Kate McKinnon, who has memorably portrayed the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg on “Saturday Night Live,” paid a final tribute during the show’s Season 46 premiere to the Supreme Court Justice, who died last month at age 87. 

McKinnon, 36, played the legal and pop-culture icon dubbed “the Notorious RBG” on “SNL” for years, dishing out “Ginsburns” while wearing Ginsburg’s trademark lace-collared black robe.

Appearing in the audience at the end of the “Weekend Update” segment, McKinnon sat facing the camera again in that signature look, complete with her hair slicked back into a low bun and large, rounded glasses.

McKinnon placed her hand over her heart while nodding and then looked up to the sky. 

“Rest in power” read a graphic on the screen. 

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Ginsburg died on Sept. 18 after multiple bouts with cancer, which had spread to her liver. The associate justice served on the Supreme Court for more than 27 years, upholding women’s rights and social justice as the leader of the high court’s liberals amid an increasingly conservative majority, setting off a nomination fight for her replacement.

McKinnon mourned Ginsburg a day later in a statement to USA TODAY. 

“For so many of us, Justice Ginsburg was a real-life superhero: a beacon of hope, a warrior for justice, a robed crusader who saved the day time and again,” she said. “Playing her on SNL was a profound joy because I could always feel the overwhelming love and gratitude that the audience had for her. It was one of the great honors of my life to meet Justice Ginsburg, to shake her hand, and to thank her for her lifetime of service to this country.”

The two met in real life last year: They were spotted chatting at an off-Broadway production of “The Fiddler on the Roof” in 2019.

“I liked the actress who portrayed me and I would like to say ‘Ginsburned!’ sometimes to my colleagues,” Ginsburg noted at a Sundance Film Festival conversation in 2018, referencing McKinnon’s made-up catchphrase for the justice.

Contributing: Kim Willis, Gary Levin, Patrick Ryan and Richard Wolf, USA TODAY

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