'Flaming Feminist' Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Vows to Outlast Trump's First Term

WASHINGTON – Liberal Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says she's hoping to serve on the high court for at least five more years.

"I'm now 85," Ginsburg said Sunday. "My senior colleague, Justice John Paul Stevens, he stepped down when he was 90, so think I have about at least five more years."

The elderly justice made the remarks after seeing a play in New York about Justice Antonin Scalia, titled "The Originalist."

Despite her liberal views, she was a close friend of Scalia, who passed away in 2016.

"If I had my choice of dissenters when I was writing for the court, it would be Justice Scalia," Ginsburg said, noting that the back and forth between her and her late colleague was sometimes "like a ping-pong game."

Ginsburg, who was appointed to the court in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, refers to herself as a "flaming feminist" and has provided a consistent liberal presence on the high court.

"My dear spouse used to say the true symbol of the US is not a bald eagle," the Guardian quoted Ginsburg as saying Sunday. "It is the pendulum. And when it goes very far in one direction, you can count on it coming back."

News of Ginsburg's eventual retirement comes as Brett Kavanaugh battles fierce Democratic opposition to become the latest Trump pick to be confirmed to the high court.

The 53-year-old circuit court judge has a reputation for a being a constitutional originalist and not one prone to judicial activism.

"He cares more about what the Constitution actually says than about what the Supreme Court has said it says," Steve Aden, an attorney with Americans United for Life, told CBN News.

It's a view that lies in stark contrast to Ginsberg's judicial philosophy.

"The genius of the Constitution is it has become more and more inclusive," Ginsburg said Sunday. "Now, 'We the people' embraces all the people."

"Courts never lead a social change," she added. "They only catch up to a change."