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President Trump has said he will name a replacement for Ruth Bader Ginsburg before the weekend and urged the Republican-controlled Senate to confirm his Supreme Court election by November 3.
The plan has launched a high-stakes battle ahead of the elections.
Trump would replace Ginsburg, a stalwart liberal who died Friday at age 87, with a conservative.
The president appears to have garnered enough support in the United States Senate to win his candidate’s approval.
This would consolidate a right-wing majority on the court for decades.
The ideological balance of the nine-member court is crucial to its rulings on the most important issues in American law.
What happens next?
On Monday, Trump said he was “constitutionally bound” to nominate someone to the Supreme Court.
“We are looking at five incredible jurists … women who are extraordinary in every way. I mean, honestly, it could be any one of them, and we are going to announce it on Friday or Saturday,” she said at a rally in Ohio.
The president previously had a private meeting at the White House with a potential nominee: Amy Coney Barrett, an appeals court judge who has the backing of anti-abortion conservatives.
Once the president appoints a nominee, it is the Senate’s job to vote to confirm it. The Judiciary Committee will review the selection first and then vote to send the nominee to the floor for a full vote.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has promised to hold a confirmation vote before the November election. Democrats have accused him of hypocrisy.
Following the death of Conservative Justice Anthony Scalia in 2016, McConnell declined to vote to confirm a candidate proposed by then-President Barack Obama, a Democrat.
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Mitch McConnell has promised a Senate vote on the candidate.
Obama had nominated Merrick Garland in February of that year, months before the election, but McConnell argued that Supreme Court justices should not be approved in an election year.
In 2017, McConnell also changed Senate rules to allow a simple majority (51 votes) to confirm nominees.
However, this time, with a president from the same party, the Senate leader says that because the Senate and the White House are in the hands of Republicans, unlike in 2016, the nomination should proceed.
Do the Senate Republicans have the votes?
The president’s plan to appoint a judge was reinforced Monday after two senators from his party, Cory Gardner of Colorado and Charles Grassley of Iowa, closely followed, indicated they supported the move.
Your endorsement can give Republicans the 50 votes they need to confirm a judge, given that Vice President Mike Pence can cast a tiebreaker vote if necessary.
Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the upper house.
Lindsey Graham, the powerful Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Monday that he would be “leading the charge to make sure that President Trump’s candidate gets an audience, [and] goes to the floor of the United States Senate for a vote. “
Utah’s Mitt Romney remains undecided. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska have endorsed a delay in the vote.
Ms. Collins said she had “no objection” to the candidate review process that begins now, but does not believe the Senate should vote on the candidate before the November election. Collins faces a difficult re-election this year.
Ms Murkowski said she “did not support the candidacy eight months before the 2016 elections” and believed that “the same standard should now apply.”
Even if Republicans lose their majority in the Senate on November 3, the new Congress will not take office until January 3, which would give them time to confirm Trump’s election.
If the nominee is not confirmed by January 20, inauguration day, he will have to be re-elected by the president (whoever he ends up being).
Battle for the Supreme Court
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How long does it take to confirm a Supreme Court judge?
It is typically a months-long process from screening to confirmation, but there are no rules regarding this time frame.
Since 1975, it has taken about 70 days on average. This time, the elections are just a few weeks away.
The last time lawmakers completed such a quick confirmation was for Ginsburg’s own selection in 1993. It passed in 42 days.
- Obituary: Ruth Bader Ginsburg
What is at stake?
The highest court in the US is often the last word on highly controversial laws, disputes between states and the federal government, and final appeals to stay executions.
In recent years, the court has expanded gay marriage to all 50 states, allowed President Trump’s travel ban to be put in place, and delayed a US plan to cut carbon emissions while appeals progress.
The court also handles reproductive rights issues like abortion, a highly contentious electoral issue, especially for one of Trump’s key Republican constituencies. Opponents of abortion have called for abortion protections to be lifted, and appointing judges sympathetic to this view is one of Trump’s arguments for reelection.
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Clara Spera, Ginsburg’s granddaughter, revealed that the late judge’s dying wish would not be replaced until after the election. “She was concerned about this country and the court that she served so diligently for over 27 years,” Spera told BBC World Service.
“I think you would be happy to know that there are many, many people who believe that we have to return to order and rules, and they agree and want to fulfill that most fervent wish,” he said.
Ginsburg will be in state at the United States Capitol on Friday.
What is the reaction?
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Washington’s most powerful Democrat, suggested she could try to influence what happens next with confirmation.
Mrs. Pelosi told the New York Times that she had “arrows in [her] quiver, in the quiver house “but did not want to offer more details.
On Sunday, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said Trump had “made it clear that this is about power, pure and simple.”
He urged Senate Republicans to “follow their conscience, let the people speak, [and] cool down the flames that have been engulfing our country. “
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During a vigil for Ginsburg on Sunday night, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren received cheers from the crowd for criticizing Republicans for the nomination.
“Mitch McConnell and his henchmen believe they can get through a Supreme Court justice only 45 days after Election Day,” he said. “What Mitch McConnell doesn’t understand is that this fight just started.”
Who are the main contenders?
- Amy Coney Barrett: A member of the Chicago-based Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, she is a favorite of religious conservatives and known for her views against abortion. She was a legal scholar at Notre Dame Law School in Indiana.
- Barbara Lagoa: Cuban-American of the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit based in Atlanta, she was the first Hispanic judge on the Florida Supreme Court. She is a former federal prosecutor
- Kate Comerford Todd: Deputy White House Attorney, he has a lot of support within the White House. He served as a former Senior Vice President and Senior Counsel for the US Chamber Litigation Center.
