Is 2012 A Marriage Equality Election?

by Patrick Appel

Adam Winkler worries that a Republican president would get to replace Ginsburg, a Justice likely to rule in favor of equality, with a social conservative:

It’s possible … that the justices won’t have the opportunity to consider the Proposition 8 case until 2014. By then, Justice Ginsburg might not be on the court. Although she’s affirmatively disclaimed any intention to retire in the near future, Ginsburg, the eldest member of the court, is 78. At that age, fate has a way of disrupting even our most determined plans. Ginsburg has also battled cancer—twice. In 1999 she was diagnosed with colon cancer, which she survived, only to discover three years ago that she had pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest forms.