More than 100 of Ginsburg’s former law clerks to stand guard at casket at Supreme Court
More than 100 of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s former law clerks plan to stand guard at her casket as she lies in repose at the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
The Supreme Court announced on Monday that former law clerks of the justice would serve as honorary pallbearers and meet her casket at the front of the Court’s steps.
The more than 100 clerks also plan to guard her casket and never leave it during both a private ceremony and public viewing for the justice, who sat on the Court for nearly three decades, CNN reported Wednesday.
Former law clerks to Ginsburg told the network that she taught them life lessons in addition to being a legal role model. Former clerk Lori Alvino McGill told CNN that Ginsburg “taught us all a thing or two about a life well-lived.”
“She was among the first mentors to tell me I could do anything — but she also told me that it would be foolish to think I could do many things well at the same time,” McGill said. “The life lessons she imparted gave me the courage to take a step back from my own career and choose, for this moment in time, to be more present for my three children.”
Ginsburg died last week of complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer. She is scheduled to lie in repose at the Court on Wednesday and lie in state at the Capitol on Friday.
Her death has sparked an intensely partisan debate over whether her seat on the Court should be filled before Election Day.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) seems to have the needed support to move forward with a confirmation hearing for a Trump nominee, but it’s unclear if that will occur before Election Day, which is now 41 days away.
President Trump has said he plans to announce a nominee on Saturday.
Democrats have accused Republican senators of hypocrisy after McConnell and the caucus blocked President Obama nominee Merrick Garland’s confirmation hearing in 2016, nine months ahead of the election. At the time, the GOP senators said the American people should decide who replaced Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February 2016.