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There is tinder for the US election campaign: With the death of Bader Ginsburg, President Trump may appoint a conservative to the Supreme Court for the third time. Democrats are fighting back.
By Sebastian Hesse, ARD-Studio Washington
President Trump learned of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death after an election campaign appearance in Minnesota. The reporters had given him the news. “He has led an extraordinary life, what more can be said?” Said a visibly shaken president. She was an extraordinary woman, whether he agreed with her or not.
Trump and Bader Ginsburg, an icon of left-liberal America, certainly disagreed on many things. Above all, he has done Trump’s systematic reconstruction of Supreme Court viewed critically from a reliably conservative panel of judges. During the 2016 election campaign, the then presidential candidate had already said: “Perhaps the most important thing the next president has to do is elect the main judges.”
Trump has already appointed two judges
Justices of the United States Supreme Court are appointed for life. If they don’t resign themselves, like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, they will remain in office until the end of their lives. So it is purely coincidental how many presiding justices a president can appoint. Trump was already lucky enough to bring two conservatives to power, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. Now maybe number three too. Supreme justices must be approved by the Senate – and that’s currently in Republican hands.
Trump’s challenger, Joe Biden, called for the reappointment to be postponed until after the presidential election. By the way, Bader Ginsburg had expressly requested it in a last letter. “There is no question,” Biden said, “that the voters should choose the president and then the president must propose to the Senate.” But not only that Trump could be eliminated: the Senate majority could also lean in favor of the Democrats.
The current list of names is available
Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that the Senate would vote immediately as soon as Trump presents a candidate. And Trump had only submitted an updated list of potential candidates for a vacant chief justice ten days ago. There were many conservative federal judges, but also Republican senators like Ted Cruz from Texas, Tom Cotton from Arkansas, and Josh Hawley from Missouri.
Trump’s defeated rival, Hillary Clinton, has warned Democratic senators not to miss any tactical maneuvers to block a nomination before the election. “Avoid the hypocrisy of Mitch McConnell,” Clinton demanded, referring to the fact that in 2016 it was the Republicans who assured that Barack Obama could not replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia at the end of his term.
Trump supporters hope, among other things, that a conservative Supreme Court can overturn the landmark “Roe vs. Wade” decision. This landmark ruling paved the way for the legalization of abortion across the country in 1973.
