Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Risks Bringing the US Supreme Court into Disrepute, by Mark Joseph Stern.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has decided to take a stand against a major party’s presidential candidate in a way that she — and arguably no prior justice — has ever done before. Over the course of several interviews, the justice has spent the last few days hammering Donald Trump for his reckless campaign and outrageous policies, suggesting that a President Trump would pose a serious danger to the republic.
What Ginsburg is doing right now — pushing her case against Trump through on-the-record interviews — is not just unethical; it’s dangerous. As a general rule, justices should refrain from commenting on politics, period. That dictate applies to 83-year-old internet folk heroes as strictly as it applies to anybody else who dons judicial robes. The independence of our judiciary — and just as critically, its appearance of impartiality — hinges on a consistent separation between itself and the other branches of government. That means no proclamations of loyalty to any candidate, or admissions of distaste of any other.
[What Ginsburg is essentially saying is:] “Trump is terrible because he shoots his mouth off and has no respect for the sanctity of our institutions, so watch me as I shoot my mouth off and demonstrate no respect for the sanctity of our institutions.”
Trump critics call him a dishonest clown. One reason Trump has done as well as he has is because a lot of people think our institutions are already run by dishonest clowns.
