Local Opinion: Sen. McSally: consider RBG's legacy before voting for new Justice

Before voting to install a new Supreme Court justice, a vote that would fly in the face of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s last wishes, Sen. Martha McSally should consider the legacy of the woman who made her career possible. In the more than 50 years that Ginsburg practiced law, 27 of those on the Supreme Court, she never lost sight of her mission to make this country more just and equitable for all citizens. Coming of age at a time when women were denied equal rights, she fought to ensure that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees all citizens “equal protection of the laws,” applied to everyone in this country.

In law school, Ginsburg was chastised for taking a place that should have gone to a man. Despite graduating at the top of her class, no firm would hire her. From that time forward, she focused her career on the fight to eliminate gender-based discrimination.

As Georgetown law professor Susan Deller Ross states, “she achieved a 180-degree turn in the Court’s approach to sex discrimination cases.” From the beginning of her career until the time of her death, Ginsburg fought for equal justice under the law with perseverance, passion, and integrity. I would ask that McSally bear this in mind. By the time she entered the Air Force with the goal of becoming a fighter pilot, the legal landscape had changed in no small part because of legislation that Ginsburg helped enact.

I do not mean to diminish McSally’s career or her fight to expand the role of women in the Air Force. When she told her first flight instructor at the Air Force Academy that she wanted to be a fighter pilot, his response was to laugh. She went on to become one of the first women trained as a fighter pilot and was the first female pilot in the Air Force to fly in combat. In 2004, she became the first woman to command a fighter squadron.

As odd as it seems, McSally and Ginsburg are kindred spirits. Both set their sights on careers in male-dominated fields; both had the fire, tenacity, and skill to fight their way to the top; both were determined to make that path easier for those who followed them.

Unfortunately, McSally has abandoned that fight.

Our country is in crisis. We have surpassed 200,000 deaths from COVID-19, and in many parts of the country, cases are climbing. For lower-paid workers, many of whom are people of color, disproportionately vulnerable to the serious health effects of the disease, economic hardship continues.

In Arizona, “one in five households statewide is experiencing severe economic strain,” while in Pima County, as many as 26,000 households risk eviction, according to the Daily Star.

We have no plan to address these issues — no safety net for businesses or individuals and no federal guidelines to flatten the coronavirus curve.

The Legislature has enough to tackle without throwing into the mix a divisive and hastily introduced Supreme Court nomination, particularly one likely to vote to gut health-care coverage, undo clean air and water protections, and nullify years of the equal rights decisions Ginsburg fought so hard to inscribe into law.

McSally must put patriotism over party and do what is right for her constituents and her country. We are holding onto democracy by the thinnest of threads. I would urge her to think very carefully about the legacy she is about to unravel. I would urge her not to let it die.