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US President Donald Trump is infusing the deliberations on his upcoming nomination of a new Supreme Court Justice with political meaning, as he aims to maximize profit before the election and even secure electoral support in the event of a that the result be contested.
Even before the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg last week, the president had tried to use the likelihood of more Supreme Court vacancies to his political advantage. Now, as he approaches a decision on his possible replacement, Trump has used the vacancy to appeal to state voters on the battlefield and as a rallying cry for his conservative base.
He’s also increasingly embracing the high court, which will have had a big hand in reshaping, like an insurance policy in a closed election.
Increases in vote-by-mail, absentee and early voting brought on by the pandemic have already sparked a flurry of electoral litigation, and both Trump and Democratic candidate Joe Biden have assembled armies of lawyers to continue the fight once the counting of votes begins. .
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* Trump urges Republicans to consider his choice to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg ‘without delay’
* How the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg could reshape the US presidential campaign.
Trump has been outspoken about linking his push to appoint a third judge to the court to a potentially lengthy court fight to determine who will be sworn in on January 20, 2021.
“I think this will end up in the Supreme Court,” Trump said on Wednesday (local time) of the election, adding, “And I think it’s very important that we have nine justices.”
It’s a line echoed by Trump allies, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who said Thursday: “I think the threat to contest the election is one of the real reasons why it is so important that we confirm the nominees for the Supreme Court, so that there is a full Supreme Court on the podium to resolve any electoral challenge. “
Just six weeks after Election Day, and with millions of Americans already voting, Trump and his advisers have tried to use the court vacancy to help Trump serve another term.
J. Scott Applewhite / AP
Trump and First Lady Melania Trump pay their respects as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg stands on the Supreme Court.
Nominations for the Supreme Court are never completely devoid of political considerations, but Trump’s decision has been particularly mired in a charged political moment.
Within hours of Ginsburg’s death, Trump made clear his intention to nominate a woman in his place, having previously put two men on the field and while fighting to mitigate the erosion of support among the women of the suburbs.
In discussing his short list of five, he has made sure to highlight some of the electoral battlegrounds he intends to win this fall as much as his jurisprudence.
“I heard amazing things about her,” she said of Barbara Lagoa, from Florida, the day after Ginsburg’s death. “I don’t know her. She is Hispanic and highly respected. Miami Highly respected. “
In an interview with a Detroit television station, he voluntarily said that hometown judge Joan Larsen is “very talented.”
Trump was even considering a meeting with Lagoa this week in Florida, where he plans campaign events. The appeals court judge was confirmed last year by the Senate in a bipartisan vote and has been promoted to court by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and others as the candidate with the most general appeal.
Robert F. Bukaty / AP
Vice President Mike Pence defended potential Supreme Court choice Amy Coney Barrett.
Yet Trump and his aides appear to have set their sights on nominating Indiana Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who was in the White House twice this week, including for a Monday meeting with Trump.
The 2017 confirmation of the staunch conservative in a party line vote included allegations that Democrats were attacking her Catholic faith. Trump’s allies see that as a political windfall for them if Democrats tried to do it one more time.
Catholic voters in Pennsylvania, in particular, are seen as a pivotal demographic in the changing state that Democratic candidate Joe Biden is trying to win back.
On Wednesday, Vice President Mike Pence defended Barrett when asked if his affiliation with the People of Praise, a charismatic Christian community, would complicate his ability to serve on the high court.
“I must tell you that the intolerance expressed during your last confirmation about your Catholic faith, I think it really was a disservice to the process and a disappointment to millions of Americans,” he told ABC News.
Trump played judicial nomination power with conservative voters in 2016, when Republican senators kept the vacant seat open over the death of Justice Antonin Scalia rather than letting President Barack Obama take the place.
Carolyn Kaster / AP
Democratic nominee Joe Biden has resisted pressure to publish a list of potential candidates.
Trump’s decision to publish lists of accomplished conservative jurists for possible promotion to the high court was rewarded with increased enthusiasm among white evangelical voters, many of whom had resisted supporting the former New York Democrat’s candidacy.
Even before Ginsburg’s death, Trump had done the same in 2020, releasing an additional 20 names that he would consider for the court and encouraging Democrat Joe Biden to do the same.
Biden has resisted that pressure so far, but that hasn’t stopped Trump from trying to spread fear among conservatives about who the Democrat might nominate.
“So they don’t want to show it to the judges because the only ones it can include are far-left radicals,” Trump said this week.
“If Joe Biden and the Democrats take power, they will fill the Supreme Court with far-left radicals who will unilaterally transform American society beyond recognition,” Trump said at a rally outside Toledo on Monday.
“They will mutilate the law, they will disfigure the Constitution and they will impose a socialist vision from the bench that could never happen at the polls.”
