"My senior colleague, Justice John Paul Stevens, he stepped down when he was 90, so think I have about at least five more years," Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said. | Jim Watson/Getty Images Ruth Bader Ginsburg: I have 'at least five more years' on the bench

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Sunday that she intends to serve “at least five more years,” a stretch that would extend her career beyond her 90th birthday.

"I'm now 85," Ginsburg said, according to CNN. "My senior colleague, Justice John Paul Stevens, he stepped down when he was 90, so think I have about at least five more years."


Ginsburg, nominated by former President Bill Clinton and confirmed to the Supreme Court in 1993, is the court’s oldest justice and is also among its most liberal. Her future on the bench has been the subject of significant speculation because her departure during President Donald Trump’s term would afford him the opportunity to appoint a third Supreme Court justice, shifting the court’s balance of power for years, and potentially decades, to come.

Trump campaigned hard on a promise to nominate only conservative judges, pledging to pick Supreme Court nominees only from a preordained list vetted with the help of conservative groups like the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation. He has thus far made good on that promise, placing Justice Neil Gorsuch on the bench to fill the seat left vacant by Antonin Scalia and nominating Brett Kavanaugh to replace the retiring Anthony Kennedy.

Ginsburg, speaking Sunday in New York after a performance of “The Originalist,” a play about Scalia, ruled out the possibility of placing term limits on judges because to do so would require a constitutional amendment. “We hold our offices during good behavior,” she said, “and most judges are very well behaved.”

She also offered an optimistic note for those who hold similar views to her own in response to a question about what kept her “hopeful.”

"My dear spouse would say that the true symbol of the United States is not the bald eagle — it is the pendulum," Ginsburg said. "And when it goes very far in one direction, you can count on its swinging back."