Whatever one may think of the politics of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the revered liberal justice on the US Supreme Court who died at the weekend at the age of 87, there can be no doubt that she was a stellar judicial figure.
But goodness, what a time to die! For her passing unleashes a bitter political struggle which may affect the outcome of the US presidential election in six weeks’ time.
President Trump and senior Republicans are determined to appoint a conservative justice to fill Ginsburg’s place. The Democrats have gone ballistic, insisting that the nomination should wait until a new president is installed, as RBG herself requested on her death bed.
By tradition, new justices aren’t appointed in the final period of a presidency.