Ruth Bader Ginsburg Goes Notorious on Colin Kaepernick, Calls Protests “Dumb”

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg doesn't often speak publicly, but while promoting her new book, My Own Words, she used her words to admonish Colin Kaepernick and other athletes taking a knee or engaging in forms of protest in an interview with Yahoo today.

"I think it's really dumb of them," the veteran justice told Katie Couric in the Yahoo News video. "Would I arrest them for doing it, no."

Ginsburg seems to be on the side of those who feel the actions of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Kaepernick, Seattle Reign soccer player Megan Rapinoe, and scores of other athletes across the country are inappropriate, while failing to see the purpose of the protest themselves.

Comparing the kneeling to flag burning, Ginsburg called it "a terrible thing to do," but said the protesters are within their rights and the law, as long as their actions don't "jeopardize the health or well-being of other people."

When Couric followed up for clarification, Ginsburg went further, saying, "If they want to be stupid, there is no law that should be preventive; if they want to be arrogant, there is no law that prevents them from that."

Ginsburg, by the way, was one of three justices who dissented in the Supreme Court's recent decision in Utah v. Strieff, a case involving whether evidence found during an unlawful stop could be used in court. But Ginsburg didn't join all parts of the dissent, written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, including specific examples of how the court expanded the rights of the police and references from black intellectuals past and present.

This latest comment from one of the court's most visible jurists seems to show she's not as down as we think she is.