CARBONDALE, Ill. (WSIL) -- President Trump said he will nominate a replacement for Justice Ginsberg by the end of the week. If successful, many are asking the question of how will his pick shape the future of the Supreme Court?
News 3 spoke with two law experts at the SIU School of Law to obtain some insight on types of changes our region could possibly see with the new nomination.
Steven Macias is an Associate Professor of Law, an Associate Dean at SIU and an expert on the Supreme Court. He said, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was not the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court, but she is the first woman Justice to focus on female equality. Now with her voice removed, and the president set to name a nominee, and some question what it could mean for the country and this region.
"That vacancy is significant because some fear it would undo some of the main areas that were near and dear to Justice Ginsburg's heart. Like sex equality and abortion rights," said Steven Macias an Associate Professor of Law and Associate Dean.
Macias believes Ruth Bader Ginsburg replacement with a more conservative justice will probably be more significant to states that don't have strong protections for those issues like Illinois does.
"If there were to be some alternation of the abortion precedence of roe versus wade, those rights would probably be still protected in Illinois. It's the state's that are more hostile to those rights where her replacement, a conservative member would really have significance," said Macias.
Professor Cindy Buys is also a professor of Law at SIU, she said she met Justice Ginsburg in April of 2019 when a group of about fifty SIU School of Law alum went to the Supreme Court for a swearing in ceremony. Buys describes Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as being a very kind and gracious person.
"She knew how much it mean for us to meet one of the justices outside of just the formal swearing-in ceremony. I saw her speak at a couple of the other swearing in ceremonies as well. She physically was a tiny, tiny woman and just a giant in the law and really a role model for so many and so many of us are mourning her lost, " said professor of Law at SIU Professor Cindy Buys.
