Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died at the age of 87, according to NPR.
The cause of death was complications from cancer; Ginsburg had battled pancreatic cancer for years, undergoing several surgeries that required her to step aside from the court. Days before her death, Ginsburg dictated this statement to her granddaughter Clara Spera: “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.” (The 2020 presidential election is slated for Tuesday, Nov. 3.)
Ginsburg was nominated to the Supreme Court in 1993 by then-President Bill Clinton, serving 27 years as a justice on America’s highest judicial body. She was the second woman to ever serve on the Supreme Court, following Sandra Day O’Connor. Her earlier years as a lawyer fighting for women’s rights were dramatized in the 2018 film On the Basis of Sex, starring Felicity Jones as Ginsburg.
Over the years, Ginsburg became a celebrity and feminist hero, appearing on talk shows like CBS’ The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, where she shared her workout routine with Colbert in this 2018 appearance:
Ginsburg was also the subject of the 2018 documentary RBG, which was produced by CNN Films and earned Oscar nominations for Best Documentary Feature and Best Original Song.
SNL‘s Kate McKinnon played Ginsburg in a series of sketches and “Weekend Update” appearances on the NBC sketch show; here’s a compilation of McKinnon’s work as Ginsburg:
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