Opinion: Ginsburg’s death highlights unhealthy centrality of US Supreme Court

With so much power at stake, it's no surprise the US Supreme court has become increasingly politicised, argues Professor Ronan McCrea (UCL Laws). The death of the US Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has attracted widespread attention. Hers was a trailblazing career in which she overcame endless barriers placed in her way by a patriarchal society to end up as one of the most well-known judges in the history of the Supreme Court. However, the level of attention and political controversy set off by her death highlights the unhealthy centrality of the US Supreme Court to political life in the United States and provides a broader warning to progressives who are tempted to focus on courts as a place to pursue their political goals. While much of the attention drawn by Ginsburg's death results from her remarkable life story, it is also due to the fact that her death has huge political ramifications. The appointment of a Supreme Court judge is particularly important because of the near-impossibility of amending the US constitution. Amendments require the support of two-thirds of Congress and three-quarters of the states.