President Trump announced Saturday afternoon that he would nominate Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, setting off a politically explosive scramble to confirm a deeply conservative jurist before Election Day.
“Today it is my honour to nominate one of our nation’s most brilliant and gifted legal minds to the Supreme Court,” Mr Trump said. “She is a woman of unparalleled achievement, towering intellect, sterling credentials and unyielding loyalty to the Constitution.”
In a flag-bedecked Rose Garden designed to mimic Ginsburg’s own nomination ceremony in 1993, Trump recounted Barrett’s educational and professional background, noted her seven children and hailed her ties to another late Supreme Court justice, Antonin Scalia, for whom she clerked.
“I looked and I studied and you are very eminently qualified for this job,” Trump told his nominee. “You are going to be fantastic.”
Justifying the nomination, less than 40 days before the crucial presidential election on 3 November, Trump said this is his among his highest and most important duties under the United States Constitution.
With Judge Barrett, Trump has nominated three judges on the nine-member bench of the US Supreme Court. The other two being justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.
Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the Senate, and with only two Republican senators opposing moving forward with the confirmation before the election, Democrats are expected to have little power to block the appointment.
If Barrett is confirmed, the party will swing the nine-member Supreme Court to a 6-3 conservative majority, likely shaping the US legal landscape for decades.
Later on Saturday, Trump said the Senate will likely open hearings on Barrett’s nomination on October 12, and he expected a full Senate vote before the November 3 election.