Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg plans to spend 'at least another 5 years' on the bench

Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
(Image credit: AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg doesn't plan on going anywhere, telling an audience in New York City on Sunday that she plans to spend "at least another five years" on the highest federal court.

The 85-year-old also described herself as a "flaming feminist," and said the "genius of the Constitution is it has become more and more inclusive. Now, 'we the people' embraces all the people." The courts, she added, "never lead a social change. They only catch up to a change." One audience member asked Ginsburg about public doubts dogging U.S. institutions this summer, and she shared some words of wisdom. "My dear spouse used to say the true symbol of the U.S. is not a bald eagle, it is the pendulum," she said. "And when it goes very far in one direction, you can count on it coming back."

Ginsburg made her comments after a performance of The Originalist, a play about the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in 2016. Another one of her former colleagues, Justice John Paul Stevens, retired in 2010 at age 90.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.