Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg returns to Supreme Court for final time

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WASHINGTON – Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was to return to the Supreme Court for the final time Wednesday under circumstances both she and her legions of liberal allies and admirers hoped would never happen.

Even as President Donald Trump readied a potential replacement for the late justice, who died Friday after a lengthy battle with cancer, Ginsburg's family, friends, former law clerks and colleagues on the high court prepared for one last goodbye.

The casket of the 87-year-old justice was to be escorted up the stairs to the Supreme Court's Great Hall, just outside the courtroom – its entrance draped in black – where she served for 27 years.

After a brief ceremony, it will be returned to the front portico of the court for two days of public viewing, with appropriate social distancing to guard against the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed more than 200,000 lives.

Then Ginsburg's casket will be moved across the street to the U.S. Capitol, where on Friday she will become the first woman to lie in state since the honor was first bestowed on Henry Clay in 1852. At both locations, Ginsburg's casket will rest on the Lincoln Catafalque, which first supported President Abraham Lincoln's casket in the Capitol after his assassination in 1865.

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A private interment service will be held next week at Arlington National Cemetery, where Ginsburg will join her late husband, Martin, who died in 2010.

It will be a familiar scene at the high court, where current and former justices and clerks have mourned with families and friends twice before in just the past four years. Associate Justice Antonin Scalia was lain in repose there in 2016. Retired Associate Justice John Paul Stevens, who lived to be 99, received a similar honor last year.

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Ginsburg's death immediately ignited a partisan battle over the high court vacancy, one Republicans have longed to fill while they control the White House and Senate. Trump has refrained from naming a nominee until after most of Ginsburg's ceremonies are completed, but he has made no secret of his intent to act quickly with the Nov. 3 election approaching.

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The leading candidate, federal appeals court Judge Amy Coney Barrett of Indiana, was at the White House Monday and Tuesday for meetings. Several other women, most notably federal appeals court Judge Barbara Lagoa of Florida, are said to be in contention. Trump has vowed to announce his nominee at 5 p.m. Saturday.

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Senate Republicans, meanwhile, are falling into line behind the goal of confirming the as-yet-unnamed nominee with unusual speed by Election Day. The strictly partisan plan has mobilized Democrats against the prospect of a far more conservative court, perhaps for decades to come. Millions of dollars are being spent by both sides in an effort to seat or defeat Trump's nominee.

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But for the next three days, it will be Ginsburg – the diminutive Brooklyn native who led the legal battle for women's equality in the 1970s, then served for four decades on the nation's two most powerful courts – who commands the nation's attention.

A New York City native who attended Harvard Law School before graduating from Columbia Law School, Ginsburg was a law professor at Columbia and Rutgers before President Jimmy Carter named her to the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1980. She was elevated by President Bill Clinton in 1993, winning Senate confirmation by a vote of 96-3.

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During President Barack Obama's second term, Ginsburg did not heed the advice of some liberal allies to retire so that Democrats could replace her. After Trump's upset victory in 2016, she battled cancer diagnoses and other serious ailments in order to remain in office, once even participating in oral arguments from her hospital bed.

The eight sitting justices are expected to attend Wednesday morning's ceremony inside the otherwise shuttered court, along with one or more retired justices. Sadly, the only woman to precede Ginsburg on the bench, her close friend Sandra Day O'Connor, has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and is unlikely to be present.

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The public then will have the chance to pay their respects from about 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday, and from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday, under the portico at the top of the courthouse steps.