Not long after Donald Trump said he was nominating federal judge Amy Coney Barrett to replace Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the United States Supreme Court, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) took to Twitter to share a shirt that is, even in this dystopian, horrible year, notably cringe-inducing. What is this “special edition” shirt? The shirt reads: “Notorious A.C.B” with an image of Barrett with a crown on her head. As many fans of the late justice know, Ginsburg was nicknamed the “Notorious RBG” by a law student (as a play on the rapper Notorious B.I.G., also originally from New York). While the moniker was not of Ginsburg’s own creation, it spawned countless shirts, mugs, and posters, and she even seemed happy with it herself. For a Republican group to try and co-opt it so quickly feels sleazy and disrespectful, especially given that Ginsburg passed away just last week.
Of course, it feels additionally awful given that Barrett, in particular, is super, super conservative, and puts much of what Ginsburg accomplished at risk. And on top of that, we know from a statement passed on by Ginsburg’s granddaughter that she wished not to “be replaced until a new president is installed.” So many, many layers of terrible. And Twitter users pointed out many of them. Let’s check some out below.
First, here is the original tweet and the shirt.
And responses.
Of course, what matters far more than any shirt or nickname is the obvious hypocrisy of Republicans eager to usher in a new justice right before an election, the potential long-term imbalance of the court, and, in particular, the fate of the Affordable Care Act and Roe v. Wade, among others.
On a lighter note, here is a charming clip of Ginsburg discussing her moniker, and what it meant to her.
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