Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away Friday, on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. She led a full and meaningful life. As a conservative woman, I rarely agreed with her votes on the bench. It is possible to acknowledge that she led a remarkable life and that we didn’t agree with her legal decisions. Both things can be true.

Her death, just weeks before the presidential election, is a very 2020 kind of thing to happen. As if the country was not divided enough, as if rioting in the streets was not already happening, now the process of selecting another justice for the Supreme Court falls on President Trump.

The Democrats are still hot about Mitch McConnell holding off on bringing up the Merrick Garland nomination for a vote. The Biden Rule – something that originated in 1992 when Biden said no Supreme Court nominations should be taken up in an election year – is being referenced a lot now. What is missed, though, is that Biden had changed his mind by 2016 when he spoke at Georgetown Law School in favor of the Senate voting on a SCOTUS nominee. (Emphasis mine.)

“Every time as the chairman or ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I was responsible for eight justices and nine total nominees of the Supreme Court. More than, I hate to say this, anyone, alive.” Then he made the sign of the cross and chuckled, “I can’t be that old.” Some I supported, a few I voted against. But in all that time, every nominee was greeted by committee members. Every nominee got a committee hearing. Every nominee got out of the committee even if they didn’t have sufficient votes to pass within the committee because I believe the Senate must advise and consent and every nominee including Justice Kennedy in an election year got an up or down vote, not much at the time, not most of the time, every single time. Now I hear all this talk about the Biden Rule. It’s frankly ridiculous. There is no Biden Rule, it doesn’t exist. There is only one rule I ever followed on the judiciary committee, that was the constitution’s clear rule of advice and consent.

“Article Two of the constitution clearly states whenever there is a vacancy in one of the court’s created by the constitution itself the Supreme Court of the United States, the President shall, not may, the President shall appoint someone to fill the vacancy with the advice and consent of the United States Senate.”

Well, now. There is no Biden Rule. Now, as a matter of fact, Biden has once again changed his mind and is saying that a nominee shouldn’t be put up until after the election. Democrats, including Biden, assume that he will win the presidential election. To be honest, many Republican think the same thing. Last night he read a statement after Ginsburg’s death.

Let me be clear: The voters should pick a President, and that President should select a successor to Justice Ginsburg.

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 19, 2020

Of course, the problem with that tweet is that the voters have picked a president – we have President Trump right now – and he will pick a successor. There is no provision in the constitution that would require Trump to hold off until after November 3. Even Slow Joe referenced Article Two in his remarks at Georgetown. Democrats know that President Trump can get his nominee seated on the Supreme Court before the next inauguration, even if he loses the election.

Kamala Harris sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Remember how aggressive she was against Brett Kavanaugh during his senate hearing? She even lied about having information on him that she did not. She would be worse now if that’s possible since she is the vice-presidential candidate on Joe’s ticket. She must recuse herself to avoid a conflict of interest. She won’t but she should.

The Supreme Court nomination process was slowly being corrupted for many years. It became more overtly political as time passed. I’m old enough to remember the days of Robert Bork and the Clarence Thomas hearings. The treatment of those two men by Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, including Joe Biden, was a real eye-opener for my much younger self and it has only gotten worse with time. The Kavanaugh nomination and the over-the-top actions that followed forever changed how many of us view the process. That is why I now say that Trump must move quickly. He can nominate someone – hopefully, a conservative woman to counter the two liberal women on the court – and the vote can be taken after the election, if necessary. Lindsay Graham is in a tough race for his re-election so this is an important decision for him, as chairman of the committee.

This is also a clarion call for all conservative voters, but especially for those of the Never Trump variety. Do they rally around President Trump and support his nominee or do the ones who proudly proclaim their opposition to a second term for Trump go ahead and vote for Biden knowing that this matter is pending? Does being pro-life outweigh their hatred of Trump?

Ruth Bader Ginsburg possessed a brilliant legal mind, but not the legal opinions acceptable to conservatives. That’s just the truth. Do Never-Trumpers want Joe Biden and the far left to replace Ginsburg? Ginsburg, sadly, began to politicize the court with her behavior late in life. She publicly made statements against then-candidate Donald Trump in 2016 and broke what had been a long-held tradition of justices keeping their political opinions to themselves, especially during presidential elections. She continued to make random remarks now and then during Trump’s presidency. She was a proud liberal and sadly succumbed to letting her personal political opinions become part of the conversation. She was richly rewarded by the left for her outspoken behavior during the past four years. She morphed into “Notorious RBG” and movies were made about her and her life story. She is a superhero on the left, having become a celebrity.

Ginsburg’s granddaughter released a statement Friday night that her grandmother didn’t want to be replaced before the election. Sure, that’s understandable, if the quote is true, but it is not her call to make. As one person on Twitter pointed out this morning, if she was so concerned about her replacement, she would have retired during Obama’s administration and let him pick her successor. It’s a harsh but fair observation. Ginsburg was a political activist as well as a Supreme Court justice. She knew what she was doing.

RBG had the opportunity to ensure she was replaced by a Democrat. She decided to stay in spite of her history of serious health issues & age. If we are now governed by the heckler’s veto let’s just proceed with an amicable divorce. That is not how this works.

— Stacey (@ScotsFyre) September 19, 2020

Act now, President Trump. Conservative voters will judge you if you do not.