美国国家公共电台 NPR Justice Ginsburg: 'I Am Very Much Alive'

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Supreme¹ Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says she is not going anywhere despite concerns about her health. In an interview with NPR News, she also offers some political opinions. Ginsburg says she does not favor proposals by some Democrats² to change the number of Supreme Court justices. She spoke³ with NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg.

NINA TOTENBERG, BYLINE⁴: Ginsburg, who got herself in trouble criticizing candidate Donald Trump⁵ in 2016, this time was critical not of any particular Democratic contender but of their proposals to offset⁶ President Trump's two conservative appointments to the court. The principle ideas are to enact⁷ term limits for Supreme Court justices or, for Democrats, should they win the presidency⁸, to get Congress to expand the number of justices. The term limits proposal doesn't worry her because it's totally unrealistic, she says, given that the Constitution specifies⁹ life terms for federal judges.

RUTH BADER GINSBURG: And as you know, our Constitution is powerfully hard to amend¹⁰.

TOTENBERG: Indeed, it takes the votes of two-thirds of the Senate and the House, and three-quarters of the states. But in contrast, as Ginsburg notes, there is no fixed¹¹ number of justices specified¹² by the Constitution. And the court, over the course of history, has had as few as five justices and as many as 10.

GINSBURG: Nine seems to be a good number, and it's been that way for a long time.

TOTENBERG: Any deviation¹³ now, she thinks, would be a big mistake.

GINSBURG: I think that was a bad idea when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt tried to pack the court.

TOTENBERG: Roosevelt's proposal would have given him six additional Supreme Court appointments, expanding the court to 15 members. Ginsburg said any similar plan would be very damaging to the court and the country.

GINSBURG: Well, if anything, it would make the court appear partisan¹⁴. It would be that one side saying, when we're in power, we're going to enlarge the number of judges so we will have more people who will vote the way we want them to.

TOTENBERG: Our conversation yesterday was wide-ranging, discussing, among other things, her health. She's had three major bouts¹⁵ with cancer over the last 20 years. In 1999, she underwent surgery for colorectal cancer followed by nine months of chemotherapy and radiation. In 2009, she underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer and late last year for lung cancer.

You do realize that when you get a cold or a hangnail, there's a substantial portion of the population who go into a complete panic?

GINSBURG: There was a senator - I think it was after the pancreatic cancer - who announced with great glee that I was going to be dead within six months. That senator, whose name I've forgotten, is now himself dead.

(LAUGHTER)

GINSBURG: And I am very much alive.

TOTENBERG: That said, most cancer patients do worry. Some view one cancer, never mind three, as a sword of Damocles over their heads. So how does Ginsburg manage? She says she's followed the advice of the opera singer Marilyn Horne, who was asked about her pancreatic cancer diagnosis¹⁶ in 2005.

GINSBURG: And she said, I will live. Not that I hope I'll live or I want to live. I will live.

TOTENBERG: And how did you do your work?

GINSBURG: The work is really what saved me because I had to concentrate on reading the brief, doing a draft of an opinion. And I knew that had to get done. So I had to get past whatever my aches and pains were and just do the job.

TOTENBERG: Her lung cancer last year, however, was the first time she did not have her beloved husband, Marty, with her. He died in 2010, and she says she misses him every day, maybe especially now. Our interview was late yesterday after Ginsburg spoke at the private funeral for Justice John Paul Stevens, who died July 16 at the age of 99. Just days before, Ginsburg had been with him at a conference in Portugal. Stevens retired¹⁷ from the court in 2010 at the age of 90, and as the two traveled in a car together less than two weeks ago, Ginsburg told him her dream.

GINSBURG: I said that my dream is that I will stay at the court as long as he did. And his immediate¹⁸ response was, stay longer.

TOTENBERG: Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington.

1 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

2 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

6 offset   

n.分支，补偿；v.抵消，补偿

参考例句：

• Their wage increases would be offset by higher prices.他们增加的工资会被物价上涨所抵消。
• He put up his prices to offset the increased cost of materials.他提高了售价以补偿材料成本的增加。

7 enact   

vt.制定(法律)；上演，扮演

参考例句：

• The U.S. Congress has exclusive authority to enact federal legislation.美国国会是唯一有权颁布联邦法律的。
• For example,a country can enact laws and economic policies to attract foreign investment fairly quickly.例如一个国家可以很快颁布吸引外资的法令和经济政策。

8 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

9 specifies   

v.指定( specify的第三人称单数 )；详述；提出…的条件；使具有特性

参考例句：

• The third clause of the contract specifies steel sashes for the windows. 合同的第三款指定使用钢窗。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The contract specifies red tiles, not slates, for the roof. 合同规定屋顶用红瓦，并非石板瓦。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

10 amend   

vt.修改，修订，改进；n.[pl.]赔罪，赔偿

参考例句：

• The teacher advised him to amend his way of living.老师劝他改变生活方式。
• You must amend your pronunciation.你必须改正你的发音。

11 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

12 specified   

adj.特定的

参考例句：

• The architect specified oak for the wood trim. 那位建筑师指定用橡木做木饰条。
• It is generated by some specified means. 这是由某些未加说明的方法产生的。

13 deviation   

n.背离，偏离；偏差，偏向；离题

参考例句：

• Deviation from this rule are very rare.很少有违反这条规则的。
• Any deviation from the party's faith is seen as betrayal.任何对党的信仰的偏离被视作背叛。

14 partisan   

adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒

参考例句：

• In their anger they forget all the partisan quarrels.愤怒之中，他们忘掉一切党派之争。
• The numerous newly created partisan detachments began working slowly towards that region.许多新建的游击队都开始慢慢地向那里移动。

15 bouts   

n.拳击（或摔跤）比赛( bout的名词复数 )；一段（工作）；（尤指坏事的）一通；（疾病的）发作

参考例句：

• For much of his life he suffered from recurrent bouts of depression. 他的大半辈子反复发作抑郁症。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• It was one of fistiana's most famous championship bouts. 这是拳击界最有名的冠军赛之一。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

16 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。

17 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

18 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。