World News: OnPolitics: RBG makes history one more time today

Friday, September 25

A person pays respects as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lies in repose under the Portico at the top of the front steps of the U.S. Supreme Court building on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2020, in Washington. Ginsburg, 87, died of cancer on Sept. 18. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

More than 30 men have laid in state at the Capitol since 1852. But no women. That streak ends today.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg will get her final public farewell today.

The trailblazing Supreme Court justice, who died one week ago after another bout with cancer, will become the first woman and Jewish person to lie in state at the U.S. Capitol.

USA TODAY's Christal Hayes, who covers Congress for us, described the honor this way:

Since it was initially bestowed on Henry Clay in 1852, 34 men have received the honor of lying in state at the Capitol. Civil rights icon Rosa Parks was lain in "honor" at the Capitol Rotunda in 2005, but Ginsburg will be the first woman to lie in state. Her casket will be placed on the Lincoln Catafalque, which first supported President Abraham Lincoln's casket in the U.S. Capitol after his assassination in 1865.

It will be the second time in just a few months that the Capitol will honor an icon: Rep. John Lewis most recently laid in state after his death in July.

RBG was no stranger to setting a precedent. She wrote the court's majority opinion that said it was unconstitutional for state-funded schools to bar women from attendance, among a slew of other things she helped women accomplish when the law previously was not on their side.

On Thursday, President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump paid their respects to Ginsburg, visiting her casket perched outside the Supreme Court building. But he was jeered by the crowd gathered there, who chanted "Honor her wish!"

Ginsburg before she died had said her dying wish: "My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed."

That will not be the case.

Republicans in the Senate will move forward with confirmation hearings for the prospective justice Trump is expected to announce Saturday evening.

"I'm just doing my constitutional obligation," Trump told reporters Monday. "I have an obligation to do this so I would rather see it before the election."

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