Justice Ginsburg

[Sanford Levinson]

It's his refusal to resign when, at the age of 79 or 80, he's diagnosed with a form of cancer that requires him to undergo the ordeal of chemotherapy.  He was either in denial about the seriousness of his situation or narcissistic about his indispensability to the Court.  (One might also simply say that he was all too human.)


Sandy

----- Original Message -----
From: hamilton02 at aol.com <hamilton02 at aol.com>
To: Sanford Levinson; RJLipkin at aol.com <RJLipkin at aol.com>; jca at stanford.edu <jca at stanford.edu>; CONLAWPROF at lists.ucla.edu <CONLAWPROF at lists.ucla.edu>
Sent: Thu Feb 05 19:48:32 2009
Subject: Re: Justice Ginsburg

Sandy--  I'm sincerely curious here.  What is "Rehnquist-like 
denial/narcissism?"

Marci

Marci A. Hamilton
Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
Yeshiva University
55 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY  10003


-----Original Message-----
From: Sanford Levinson <SLevinson at law.utexas.edu>
To: RJLipkin at aol.com; jca at stanford.edu; CONLAWPROF at lists.ucla.edu
Sent: Thu, 5 Feb 2009 4:31 pm
Subject: Re: Justice Ginsburg

 From my perspective, this is just more fodder for the need either to 
elininate life tenure (though Justice Ginsburg wouldn't be out under my 
preferred 18-year term) or to adopt the Carrington-Cramton proposal 
whereby a new justice would indeed be appointed at the end of an 
18-year term and the post-18 year justice would be able to sit on 
circuit, as Justice O'Connor is now doing, or fill in when a Supreme is 
forced to recuse him/herself for any reason, including illness.  Or, of 
course, we could adopt a version of the 25th Amendment to apply to 
judges and forestall Rehnquist-like denial/narcissism.

Sandy



From: conlawprof-bounces at lists.ucla.edu

To: jca at stanford.edu ; CONLAWPROF at lists.ucla.edu

Sent: Thu Feb 05 15:16:06 2009
Subject: Re: Justice Ginsburg



        Wherein lies
the authority behind these practices? Or are they merely practices 
derived
ad hoc? More importantly, what happens if a Justice has a prolonged
illness rendering h
im or her unable to perform judicial functions, but 
who
insists on remaining on the Court or is in a permanently comatose
state leaving no instructions concerning prolonging (or not) his or her
life?
 
        These seem
like a critically important issue raising problems that cry out for
comprehensive legal solutions.
 
Bobby
      
Robert Justin
Lipkin
Distinguished Professor of Law
Widener University School of
Law
Delaware

Ratio Juris,
Contributor: 
http://ratiojuris.blogspot.com/
Essentially Contested
America, Editor-In-Chief http://www.essentiallycontestedamerica.org/

 

In a message dated 2/5/2009 4:04:31 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
jca at stanford.edu writes:
It's not
   rare for one or more justices to be unable to vote, usually because 
they have
   recused themselves (stock holdings, the Justice or a relative is 
somehow
  involved in the case) but also because of illness.  A majority of the
   Justices who remain is required for a decision; an equally divided 
vote always
   results in "affirmed by an equally divided Court" with no 
precedential effect,
   no matter what the reason.  A Justice going into the hospital is by 
no
   means unprecedented.  It's not like the President where someone has 
to
   have the nuclear codes.  And Chief Justice Rehnquist went through a 
long
   illness -- diagnosed20in Oct. 2004, missed 44 oral arguments, died in 
office in
  Sept 2005.  He was also hospitalized earlier for a back problem and
  addiction to painkillers.

At 11:53 AM 2/5/2009, RJLipkin at aol.com
  wrote:

          While I'm sure we're all
     hoping for Justice Ginsburg's successful surgery, her situation 
raises a
     host of issues about how the Court functions when a Justice is 
unable to
    perform his or her responsibilities.  Are there are specific rules
     governing this matter? Am I right in saying an 8-3 decision stands 
as
    law?  What happens in split decisions?  Finally, what if a Justice
     cannot perform his or her functions and is unable to express a 
decision to
    resign?  Any information on these issues would be
    appreciated.
 
Bobby
     
Robert Justin
    Lipkin
Distinguished Professor of Law
Widener University School of
    Law
Delaware

Ratio Juris, Contributor: http://ratiojuris.blogspot.com/
Essentially
     Contested America, Editor-In-Chief 
http://www.essentiallycontestedamerica.org/


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