Kamala Harris Honors Ruth Bader Ginsburg With Powerful Statement

Kamala Harris is one of the many lawmakers who is paying tribute to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who passed away at the age of 87 following complications from pancreatic cancer. On Twitter, Harris penned a lengthy message that chronicled Ginsburg’s many achievements from over the years. In her post, the vice-presidential candidate also stressed the importance of waiting until after the election to fill this vacancy on the Supreme Court.

“Tonight we mourn, we honor, and we pray for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her family. But we also recommit to fight for her legacy,” Harris wrote on Friday night. The California senator went on to write that while the world is currently mourning Ginsburg, they need to take note of one of her final wishes. “Even as we focus on the life that she led and process tonight’s grief, her legacy and the future of the court to which she dedicated so much can’t disappear from our effort to honor her. In some of her final moments with her family, she shared her fervent wish to ‘not be replaced until a new President is installed.’ We will honor that wish.”

Several lawmakers have made mention of Ginsburg’s wish in their tributes. Former vice president Joe Biden, who is currently running for president with Harris as his running-mate, issued a statement on Friday night about the judge’s death. “Tonight and in the coming days, we should focus on the loss of the justice, and her enduring legacy,” Biden told reporters, per CNN. “But there is no doubt, let me be clear, that the voters should pick the president, and the president should pick the justice for the Senate to consider.”

Biden is following the precedent set by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in 2016, who refused to advance President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court following the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. At the time, McConnell said that since it was an election year, they should wait until Americans vote to consider a Supreme Court nominee. Although, he has since changed his tune on the very precedent that he set, as he said shortly after Ginsburg died that he wants President Donald Trump to nominate someone for the highest court in the land.