Donald Trump to nominate Amy Coney Barrett to supreme court, reports say
Donald Trump is planning to name Amy Coney Barrett as his pick to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the supreme court on Saturday, according to multiple reports.
Related: Ruth Bader Ginsburg becomes first woman to lie in state in US Capitol
Ginsburg died last Friday of pancreatic cancer at the age of 87. The president has trailed a Saturday afternoon announcement of his third pick for the court, a choice that with Republican support in the Senate would tilt the nine-member panel 6-3 to the right.
The New York Times, the Associated Press and CBS were among outlets on Friday citing anonymous sources in the administration and Congressional Republicans as saying the choice had been made, although CNN added a caveat.
“All sources cautioned that until it is announced by the president, there is always the possibility that Trump makes a last-minute change,” the network said.
Trump told reporters Friday evening that he has made his decision, but said he would be withholding the news until the official announcement. He said it “could be anyone of them” and that “they’re all outstanding”, referring to five women he has been considering. Asked explicitly about Barrett, he said, “I haven’t said it is her.”
Coney Barrett sits on the US circuit court of appeals in Chicago. She served as a law clerk to supreme court justice Antonin Scalia, worked briefly as a private lawyer in DC and became a University of Notre Dame law school professor in 2002.
Coney Barrett, 48, is a strict conservative whose positions on immigration, health care and LGBTQ rights worry Democrats. Progressive groups are particularly concerned she’ll vote to approve additional restrictions on abortion access.
Democrats also charge that no new justice should be confirmed so close to a presidential election given that Republicans refused to grant Barack Obama’s supreme court nominee Merrick Garland a hearing in early 2016.
Public polling, including a new survey by the Washington Post and ABC News on Friday, has shown the public agrees, with consistent majority support for Ginsburg’s replacement being decided after 3 November.
But Republicans, under the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, have shown no such compunction, conjuring up the argument that in the Garland case they held the Senate while Democrats held the White House, but now unified control means a confirmation should proceed.
In fact, no such precedent exists.
Though the moderate senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska have dissented, McConnell has the votes he needs to proceed.
“I’m confident [Trump’s] going to make an outstanding nomination,” the majority leader told Fox News, speaking before reports emerged that Coney Barrett would be the pick but after Trump had said he would choose a woman.
“The American people are going to take a look at this nominee and conclude, as we are likely to conclude, that she well deserves to be confirmed to the US supreme court.”
Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Senate Democratic whip, said: “They’re hell-bent on getting this done as fast as possible. They think it helps Donald Trump get re-elected.”
The effect on the polls remains to be seen. Currently, Joe Biden leads in national and most swing state surveys.
Barrett is a rising conservative star. In 2018, when Trump named the conservative Brett Kavanaugh to replace the retiring Anthony Kennedy, he reportedly told aides of Barrett: “I’m saving her for Ginsburg.”
When Barrett was confirmed as an appeals court judge, in 2017, the California Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein told her: “The dogma lives loudly in you.”
Barrett said: “I would stress that my personal church affiliation or my religious belief would not bear in the discharge of my duties as a judge.”
Asked if Barrett’s affiliation with People of Praise, a strict religious community, might affect her decisions, Vice-President Mike Pence sprang to her defense.
“I must tell you the intolerance expressed during her last confirmation about her Catholic faith, I really think, was a disservice to the process and a disappointment to millions of Americans,” Pence, who has called himself an evangelical Catholic, told ABC.
Barbara Lagoa, a Cuban American from Florida, was also reported to be in contention, possibly a politically potent choice given Florida’s status as a key swing state. But it was also reported that Trump had not even met her.
Supreme court justices can serve for life and have the power to shape American society itself over a decades-long career. Barrett would be the youngest supreme court justice if confirmed.