Justice Ginsburg: An all-female SCOTUS would’ve ruled differently on #HobbyLobby

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

The shameful judicial advocacy of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg continues:

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been making the media rounds and the Internet is eating it up. After telling Yahoo News the five men on the court have a “blind spot” when it comes to discrimination against women, she turned around and told the Associated Press they’ll just have to live and learn.

The five conservative justices recently ruled inΒ Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores Inc.Β that closely held for-profit companies may refuse to cover women’s contraceptives for religious reasons.Β GinsburgΒ was joined by the two other women on the court as well as liberal Justice Stephen Breyer in a dissenting opinion, which held that leaving it to companies to decide what sorts of health coverage a woman may use amounted to a form of discrimination.

Asked about the decision by the AP on Thursday, Ginsburg suggested the five male justices simply didn’t know better. “I have no doubt that if the court had been composed of nine women the result would have been different in Hobby Lobby,” she said. But, she added, she hasn’t entirely lost hope for the men in the court’s majority opinion: “As long as one lives, one can learn.”

Here’s the shorter version of what Ginsburg has said all along about the ruling on Hobby Lobby, including her dissent on the case: Β The United States Supreme Court should consider gender before the ConstitutionΒ when deciding which way to rule on any given case where there isΒ a perception that women could potentially be impacted. Furthermore, implicit in her public reaction and dissatisfaction with the majority opinion is the insinuation that the five “conservative” (hilarious that National Journal considers Justice Kennedy a “conservative”!) Justices ruled that way because they’re men – full stop, and that a court of all women would have (and should have) taken gender into account and ruled primarily on emotion rather than basing their opinion solely on the Β Constitution. Β And here you thought it was misogynistic for anyone to suggest women allow their sex and emotion to dictate their decisions rather than logic and fact and, in this case, the law! Silly rabbit.

Β I respect the position of SCOTUS Justice, and I respect the years Ginsburg has been on the bench. Β It’s cute that she and Justice Scalia are reportedly “close friends” in spite of their obvious ideological differences. Β However, none of that changes the fact that she has crossed a serious line here in suggesting in so many words that the men on the court are, well, just being men and that a majority of women on the court would have and should have ruled differently based more on the sideline emotional aspects rather than Constitutional law. Β She’ll get by with it, of course, without much criticism from the Usual Suspectsβ„’ who would have, I should note, flipped their lids at this point if any of the so-called “conservative” male Justices on the Supreme Court had even remotely suggested after a court ruling that the women on the court were, you know, just being women.Β 

Move along here,Β business as usual, and all that …

Comments are closed.