"I'm now 85," Ginsburg said on Sunday. "My senior colleague, Justice John Paul Stevens, he stepped down when he was 90, so think I have about at least five more years."

She has already hired law clerks for at least two more terms.

Ginsburg spoke in New York following a production of "The Originalist," a play about the late Justice Antonin Scalia, at the 59E59 Theater.

"If I had my choice of dissenters when I was writing for the court, it would be Justice Scalia," Ginsburg said, saying that the back and forth would help her form her arguments. "Sometimes it was like a ping-pong game."

As a result, Ginsburg said, her landmark decision opening up the Virginia Military Institute to female cadets was her 18th draft.

Asked by "The Originalist" Director Molly Smith what keeps her "hopeful," Ginsburg cited her late husband, Marty.