Dear Reader,

When an iconic and longtime public servant passes, we grieve and pay tribute. When the deceased is a giant, like John McCain or John Lewis, the entire nation pauses. The praise and remembrance lasts, as we collectively linger on their legacies in what is usually a long goodbye.

Sitting Supreme Court Justices, sadly, are different. That is especially so when they are giants, as the consequences of their passing can literally alter the course of the country. The news of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death felt like a body blow from an extreme fighter; to be frank, given the year we are having, it felt like a punch below the belt. I know many of you cried. I will confess I did. The tears flowed because of grief at the loss of such a heroic person who fought her whole life, through bias and hardship and even cancer, for equality and justice. But many were also stricken because of what it might mean for the future of the Court, the country, and the very fights RBG dedicated her life to.

Twitter on Friday night quickly became a mix of memories and politics. Money poured into the campaign coffers of Mitch McConnell’s and Lindsey Graham’s Democratic opponents, as the former immediately made clear he would trash the Republicans’ own 2016 standard for election year confirmations and ram through a hard-right replacement for the Notorious RBG.