There's a good chance the person elected in 2020 will pick his replacement.
As much as liberals love RBG, many are still angry with her for not stepping down in 2014 when Obama and a Democrat Senate could've picked her replacement.
I don't want to see a repeat of this mistake.
I refuse to get on that panic express, since Justice Thomas is only a bit older than me-and most of my neighbors-we work at the businesses we own, sometimes long hours, some work as sheriff’s deputies-long hours, again-we are healthy, hard working country people, and Justice Thomas looks and acts healthy, sharp and able to handle the long hours-in his interviews, he is absolutely on fire-he’s not going into any goodnight now, nor should he...
RBG on the other hand has a form of cancer that is mostly fatal at any age-the only unknown is how long her remission(s) will be-I say replace her if she does not survive 2020-let the democrats howl and throw tantrums till Satan goes ice skating on the WH lawn-they can’t be allowed to have control of the courts any more, no matter what that takes...
McConnell would have blocked her replacement too.
Check out the tables at the link below (Table 21, starting at page 53) https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr68/nvsr68_04-508.pdf
I have read that Thomas said he had no intention of dying on the bench. We shall see.