Trump has everything to gain with a quick process – VG

Trump has the most to gain from the fact that the space is empty on the United States Supreme Court. He has said that he will nominate a woman. Surely there will be a judge who will represent something entirely different than Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Supreme Court Justice who died Saturday night.

Ginsburg was the liberal beacon on the Supreme Court. He fought all his life against discrimination based on gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation. Trump wants to appoint conservative judges. For many of Trump’s supporters, it is especially important to win a Supreme Court majority for a more restrictive abortion law, or rather that the law allowing self-determined abortion is repealed.

A major reason for Trump’s election victory in 2016 was the massive support of white evangelical Christians. Eight out of 10 voted for him and Trump has acknowledged the support, including unreserved support for Israel and the appointment of a couple hundred federal judges and two Supreme Court justices.

A majority on the Supreme Court can issue rulings that change the course of history. An example is Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that granted American women the right to self-determined abortion. The important cases are now on the table of the Supreme Court. Before long, millions of Americans could be left without health insurance if the Supreme Court overturns Barack Obama’s health care reform.

The Supreme Court may be the body of appeal in this year’s presidential election if the outcome is controversial and neither candidate will concede defeat. Following the controversial 2000 presidential election, five of the nine justices stopped voting in Florida in December, effectively leading to George W. Bush becoming president.

Americans have much more confidence in the judiciary than in the executive and legislative branches. According to Gallup, six out of ten are satisfied with the work the Supreme Court does, in contrast to much less support for the president and Congress. Supreme Court justices are public and well-known figures, but few achieve the recognition that Ginsburg received.

Until a new judge is nominated by the president and approved by the Senate, there are only eight judges. Three of them consider themselves liberal and five conservative. On occasion, Supreme Court Justice John Roberts has voted with the Liberals. Many presidents have experienced that Supreme Court justices, as they themselves have nominated, do not vote the way they want and expect. It is an independence that helps maintain the integrity of the court.

Trump has every right to quickly nominate a candidate, but the Senate decides the timing of the consultation and the vote. Republican Senator Ted Cruz believes that a new judge is urgent, but refers to the fact that a constitutional crisis may emerge after the presidential election and that the Supreme Court could split four to four. But the crisis will be even greater if Trump’s candidate becomes the ironic one.

Although there was a vacancy nine months before the 2016 election, the Republican majority in the Senate refused to consider Obama’s candidate, Merrick Garland. The argument was that first the voters had to speak, then the winner could nominate a judge. This fine principle no longer applies to Senate Leader Mitch McConnell or the majority of Republicans. And the reason is simple. The president is from the same party.

Republicans are in danger of losing both the White House and the majority in the Senate. They have much to gain by shifting the focus of Trump’s handling of the pandemic to a woman’s nomination to the Supreme Court. This is an issue that can unite and engage conservative voters.

And if they still lose the other battles on November 3, Republicans in October can make sure the Supreme Court gets a clear conservative majority. A majority that can last for decades.