The reason she did not retire before the end of Obama's presidency was because her seat was being saved for Loretta Lynch.
LL was to be rewarded for stopping the investigation into Hillary in 2016. (tarmac meeting)
Scalia's seat was to be given to Garland, they wanted to wait for a year or so and then have RGB retire, delaying the LL appointment so it was not so obvious what they were doing.
“LL was to be rewarded for stopping the investigation into Hillary in 2016. (tarmac meeting)”
I had forgotten all about that. You’re right!!
That’s a reasonable although unprovable theory.
I also think RBG adamantly did not want to retire, she’s said so many times and my impression of her personality is that she would not have taken kindly to being told what to do. It may well be that she didn’t give a crap what Obama, Lynch or anyone else wanted because SHE wanted to be the one making those Scotus decisions, not someone else.
Try to imaging the equivalent Republican party bosses (like family) trying to push Antonin Scalia or Clarence Thomas to retire early so they could reward some Republican political hack with their seat. They’ve have told them where to go and what to do when they got there.
This is 100% correct. They never thought she would loose.
KEK!