Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said that modern-day Supreme Court confirmation hearings have become a “highly partisan show.”
“The way it was, was right,” she said, referring to her own hearings in 1993 when, as a former lawyer for the ACLU, she was confirmed 96-3.
“The way it is, is wrong,” she added.
Supreme Court justices want politics out of nomination hearings. It didn’t happen.
The comments at the George Washington University come just after the contentious hearings of Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump’s nominee.
Ginsburg was interviewed by Goodwin H. Liu, a former clerk who now sits on the California Supreme Court.
Ginsburg said that now both parties move in lockstep.
“I wish I could wave a magic wand and have it go back the way it was,” she said.
On a lighter note, Liu also referred to Ginsburg’s well-known fitness regime and asked the 85-year-old justice whether any other sitting justice could do as many push-ups.
Ginsburg allowed that Justice Neil Gorsuch was one possible candidate because he rides his bike to work every day. And she said that Chief Justice John Roberts is another “possibility.”
