US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the history-making jurist, feminist icon and a champion of women’s rights and social justice, has died of cancer at the age of 87.
Ginsburg became only the second woman ever to serve as a justice on the nation’s highest court. A lifelong advocate of gender equality, she acquired the reputation of a cautious or moderate judge and will be remembered as a legal colossus.
“Our nation has lost a justice of historic stature. We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her — a tried and resolute champion of justice,” Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said in a statement. Ginsburg’s death on Friday could open up another battlefront between President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival and former vice president Joe Biden.
