Althouse: "People ask me sometimes, when — when do you think it will it be enough? When will there be enough women on the court?"

February 8, 2015

"People ask me sometimes, when — when do you think it will it be enough? When will there be enough women on the court?"

"And my answer is when there are nine," said Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Of course, her answer is rigorously, gloriously correct, and if you don't see exactly why, reveal your incomprehension in the comments, and I will explain, but for now, I'm going to trust in the lucidity of human intelligence and resist tedious pedantry.

41 comments:

campy said...: Yawn.; 2/8/15, 1:59 PM
robother said...: Well, at least Ginsberg appears to be against court-packing (but even that proposition assumes that she does not discount conservative females as "women").; 2/8/15, 2:01 PM
kcom said...: RIWOs - Republican Inspired Women-like Objects

They're everywhere - prominently in Iowa, Alaska, South Carolina and other places; 2/8/15, 2:06 PM
Curious George said...: All I can say is hang in the Judge Ginsberg until there is a GOP in the WH.; 2/8/15, 2:09 PM
TA said...: Or zero. That could be enough, too.; 2/8/15, 2:10 PM
MathMom said...: Because there were nine men forever, so why not nine women, and because there are only nine available seats??

Well, I'm not very very impressed with the women there now. Wasn't impressed with O'Connor after a while, either - all that "we're looking more to foreign law to determine how to rule" crap. Don't they promise to use, like, the Constitution as a guide to American law???; 2/8/15, 2:11 PM
Paul said...: Let's see, women's suffrage gained steam in the late 19th century. ending with their ability to vote around the world (except in Muslim countries).

In between different countries became enlightened enough to let them work side by side with men (USA showed the world in WW2 with 'Rosie the Reverter' and the huge workforce of women (except in Muslim countries.)

But it seems Ginsberg thinks women are, uh, what superior and somehow deserve all the seats in SCOTUS? Dunno about that Hillary, Boxer, and Pelsoi seem to have made a hash out of a lot of things, just as much a hash as men do.

So okie dokie.Lots of luck on that thought.; 2/8/15, 2:15 PM
Rob said...: This emphasis on binary gender identification is disheartening. On the other hand, several members of the Court seem effectively androgynous, so we're making progress.; 2/8/15, 2:16 PM
Michael K said...: At least Ginsberg has retained enough mentation to remember there are nine.; 2/8/15, 2:17 PM
Gahrie said...: Given their apparent inability to substitute reason for emotion, I don't think there should be any women on the Supreme Court.; 2/8/15, 2:21 PM
Rumpletweezer said...: Ask me when there'll be enough competent jurists on the court.; 2/8/15, 2:27 PM
Sebastian said...: She forgot to specify: with or without vaginas?; 2/8/15, 2:30 PM
dreams said...: Ginsberg has outlived former Senator Jim Bunning's prediction of her life expectancy, probably the only instance where she has exceeded his expectations.; 2/8/15, 2:30 PM
Lydia said...: From patriarchy to matriarchy. At least she's honest.; 2/8/15, 2:30 PM
Brando said...: A better question is when do we stop bean counting race and gender? Probably when the bigots die out.; 2/8/15, 2:31 PM
PB said...: "enough" as an adjective that is nonsensical when applied in this context.; 2/8/15, 2:33 PM
rehajm said...: It's a trick question, like what color is the little red schoolhouse, or who's buried in Grant's tomb?; 2/8/15, 2:36 PM
Moneyrunner said...: Other genders were not amused by her bigotry.; 2/8/15, 2:39 PM
Lydia said...: Ginsburg also does clever little things to push her agenda -- like with the use of pronouns in her opinions:

"The most consistent pattern in her writing is to assign particular generics to particular actors throughout all her opinions, most noticeably by using female pronouns to refer generically to judges and to plaintiffs in civil cases, and by using male pronouns to refer to criminal defendants and prisoners."; 2/8/15, 2:42 PM
n.n said...: Her answer is correct when the question is how many are enough and too many.; 2/8/15, 2:49 PM
JZ said...: I don't give a shit whether they're all women as long as they're not all liberals.; 2/8/15, 2:55 PM
Mrs Whatsit said...: Nine is enough women to fill the Court. I think that's what she meant. As in, nine would also be enough men to fill the court. Or, nine would be enough men and women to fill the court. She's tricky, that RBG.; 2/8/15, 3:08 PM
Tom said...: "Enough" is the critical word. But our world doesn't leave room for this sort of nuance, on any side of any issue. Which is why I'll never seek office.; 2/8/15, 3:13 PM
Tom said...: I'd like to see her response if one of those women is required to be Sarah Palin; 2/8/15, 3:13 PM
rgr said...: Since gender is the least important aspect of a justice, the quantity of either gender should be irrelevant. So nine is fine, eight is great, etc. etc.; 2/8/15, 3:21 PM
Big Mike said...: When they get an impressive female justice, then perhaps I'll agree. Right now the women on the Supreme Court pretty much have one string on their violins.; 2/8/15, 4:13 PM
campy said...: "A better question is when do we stop bean counting race and gender? Probably when the bigots die out."

How likely is that, with our universities manufacturing bigots by the thousands?; 2/8/15, 5:15 PM
Meade said...: What she meant was when there are nine women (or men) who are as tough as she is.; 2/8/15, 5:48 PM
Curious George said...: "Mrs Whatsit said...
Nine is enough women to fill the Court. I think that's what she meant. As in, nine would also be enough men to fill the court. Or, nine would be enough men and women to fill the court. She's tricky, that RBG.:

This.; 2/8/15, 5:58 PM
virgil xenophon said...: I wouldn't care if the SCOTUS was comprised entirely of nine female Filipino-Americans as long as they imbibed in the philosophical waters of the Founding Fathers..; 2/8/15, 6:01 PM
Mark said...: Let's just start with getting the first good woman justice. Then we can talk about the rest. (And, yes, we can admit that 95 percent of the men have been mediocrities or worse.) As it is, the current three and the last one are four too many.; 2/8/15, 6:12 PM
robother said...: I think we can all agree that enough is enough.; 2/8/15, 6:35 PM
cold pizza said...: It's funnier if by "court," you assume basketball. -CP; 2/8/15, 7:49 PM
Renee said...: It was a "gotcha" question, it was answered correctly.; 2/8/15, 9:04 PM
J said...: Over the years I've read a lot of dystopian science fiction.And none has had more horrifying aspects to their society than those of the matriarchies.And those were written by women; 2/9/15, 2:47 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: I assumed she was looking to put together a softball team...; 2/9/15, 8:41 AM
Simon said...: I think that there will be enough women on the court when five of them vote to overrule Roe v. Wade. I can't imagine much that would be sweeter than President Walker fulfilling his promise to appoint Judge Sykes to the Supreme Court (I'll hold you to that, Scott), but if she replaced Justice Ginsburg that would be, boy, that'd be just wizard.; 2/9/15, 9:16 AM
Simon said...: I mean, keep talking, Ruth. In one term, a Republican President could get you most of the way there, replacing Justices Scalia, Kennedy, and Breyer with Justices Sykes, Moore, and Barrett. That gets you to six, and you aren't going to like the results. Keep talking.; 2/9/15, 9:22 AM
Peter said...: Nine women is enough?

No, enough is never enough.

After all, these women might not be the right sort of women; some of them might have false consciousness or some other serious defect.; 2/9/15, 9:23 AM
mikesixes said...: Enough justices=9
So 9 women would be enough (so would 9 men); 2/9/15, 12:15 PM
Ben (The Tiger on Politics) said...: Presumably Althouse means that justices ought to be picked on merit, so if there are seven female SCOTUS justices and an opening happens and the most qualified appointee happens to be female, she should be nominated anyway.

Not sure Ginsburg meant that, though.; 2/10/15, 3:09 PM