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US President Donald Trump is expected to make a proposal for the successor to the late Constitutional Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg next week. “It will be a woman,” Trump announced Saturday (local time) during a campaign appearance in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Trump named two candidates, federal judges Amy Coney Barrett and Barbara Lagoa. Both would be “highly respected,” the Republican said.
Barrett taught at Notre Dame Law School in Indiana before being nominated by Trump in 2017 for a position on the Federal Court of Appeals in Chicago. The Senate confirmed her appointment with 55 votes to 43.
Opponents of a stricter abortion law fear the 48-year-old woman will act as a constitutional judge for the repeal of Roe v. Wade would vote on a 1973 Supreme Court ruling. It establishes a national right to abortion. Barrett is a conservative Catholic with seven children.
Lagoa previously served on the Florida State Supreme Court. Trump nominated her for a federal appeals court in Atlanta in 2019. Her nomination was confirmed by the Senate with 80 to 15 votes, and thus across partisan lines.
This makes her a less controversial candidate. The 52-year-old is of Cuban descent and became the first Hispanic constitutional judge in Florida.
Justices to the United States Supreme Court are nominated by the President, confirmed by the Senate, and appointed for life. Republicans have a majority in the Senate with 53 of the 100 votes. He would prefer the chamber vote before the November 3 presidential election, Trump said.
It is unclear whether there will be a majority for the swift replacement of the vacant Supreme Court post. Controversy exists among political camps over whether Republicans should decide on key personnel so shortly before the end of Trump’s current term.
The US Supreme Court often has the final say on controversial policy issues such as abortion, immigration, gun law, and discrimination. It has nine judges, and after Ginsburg’s death, only three are clearly assigned to the liberal camp, all the others are considered more or less conservative.
With the best lawyers appointed for life, Trump and the Republicans could act quickly to cement the conservative majority on the Supreme Court for years, perhaps even decades.
Therefore, Democrats had called for a nomination to be held until the next presidential term, which begins on January 20, 2021. They expect an electoral victory for their presidential candidate Joe Biden, noting that Republicans in the Senate blocked a candidate for outgoing President Barack Obama four years ago with reference to the election year at that time.
