Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Says She Has ‘At Least Five More Years’ On Supreme Court

(JTA) — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says she hopes to remain on the court for another five years.

“I’m now 85,” Ginsburg said, according to CNN. “My senior colleague, Justice John Paul Stevens, he stepped down when he was 90, so think I have about at least five more years.”

Ginsburg made the statement on Sunday night New York during a discussion following a production of “The Originalist,” a play about the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

When asked in October an event sponsored by Equal Justice Works in Arlington, Virginia, if she was contemplating retirement, Ginsburg said, “as long as I can do the job full steam, I will do it,” CNN reported.

Ginsburg, who is marking her 25th anniversary on the Supreme Court this year, has hired law clerks for the next two terms, taking her at least through 2020.

Asked Sunday night by “The Originalist” Director Molly Smith what keeps her “hopeful,” Ginsburg quoted her late husband, Marty.

“My dear spouse would say that the true symbol of the United States is not the bald eagle — it is the pendulum. And when it goes very far in one direction you can count on its swinging back,” she said.

Ginsburg has survived both colon and pancreatic cancer while serving on the court.

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.