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JAMESTOWN – A Sunday night candlelight vigil honored the life of late Supreme Court Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg who passed away late last week following a battle with cancer.
The vigil, hosted by the Jamestown Justice Coalition, took place at Jamestown’s Dow Park.
More than 30 people were in attendance, including Shannon Bessett who tells WNYNewsNow she idolized the judge.
Bessett says even though she knew Ginsburg was in falling health, the news of her death came as a shock.
“She went through four of five rounds of Cancer and kept going so you had to expect it,” said Bessett. “But still you felt like a light went out.”
The remembrance was part of several vigils across in Western New York including in Fredonia and Buffalo.
Ginsburg suffered from five bouts of cancer, most recently a recurrence in early 2020 when a biopsy revealed lesions on her liver. In a statement she said that chemotherapy was yielding “positive results” and that she was able to maintain an active daily routine.
The Judge was appointed to the nation’s highest court in 1993 by President Bill Clinton and in recent years served as the most senior member of the court’s liberal wing consistently delivering progressive votes on the most divisive social issues of the day, including abortion rights, same-sex marriage, voting rights, immigration, health care and affirmative action.
Along the way, she developed what many called a rock star type status and was dubbed the “Notorious R.B.G.”
In speaking events across the country before liberal audiences, she was greeted with standing ovations as she spoke about her view of the law, her famed exercise routine and her often fiery dissents.
A strong advocate for progressive causes, she often wrote opinions ripe with disapproval when she thought the majority had gone astray.
The vacancy gives Trump the opportunity to further solidify the conservative majority on the court and fill the seat of a woman who broke through the glass ceiling at a time when few women attended law school with a different justice who could steer the court to the right on social issues.
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