Friday night Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has tragically passed away. This was after a long struggle with pancreatic cancer. She had served for more than 27 years on the bench after being appointed in 1993.  She did lead a remarkable career serving as a fundamental voice for gender equality. Now there’s the question of how her seat will be filled if it will before the November election

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born in Brooklyn, New York. She had always been a good student even earning a full scholarship to Cornell University. Later after having her first child she became one of only 9 women in a 500 person class to attend Harvard Law school. She graduated top of her class but the law profession was relatively closed to women at the time. She was eventually able to get a clerkship due to the help of a former law professor.

Her first big case was in Reed v. Reed in which Sally Reed became the executor over her sons estate when the Supreme Court struck down he ex husbands claim based on gender discrimination. She would go on to become the first tenured professor at Columbia University. In 1980 she was appointed to the Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. Later in 1993 she would be appointed to the Supreme court being the second woman to do so. Where she would amas a reputation in which a recent White House statement said was “disagreeing without being disagreeable”.  She would continue to fight for equality on the Supreme Court serving for the remainder of her life.

Now there is a problem that is raised by this vacancy. Given it is an election year and that the election itself is less than 45 days. The Republican controlled Senate could either appoint a new justice or leave in vacant until after the election. The confirmation process isn’t exactly an easy one. While finding a candidate is relatively easy the shortest confirmation process clocked in around 47 days. While it is common practice to leave a seat vacant in the last year of a presidential term. With a majority in the Senate which confirms new justices, it is unlikely they can pull it off in a short amount of time.