Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg takes part in a conference in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in May. (Mike Groll/AP)
The unusual and apparently unprecedented battle of words between a justice of the Supreme Court and a presumptive presidential nominee continued Tuesday.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg made clear that her criticism of Republican Donald Trump was not the result of an unguarded moment. She told a CNN analyst in an interview late Monday that Trump was a “faker” and said she was surprised the media has not pressed him more to release his tax returns.
Trump responded by telling a New York Times reporter that Ginsburg’s comments were “highly inappropriate” and she should leave her lifetime appointment sooner rather than later.
[Did Ginsburg cross a line in her criticism of Donald Trump?]
The back-and-forth was an extraordinary confrontation. Usually the most public interaction between the court and the political world comes at the annual State of the Union address, where the justices sit stoically among partisan cheers and catcalls.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. earlier this year said the politics of Senate confirmation hearings give the public the mistaken view that justices are partisan. “We don’t work as Democrats or Republicans,” he said.
[Political wars damage public perception of Supreme Court, Roberts says]
But in interviews last week, Ginsburg made clear her distaste for the New York businessman.
“I can’t imagine what this place would be — I can’t imagine what the country would be — with Donald Trump as our president,” Ginsburg told the New York Times. “For the country, it could be four years. For the court, it could be — I don’t even want to contemplate that.”
She also told the Associated Press that she assumed Democrat Hillary Clinton would win the November election. The 83-year-old Ginsburg was nominated to the court in 1993 by President Bill Clinton.
Asked what would happen if Trump won instead, she said, “I don’t want to think about that possibility, but if it should be, then everything is up for grabs.”
Her comments were met with a wave of alarm by many judicial ethics experts, who called them surprising if not potentially recusal-worthy should a legal issue involving Trump come before the court.
But Ginsburg doubled down when she met late Monday for a previously scheduled interview with CNN’s Joan Biskupic.
“He is a faker,” Ginsburg said of Trump. “He has no consistency about him. He says whatever comes into his head at the moment.”
She added: “He really has an ego. . . . How has he gotten away with not turning over his tax returns? The press seems to be very gentle with him on that.”
Trump got on the line with the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman to respond.