The late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is lying in state Friday at the U.S. Capitol, the first woman in American history to do so, in commemoration of her extraordinary life.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said it was with “profound sorrow” that she welcomed the liberal icon and opened the private service. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, sat quietly with other elected officials, friends and family. His vice presidential running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, also attended.
Mourners gathered under coronavirus restrictions at the service for Ginsburg, who died last week at age 87, as her casket made the short procession from the court’s steps where it had been on public view for several days to the East Front of the Capitol. A military honour guard carried it inside the Capitol’s stately Statuary Hall.
The politics of the moment, in a tense election year, rippled throughout the celebrations this week of Ginsburg’s life and career.
Services were brief, with the rabbi’s reflections and prayer, before guests lined up to pass by the casket and pay their respects. The ceremony featured one of Ginsburg’s favourite opera singers, mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves.
Small in stature, large in history, the Brooklyn-born Ginsburg was remembered as a bright Columbia graduate who was passed over for jobs at a time when few women entered law, only to go on to reshape the nation’s laws protecting women’s rights and equality.
“Brick by brick, case by case,” said Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt of the Adas Israel Congregation in Washington, Ginsburg changed the course of American law.
“Today, she makes history again.”
‘One of the greatest Americans’
Most of those in attendance were Democrats, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, both former presidential candidates.
Harris said RBG, as the late justice is known by many, “absolutely” and intentionally cleared a path for women like her in civic life.
“She, first of all, made America see what leadership looks like — in the law, in terms of public service — and she broke so many barriers,” Harris told reporters at the Capitol. “And I know that she did it intentionally knowing that people like me could follow.”
She called Ginsburg “one of the greatest Americans.”
Toward the end of the line of mourners, one dropped to the ground and did three quick pushups. It was Bryant Johnson, the justice’s beloved trainer of her popular workouts.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is leading the push for Trump’s nominee to replace Ginsburg, was missing, though prominent Republican congressman Steve Scalise of Louisiana was there.
WATCH l Ginsburg’s friend talks to CBC News about her life, legacy:
Members of the House and Senate who were not invited to the ceremony because of space limitations imposed by the coronavirus pandemic will be able to pay their respects before a motorcade carrying Ginsburg’s casket departed the Capitol in the afternoon.
Ginsburg is also the first Jewish-American to lie in state and just the second Supreme Court justice to receive the tribute. The first, Chief Justice William Howard Taft, also had been U.S. president.
Announcement expected Saturday
The honour of lying in state has been accorded fewer than three dozen times, mostly to presidents, vice-presidents and members of Congress. Rep. John Lewis, the civil rights icon, was the last person to lie in state following his death in July. Henry Clay, the Kentucky lawmaker who served as Speaker of the House and also was a senator, was the first in 1852.
Rosa Parks — a private citizen, not a government official — is the only woman who has lain in honour at the Capitol.
Ginsburg has lain in repose for two days at the Supreme Court, where thousands of people paid their respects, including President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump on Thursday. Spectators booed and chanted “vote him out” as the president, who wore a mask, stood silently near Ginsburg’s casket at the top of the court’s front steps.
Trump plans to announce his nomination Saturday of a woman to take Ginsburg’s place on the high court, where she served for 27 years and was the leader of the liberal justices.
Ginsburg, the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court, will be buried next week in Arlington National Cemetery beside her husband, Martin, who died in 2010.
