Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wants to stay on the court for another five years, according to a report originally published by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
“I’m now 85,” Ginsburg was quoted by CNN as saying. “My senior colleague, Justice John Paul Stevens, he stepped down when he was 90, so think I have about at least five more years.”
Justice Stevens retired in 2010, paving the way for Justice Elena Kagan to be nominated to the Supreme Court by then President Barack Obama and then confirmed by the Senate.
Ginsburg made her remarks while she was participating in a discussion on Sunday night that followed a production of “The Originalist,” a play about the late Justice Antonin Scalia who passed away in early 2016.
Ginsburg has already displayed very intention of staying on the court as she has hired law clerks to assist her for the next two terms.
Her seat on the court is pivotal in an era of partisan competition with regards to control over the Supreme Court. US President Donald Trump has already had one Justice, Neil Gorsuch successfully confirmed by the US Senate back in 2017. Gorsuch helped tip the balance in the Supreme Court to a 5-4 advantage for conservatives after a 4-4 deadlock since Scalia’s death.
Most recently, Trump selected Justice Brett Kavanaugh to fill the spot of Justice Anthony Kennedy, who announced his retirement this summer.
For Ginsburg, her eye remains on the pendulum of political power.
“My dear spouse would say that the true symbol of the United States is not the bald eagle — it is the pendulum,” she told Molly Smith, director of “The Originalist.”
“When it goes very far in one direction you can count on its swinging back,” she said.