and the schedule and life she's leading has to be grueling for an 86 year old.

All of which brings us back to the point that a Court which has lifetime appointments really doesn't make sense anymore.  There should be some sort of age requirement for retirement.  At some point this sort of thing becomes a risk for the nation, and for a nation that prides itself on being democratic .. . although its current fascination with extra judicial means of removing a President bring that into question, having a system that, in some ways, recalls Medieval Courts that tensely watched a failing king in decline while there were background maneuvers for power, isn't dignified.

Indeed, the Supreme Court is taking on the character of the New Forest in early Norman England.  It feels like people are ready to rush off to the east of power on a moment's notice upon the falling of one of the greats.

That's not a very sane way to to run a government and society.