Dozens gathered in San Pedro Monday to honor Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg with a candlelight vigil.
“Not only was she a champion for equality and women’s rights on the bench, she was an inspiration and a role model for women,” L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn said of the late Supreme Court Justice at the event.
The vigil in San Pedro is one of many across the country that have brought people together to mourn and honor the trailblazing women’s rights champion since the announcement of her death of metastatic pancreatic cancer Friday. Hundreds of people have gathered outside the Supreme Court, singing in a candlelight vigil and weeping together.
Ginsburg became the court’s second female justice when she was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1993. On Friday, she will become the first woman in history to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol, CNN reported.
At 5th Street and Harbor Boulevard in San Pedro Monday, people sang and held up flickering candles to honor the late legend.
Some paid tribute to the court’s liberal icon with T-shirts featuring the words, “Notorious RBG” or “You can’t spell truth without ruth.”
“She was known for her razor-sharp dissents, which helped push our nation towards freedom and opportunity for everyone,” L.A. City Councilman Joe Buscaino said at the vigil.
In the final days before her death, Ginsburg dictated the following statement to her granddaughter Clara Spera: “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed,” according to NPR.
President Donald Trump has met with Judge Amy Coney Barrett, the conservative jurist emerging as a favorite to replace the Ginsburg on the Supreme Court — the start of a monumental Senate confirmation fight over objections from Democrats it’s too close to the November election.
Trump said Monday he expects to announce his choice by week’s end, before the burial next week of Ginsburg at Arlington National Cemetery. Democrats but few Republicans argue that her replacement should be decided by the winner on Election Day, Nov. 3.
The mounting clash over the vacant seat — when to fill it and with whom — injects new turbulence in the presidential campaign with the nation still reeling from the coronavirus pandemic that has killed nearly 200,000 Americans, left millions unemployed and heightened partisan tensions and anger.
