It's a big deal for a couple reasons. One is that we went through this under Obama. A judge died and it was time for Obama to replace them (in an election year). Mitch McConnell said no because it would be wrong to replace a justice during an election year. Democrats just went along with it. This was after Democrats had a chance to replace RBG and stack the court themselves. And the absolute idiots were wanting to nominate a moderate/right justice because they thought by doing that, the Republicans would go along with it. Well they didn't. So Republicans got what they wanted and Democrats lost twice.

The other issue is that RBG herself didn't want to step down out of hubris. She wanted to stay in as long as possible. Past the point of stepping down during Obama's last year so he could shove a Democratic justice on the court. Because they were so stupid they thought Hillary would win and it wouldn't matter. Appointments happen when a Justice dies or steps down. One of them stepped down and thats how we got the rapist Kavanaugh appointed right after Trump took office.

So we're looking at a supreme court of far-right ghouls at this moment. Meaning that even when Republicans are out of office, they can still block whatever Democrats do. The SC can just rule it unconstitutional and shoot down anything Democrats try to pass.