(Yahoo News) — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, one of the four liberal justices on the court, died Friday evening, the court announced in a statement.
Ginsburg, who was nominated by President Bill Clinton in 1993, was 87 years old and in delicate health for some months, although she had kept up a full schedule on the bench. She was hospitalized earlier this year with a recurrence of metastatic pancreatic cancer, which was first detected in 2009, and that was listed as the cause of her death.
Before her death, Ginsburg dictated a statement to her granddaughter, Clara Spera. “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new President is installed,” she wrote.
The decision to fill the court vacancy now enters the hyperpartisan atmosphere of the 2020 race, with just weeks before the Nov. 3 election.