Editorial: The passing of Justice Ginsburg

Earlier this summer, one of our Editorial Board member's granddaughters received her degree in engineering.

This weekend, as we reflect on the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, we're struck by the significant role that Ginsburg played in that achievement.

In the 1950s, when, in her own fearless and groundbreaking story, Ginsburg came of age as a brilliant legal scholar at Harvard and Columbia universities, engineering was a profession reserved almost exclusively for men. Less than 1% of the students in engineering curricula around the country were women.

Ginsburg helped open the door - to that granddaughter and to millions of other women, in all sorts of fields and in all manner of relationships. And in the process, she helped free men, too, to think beyond the bonds of mid-20th century stereotypes.

Sadly, we all are commissioned ultimately to the ages, and so now, despite the prayers against it, the ages have come for Ginsburg, 87, this late-in-life rock star, as some have described her; otherwise known with affection by followers as the Notorious RBG.

The legendary Antonin Scalia was revered by admirers, as many exceptional justices have been.

Ginsburg was beloved. There were people in tears Friday night at the news.

She had the courage to stand up at a time when it took courage for women to stand. And she remained standing, mightily, into her final days.

We recall four years ago regretting that there seemed to be no time for the nation to honor Scalia's service and grieve his sudden loss. So, too, with Ginsburg. The conversation swings so quickly from the announcement of her death to the politics of replacing her.

There is much to say about that, of course. And it all is important.

Already there is reliable talk that Republicans will move to push through confirmation of a successor by the end of the year, despite their abject refusal to do so following Scalia's death.

And speculation that such a move, which could push the Supreme Court strongly to the right may provoke a backlash by Democrats to pad the court next year.

As with everything else these days, vitriol seems certain to abound.

We would prefer that the politicians take their cues from the honorables Ginsburg and Scalia.

They were the two most prominent and influential justices of their time - one sharply left and one sharply right. They strongly disagreed often.

And yet, they shared a famous friendship and offered each other a benevolent and warranted respect.

Would that all of us in this troubled land patterned our behavior after that.