Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg On Her Relationship With President Obama

96-3 …..

Steve Benen: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg believes her nomination would probably be defeated if it came up today. She’s correct:

Ginsburg said that to practice for her Senate confirmation hearings, White House staffers in mock hearings grilled her on her work for the ACLU. During those mock hearings she told them: “There’s nothing you can do to get me to bad mouth the ACLU.”

Such grilling, though, did not happen, she said. She was confirmed 96-3. “Today, my ACLU connection would probably disqualify me,” she said.

Ginsburg was the former director of the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project, which would seem to make her a left-wing radical in the eyes of the Republican Party.

And yet, in 1993, Ginsburg was confirmed by the Senate on a 96-to-3 vote. That’s not a typo …. Note that plenty of Republican senators whose names will sound familiar – Chuck Grassley, Kay Bailey Hutchison, John McCain, Mitch McConnell – all voted for her nomination. (Then note that in 2010, Elena Kagan confirmed on a 63-to-37 vote – and Grassley, Hutchison, McCain, and McConnell all voted against her.)

….The political center of gravity has moved rather dramatically in a very short period of time.

Full post here – more at Think Progress

state of the union

Attorney General Eric Holder, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

“Don’t cry – again.”

A seat sits empty for recovering Rep. Gabrielle Giffords

…with John, Dallas and Roxanna Green, family of the late Christina Taylor Green of Tucson

…with Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK)

with Rep. Danny K. Davis, D-Ill, right, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., center, and Rep. Chaka Fattah, D-Pa

Read the text of the address here

President Obama’s arrival:

The official White House video:

Here’s the C-Span version:

Enhanced White House version:

ah, more change you can believe in

The Supreme Court began a new era Monday with three women serving together for the first time – Ruth Bader Ginsburg and President Obama’s appointments, Sonia Sotomayor (left) and Elena Kagan (right)

holding court

President Barack Obama visits with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan in the Blue Room of the White House, prior to Kagan’s confirmation reception in the East Room, Aug. 6, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

house hosts

Los Angeles Dodgers Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Sandy Koufax

Singer/songwriter Regina Spektor

From left: Sen. Arlen Specter, Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Vice President Joe Biden

….with Olympic swimming gold medalist Dara Torres

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at a reception celebrating Jewish American Heritage Month May 27, 2010 in the East Room of the the White House in Washington, DC

three guiding lights

First Lady Michelle Obama listens as Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor talk with a group of young women, during a mentoring event at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., March 17, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton)