Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has passed away. The 87-year-old lost her battle to metastatic pancreatic cancer.
The Supreme Court revealed in July that the octogenarian had been undergoing chemotherapy treatments for cancer since May. Ginsburg had been in and out of the hospital over recent years battling a variety of ailments.
Despite her repeated hospitalizations, Ginsburg vowed to remain on the Supreme Court for as long as she could perform the job "full steam." Ginsburg said in a statement in July that she was "still fully able to do that."
The vacancy tees up a political showdown in the GOP-led Senate just weeks before voters head to the polls.
In a statement reportedly dictated by her granddaughter Clara Spera days ago, Ginsburg said, "My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new President is installed."
Ginsburg told The New York Times in 2016, "I can't imagine what this place would be -- I can't imagine what the country would be -- with Donald Trump as our president." Ginsburg also called Trump "a faker" and joked about moving to New Zealand if Trump was elected president. After her attacks, Trump called on the justice to step down.
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President Bill Clinton nominated Ginsburg to the Supreme Court in 1993 and the justice quickly emerged as the leader of the court's liberal wing. She was the second woman appointed to the Supreme Court where she worked for more than 27 years.
Ginsburg's husband, Martin David Ginsburg, died in 2010. She is survived by two children, four grandchildren, two step-grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
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