Ruth Bader Ginsburg: US left galvanised by death of icon

Mourners gather on the steps of the US Supreme Court in Washington DC after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died from pancreatic cancer at the age of 87, on September 18, 2020. EPA

US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg gestures to the attendees of her presentation at the National Book Festival presented by the Library of Congress at the Walter E Washington Convention Center in Washington on August 31, 2019. EPA

The flag at the White House flies at half-mast on September 18, 2020 after the Supreme Court announced that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died. AP Photo

Ruth Bader Ginsburg poses in her robe in her office at the US District Court in Washington on August 3, 1993 after the Senate voted 96-3 to confirm her appointment as the 107th justice and the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court. AP Photo

A man holds a sign reading "RBG HERO" as mourners hold a vigil for Ruth Bader Ginsburg outside the US Supreme Court in Washington. Bloomberg

People gather under a mural of Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the U Street neighbourhood in Washington after the announcement of her death. AP Photo

Ruth Bader Ginsburg types while on a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship in Italy in 1977. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP

Ruth Bader in 1948. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP

Ruth Bader Ginsburg poses with her family at the Supreme Court in Washington. From left are, son-in-law George Spera, daughter Jane Ginsburg, husband Martin, son James Ginsburg. The judge's grandchildren Clara Spera and Paul Spera are in front. AP Photo

Ruth Bader Ginsburg with her husband Martin and their daughter Jane in 1958. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP

Ruth Bader's engagement photograph, while a senior at Cornell University in December 1953. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP

Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her husband Martin. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP

Ruth Bader Ginsburg's daughter Jane, born in 1955 and son James, born in 1965, pose for a photo. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP

Joan Ruth Bader at two years old in 1935. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, her husband Martin Ginsburg, and their children Jane and James off the coast of St Thomas in 1979. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP

US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg shows the many different collars she wore with her robes, in her chambers at the Supreme Court building in Washington on June 17, 2016. Reuters

US Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Justice Anthony Kennedy, Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Stephen Breyer, Justice Elena Kagan, Justice Samuel Alito, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, at the Supreme Court building on June 1, 2017. Reuters

Ruth Bader Ginsburgh holds up a drawing of herself with the words "My Grandmother Is Very Special by Paul Spera" as she appears before the Senate Judicary Committee July 20, 1993, the first day of her confirmation hearings for the post of Supreme Court Justice. Paul is Ginsburg's grandson. Reuters

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, US President Bill Clinton's first Supreme Court nominee, is greeted by the first two women to serve on the Senate Judicary Committee, Dianne Feinstein and Carol Moseley-Braun, on July 20, 1993, before the opening of her confirmation hearings. Reuters

Ruth Bader Ginsburg gets a hug from President Barack Obama as he arrives for his address to a joint session of Congress on February 24, 2009. Reuters

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg attends the lunch session of The Women's Conference in Long Beach, California on October 26, 2010. Reuters

President Bill Clinton applauds as Ruth Bader Ginsburg prepares to speak in the Rose Garden of the White House, after the president announced he would nominate her to the Supreme Court on June 14, 1993. AP Photo

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shakes hands with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor along with Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G Breyer before President Barack Obama's State of the Union Address. AFP

The first female US Supreme Court justice, Sandra Day O'Connor, speaks as fellow Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg listens during a forum at the Newseum in Washington on April 11, 2012, to mark the 30th anniversary of O'Connor's first term on the Supreme Court. Reuters

President Bill Clinton and Ruth Bader Ginsburg walk along the Colonnade of the White House in Washington, as they head to the Rose Garden for a news conference where the resident nominated Ginsburg to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court. AP Photo

Ruth Bader Ginsburg stands during the national anthem at a US Citizenship and Immigration Services naturalisation ceremony at the New York Historical Society Museum and Library in Manhattan, New York on April 10, 2017. Reuters

US President George W Bush's nominee to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Judge John Roberts, walks past Associate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the steps of the court in Washington on September 6, 2005. AFP

US Supreme Court judges Sandra Day O'Connor, Ruth Bader-Ginsburg and the US Ambassador in Paris Howard Leach stand with French President Jacques Chirac at him at the Elysee Palace on July 8, 2003. AFP

The death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg sounded a warning for American progressives, thousands of whom – wracked with ever-deepening concern for the future – gathered on Saturday outside the Supreme Court in Washington to honour the late justice.

As evening fell with a sudden September chill, a stream of families and young people gathered for a second night – only 45 days before the US presidential election is held – to pay homage to a renowned progressive figure, affectionately referred to as RBG.

"Ruth, I didn't know you, but you affected my life in many ways," says one of many letters placed at the foot of the court building, among flowers, rainbow flags and Ginsburg bobblehead figurines.

A choir performed a concert, singing songs such as John Lennon's Imagine, as mourners lit candles and organisations representing liberal causes such as Black Lives Matter, gun reform and pro-choice groups handed out shirts, signs and stickers.

"This marks a seismic shift in the course for justice for our generation and will have a permanent effect on the history of what Generation Z does," gun reform activist David Hogg, who survived the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in 2018, told AFP.

Earlier, Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris wended her way discreetly to the front of the crowd.

"RBG was one of my pioneers, an icon, a fighter. She was a woman in every way," she told AFP.

Ginsburg made her name in the 1970s by bringing down a series of laws that discriminated against women.

Nominated to the country's highest court in 1993, she spent her 27-year tenure there defending the rights of immigrants, among other groups, establishing herself unequivocally as a champion of the American left.

A banner with flowers form part of a makeshift memorial outside the US Supreme Court as people pay their respects to Ruth Bader Ginsburg in Washington, DC. AFP

Ms Harris's running mate and US President Donald Trump's opponent, Joe Biden, is struggling to drum up great enthusiasm among progressive voters, owing to his centrist views and age. He is 77.

But Ginsburg's death, in a country already on edge, could well galvanise them to his side.

Elizabeth Warren, a senator for Massachusetts, addressed mourners from a podium and said: "This fight has just begun."

The challenge will be to prevent the doyenne of the Supreme Court from being replaced with her ideological opposite, since Mr Trump has preselected very conservative candidates.

"Thank you for teaching us how to fight," Gina Eppolito wrote in chalk on the pavement outside the imposing white marble building in the US capital, a city known for its progressivism.

A mother of two 11-year-olds, Ms Eppolito said she was concerned that rights acquired during her generation – particularly the right to abortion – might not be passed on to her children.

With Ginsburg's death at the age of 87, the US Supreme Court could become conservative for a long time.

That sparked fears among those who gathered outside the court.

"We are in an extremely vulnerable position," Ms Eppolito said.

Pam Crescenzo, 60, could not hold back tears as she spoke.

"If the courts continue to tilt to the right, it's really going to be a difficult time to be a woman in America," she said.

To her right, a group of people read out a Hebrew prayer. Ginsburg was born to a Jewish family in New York and died on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, one of the most holy days in Judaism.

In a sign of the deep divisions in the US, a man wearing a black suit came to the court to praise Mr Trump. He was roundly booed by the crowd.

Many of the young people there also wanted to thank Ginsburg and to promise they would take up her fight.

"We have a lot of work to do and a lot of fighting to do in the next 45 days," said Kiley Boland, 25.

"It's on us now. She can rest. We got this."