US President Donald Trump on Saturday nominated Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court to fill the vacancy left by the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, setting up a bitter political fight over her confirmation.Trump announced his nomination at a White House event, calling Barrett “one of our nation’s most brilliant and gifted legal minds”.
Barrett is 48 and will be the youngest justice on the court if confirmed.She has been a judge on the seventh circuit court of appeals since 2017, also as a Trump nominee.
Barrett’s confirmation, which is likely to go through, will give conservatives a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court that will last a long time and will ensure President Trump an enduring legacy.Barrett will be the third justice he would have sent to the top court, tilting the ideological balance of the bench.
Though Democrats do not have the numbers to stop the confirmation, they will put up a fight that will play out in the final weeks leading up to the presidential election.Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee for president, called for the US senate to not act on Trump’s nomination until “after the American people select their next president and the next Congress”.
