Ruth Bader Ginsburg Regrets Speaking Out on Colin Kaepernick

WASHINGTON — Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg issued a statement on Friday expressing regret for her critical comments on protests by San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and other National Football League players seeking to draw attention to police brutality and racial injustice.

In an interview published Monday, she had called the players’ decision to kneel during the national anthem dumb and disrespectful. On Friday, she said she should have held her tongue.

“Some of you have inquired about a book interview in which I was asked how I felt about Colin Kaepernick and other N.F.L. players who refused to stand for the national anthem,” she wrote in a note to reporters. “Barely aware of the incident or its purpose, my comments were inappropriately dismissive and harsh. I should have declined to respond.”

It was the second time this year that Justice Ginsburg has disavowed public comments. In July, after a series of interviews expressing disdain for Donald J. Trump, she issued a similar statement.

The recent comments came in an interview with Katie Couric of Yahoo News. Justice Ginsburg was there to discuss a new book, and Ms. Couric asked about the protests. “Would I arrest them for doing it?” Justice Ginsburg said of players. “No.”

But she added: “I think it’s dumb and disrespectful. I would have the same answer if you asked me about flag burning. I think it’s a terrible thing to do, but I wouldn’t lock a person up for doing it. I would point out how ridiculous it seems to me to do such an act.”

Mr. Kaepernick’s protests have also drawn criticism from Mr. Trump, who said, “I think it’s a terrible thing, and you know, maybe he should find a country that works better for him.”

On the other hand, President Obama has said that Mr. Kaepernick has been drawing attention to “some real, legitimate issues” and “exercising his constitutional right.”

Speaking to reporters Tuesday in the 49ers locker room, Mr. Kaepernick said Justice Ginsburg had shown a lack of sensitivity. “It is disappointing to hear a Supreme Court justice call a protest against injustices and oppression ‘stupid, dumb’ in reference to players doing that,” he said.

He said he was reading an article that he said referred to “the white critique of black protests and how they try to delegitimize it by calling it ‘idiotic, dumb, stupid,’ things of that nature, so they can sidestep the real issue. As I was reading that, I saw more and more truth how this has been approached by people in power and white people in power in particular.”

Justice Ginsburg’s statement suggested that she had taken the wrong tone because she had not been fully informed. In expressing regret about her earlier statements, about Mr. Trump, she said only that she should not have uttered them.

“On reflection, my recent remarks in response to press inquiries were ill-advised and I regret making them,” she said in July of the Trump remarks. “Judges should avoid commenting on a candidate for public office.”

“In the future,” Justice Ginsburg said then, “I will be more circumspect.”
NYTIMES