United States Supreme Court Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer have come under pressure to retire while President Barack Obama is still in office, the Associated Press reported.
In a seemingly normal and traditional act, U.S. judges who are close to retiring due to age or health issues usually manipulate their retirement in order to allow the current president to chose someone with similar interests, in this case, a democratic-leaning judge would fit the bill for President Obama.
Ginsburg disagreed with the normality on Tuesday and said during an event hosted by the Northern Virginia Technology Council that Supreme Court Justices should work until they are no longer able, the AP reported.
If Ginsburg, currently the eldest justice, holds her seat until the next president is elected, Democrats fear a Republican replacement will take her place.
During the event, Ginsburg cited William Brennan and Thurgood Marshal, two previous justices who surely came under the same type of pressure, but did not bend and instead left their replacements to be chosen by the next Republican successor president, the AP reported.
The two, both chosen by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, only left their position as justices when there healths would no longer allow them to fulfill the position dutifully, according to the AP. William left at 84-years-old and Marshal left at 82 and were replaced by former President George W. H. Bush's choices of David Souter and Clarence Thomas.
"I think one should stay as long as she can do the job," Ginsburg said, according to the AP, adding the number one question a judge should ask themselves is whether they can still do the job.
"Can you think as well? Can you write with the same fluency? At my age you take it year by year. I'm OK this year," Ginsburg said.
Since 1999 when Ginsburg had colon cancer, pressures from left-wing leaders for her retirement have become a normality to her, and the recent remarks about her resolution to stay until she can no longer work were not her first.
She told the New York Times in August that party of the president will not influence her decision to retire, when she does, adding that "there will be a president after this one, and I'm hopeful that that president will be a fine president," the AP reported.
