--- title: Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Justice Could be Confirmed in Lame-Duck description: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she wants to have eight colleagues on the bench before the end of the court's current term canonical: https://time.com/4527889/ruth-bader-ginsburg-merrick-garland-confirmation/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-12T20:22:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T01:08:55.612Z article:section: Politics og:title: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Suggests Senate Confirm Merrick Garland in Lame-Duck Session og:description: "Eight is not a good number for a collegial body that sometimes disagrees" og:url: https://time.com/4527889/ruth-bader-ginsburg-merrick-garland-confirmation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1129b2e6cb89101d/6988a9a9f887dc9a4ae97c41/ruth-bader-ginsburg.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: An Historic Evening with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Suggests Senate Confirm Merrick Garland in Lame-Duck Session twitter:description: "Eight is not a good number for a collegial body that sometimes disagrees" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1129b2e6cb89101d/6988a9a9f887dc9a4ae97c41/ruth-bader-ginsburg.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ruth Bader Ginsburg Suggests Senate Should Confirm Merrick Garland in Lame-Duck Session > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=f9339eaa-9779-4cfe-bc11-1499b70e80aa&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1)  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Oct 12, 2016 8:22 PM UTC  Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg presents onstage at a reception before an event at the Temple Emanu-El Skirball Center on Sept. 21, 2016 in New York City. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg presents onstage at a reception before an event at the Temple Emanu-El Skirball Center on Sept. 21, 2016 in New York City. Michael Kovac/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Oct 12, 2016 8:22 PM UTC Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wants to have eight colleagues on the bench before the end of the court’s current term. In an [interview with journalist Charlie Rose](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2016-10-12/ruth-bader-ginsburg-charlie-rose) this week, Ginsburg stressed the importance of having nine justices on the Supreme Court, which has had just eight members since Antonin Scalia died in February. [Senate Republicans have refused](http://time.com/4284158/obamas-low-key-barnstorming-for-a-supreme-court-nominee/?iid=sr-link7) to hold confirmation hearings for President Obama’s nominee, [Merrick Garland](http://time.com/4261007/merrick-garland-supreme-court-barack-obama/), arguing that it should be the responsibility of the next president to nominate a new justice. In the interview, which aired Monday and Tuesday, Rose noted that the next president will now have the opportunity to appoint a new justice. “That’s one scenario. The other possibility is after the election, the Senate will act,” Ginsburg said, suggesting that the Senate could hold hearings for Garland during the lame-duck session between November’s presidential election and the inauguration on Jan. 20. Asked what she would like the Senate to do, Ginsburg demurred. “I would like to see the court have a full house by the time this term ends,” she said. The Supreme Court stops hearing cases in April, convening in May and June only to announce orders and opinions. The eight justices have been relatively quiet on the subject this year, though Ginsburg has praised Garland and [criticized the Senate’s inaction](http://time.com/4400491/ruth-bader-ginsburg-interview-donald-trump-merrick-garland-abortion/?iid=sr-link7). Garland has now waited nearly seven months for a confirmation hearing—longer than any other Supreme Court nominee. Before Garland, the Senate had never taken more than 125 days to vote on a nominee, the [New York _Times_ reported](http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/02/13/us/how-long-does-it-take-to-confirm-a-supreme-court-nominee.html). Throughout U.S. history, nominees have been confirmed, rejected or withdrawn in an average of 25 days, according to a [_Times_ analysis](http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/02/13/us/how-long-does-it-take-to-confirm-a-supreme-court-nominee.html), but the length of time from nomination to confirmation has been longer in recent decades. If the Senate takes as many days to confirm a new nominee as it took to confirm Justices Elena Kagan (87), Sonia Sotomayor (66) or Samuel Alito Jr. (82), the next president could nominate a justice in January and see them confirmed before the end of the current term—much to Ginsburg’s delight. But that would be an almost speedy turnaround for a legislative body now known for gridlock. And in her interview with Rose, Ginsburg emphasized the court’s need for a ninth justice soon. “Eight is not a good number for a collegial body that sometimes disagrees,” Ginsburg said. In instances when the court is divided, an even number of justices makes it difficult for the Supreme Court to issue a binding judgment and resolve conflicts among lower courts, she said. “What we do is we automatically affirm the decision of the court below. No opinion is written, no reasons are given, and the affirmance has no precedential value,” Ginsburg said. “It’s just as though we denied review.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4527889/ruth-bader-ginsburg-merrick-garland-confirmation/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4527889/ruth-bader-ginsburg-merrick-garland-confirmation/"},"headline":"Ruth Bader Ginsburg Suggests Senate Should Confirm Merrick Garland in Lame-Duck Session","datePublished":"2016-10-12T20:22:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T01:08:55.612Z","description":"\"Eight is not a good number for a collegial body that sometimes disagrees\"","url":"https://time.com/4527889/ruth-bader-ginsburg-merrick-garland-confirmation/","keywords":["Supreme Court","justice","scotus"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1129b2e6cb89101d/6988a9a9f887dc9a4ae97c41/ruth-bader-ginsburg.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1129b2e6cb89101d/6988a9a9f887dc9a4ae97c41/ruth-bader-ginsburg.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"An Historic Evening with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg","caption":"An Historic Evening with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg","creditText":"Michael Kovac/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/supreme-court/","name":"Supreme Court"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4527889/ruth-bader-ginsburg-merrick-garland-confirmation/","name":"Ruth Bader Ginsburg Suggests Senate Should Confirm Merrick Garland in Lame-Duck Session"}}]}] ```