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Watch: The Moment a Camera Caught Ruth Bader Ginsburg Trashing the Constitution

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As the Trump administration prepares to nominate a new justice to the U.S. Supreme Court, liberals are probably wishing for nothing more than someone in the mold of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Of course, that would be unlikely even if they had the White House, and … well, now’s as good a time as any to point and laugh.

It’s also a good time to point out that Ginsburg isn’t even particularly a fan of the document she’s supposed to be interpreting. And just don’t take our word for it. Take Justice Ginsburg’s.

In remarks she made during a 2012 visit to Cairo University in Egypt, which had just undergone major changes from the Arab Spring revolution and the overthrow of strongman Hosni Mubarak, Ginsburg did offer praise for the U.S. Constitution, but thought that the Egyptians — and indeed, any nation — could look elsewhere, according to Fox News.

“It is a very inspiring time – that you have overthrown a dictator, and that you are striving to achieve a genuine democracy. So I think people in the United States are hoping that this transition will work, and that there will genuinely be a government of, by, and for the people,” she said, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute.

“I met with the head of the elections commission. I think that the first step has gone well, and that elections have been held for the lower house that everyone has considered to be free and fair. So that’s one milestone, and the next will be the drafting of a constitution,” she said.

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“I can’t speak about what the Egyptian experience should be, because I’m operating under a rather old constitution.

“The United States, in comparison to Egypt, is a very new nation, and yet we have the oldest written constitution still in force in the world.

“Let me say first that a constitution, as important as it is, will mean nothing unless the people are yearning for liberty and freedom. If the people don’t care, then the best constitution in the world won’t make any difference,” she added.

“So the spirit of liberty has to be in the population, and then the constitution – first, it should safeguard basic fundamental human rights, like our First Amendment, the right to speak freely, and to publish freely, without the government as a censor.”

So far, so good. However, RBG didn’t stop there. Oh, boy, didn’t she ever.

“You should certainly be aided by all the constitution-writing that has gone on since the end of World War II,” Ginsburg said. “I would not look to the U.S. Constitution, if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012.

“I might look at the constitution of South Africa. That was a deliberate attempt to have a fundamental instrument of government that embraced basic human rights, had an independent judiciary.

Do you think that it's time for Ginsburg to retire?

“It really is, I think, a great piece of work that was done. Much more recent than the U.S. Constitution — Canada has a Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It dates from 1982. You would almost certainly look at the European Convention on Human Rights. Yes, why not take advantage of what there is elsewhere in the world?”

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Yes, apparently the U.S. Constitution is outdated to Ginsburg. What a shocker, especially considering her views on gun rights and how far the Fourteenth Amendment can be stretched.

While there’s nothing necessarily wrong with a country looking elsewhere, the fact that Ginsburg specifically advised another country against looking at the United States Constitution in 2012 is a profoundly disconcerting thing, especially when she’s one of the nine people who safeguard it.

Then again, given the job she does of it, I suppose we shouldn’t be entirely surprised.

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C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014. Aside from politics, he enjoys spending time with his wife, literature (especially British comic novels and modern Japanese lit), indie rock, coffee, Formula One and football (of both American and world varieties).
Birthplace
Morristown, New Jersey
Education
Catholic University of America
Languages Spoken
English, Spanish
Topics of Expertise
American Politics, World Politics, Culture




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