Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett as Supreme Court Justice

The President of the United States, Donald Trump, has just nominated Amy Coney Barrett, the favorite of conservatives, as the new justice of the Supreme Court.

Speaking alongside her in the White House’s Rose Garden, Trump described Amy Coney Barrett as a “woman with an unrivaled record.”

If confirmed by senators, Judge Barrett will replace Radical Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who just passed away at the age of 87.

The nomination will spark a fierce fight for confirmation in the Senate, as the presidential elections take place in November.

In announcing Judge Barrett as a nominee on Saturday, President Trump described her as an “outstanding academic and judge” with “stubborn loyalty to the constitution.”

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden urged the Senate “not to act on this vacancy until the American people elect their next president and Congress.”

“The Constitution of the United States is designed to make the voices of the voters who serve on the Court heard. It is now and their voices must be heard,” he said.

If Ms. Barrett is officially awarded the post of judge, conservative justices will have a 6-3 majority on the United States Supreme Court in the near future.

The 48-year-old will be the Republican president’s third judge, after Neil Gorsuch in 2017 and Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.

Nine Supreme Court justices will serve for life and their decisions can shape public policy on everything from gun rights, the right to vote to abortion and campaigning. finance, long after presidents appoint them to resign.

In recent years, the courts have extended same-sex marriage to all 50 states, allowing Trump’s travel bans and delaying US plans to cut carbon emissions.

Analysis by Anthony Zurcher, BBC North America

Amy Coney Barrett has been on Donald Trump’s shortlist for Supreme Court vacancies for some time, but is of the opinion that she will be the most suitable replacement for Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

As of last week, that is no longer a hypothetical scenario.

Even before Trump was supposed to have chosen Judge Barrett, conservatives had rallied around the nominee, regardless of who it was. And if they do join, it seems certain that Ms. Barrett will become a judge, either before the November election or during a subsequent Senate session.

The election of Judge Barrett puts the Democrats in a difficult position.

They must find ways to undermine the nominee’s support without seeking to attack the Catholic faith or her personal background, moves that may have led some voters to vote. The November elections were disappointing. They will seek to delay the process as long as possible, while continuing to focus on issues such as health care and abortion, which could be at the center of future legal battles as the judge. Barrett sits on a court dominated by the Conservatives.

So they have to wait for Judge Barrett, or the Republican, to make some serious mistakes. That is a high requirement, but for now that is the only scenario they have.

According to a 2013 magazine article, she is described as a devout Catholic and says that “life begins from conception.” This made her a favorite among conservative religious followers who wanted to overturn the historic 1973 decision to legalize abortion across the country.

He also voted in favor of President Trump’s tough immigration policies and voiced his support for expanding gun rights.

Nominated by Trump to the Chicago-based Seventh Court of Appeals, it was approved by the Senate on a 55-43 vote in October 2017 after a difficult process. She is one of the names considered by the president to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy in 2017.

After graduating from the University of Notre Dame School of Law in Indiana, she worked as a secretary to the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in 2016. She served as a legal scholar at Notre Dame for about 15 years.

Born in New Orleans, she married a former federal prosecutor in South Bend, Indiana, and they have seven children together.

Two of them were adopted from Haiti and their youngest son has Down syndrome.

The White House has begun contacting the Republican Senate offices to set up meetings with the nominee next week, two sources close to the process told CBS.

Social calls are scheduled to begin Wednesday. The candidate will then be questioned by the Senate Judiciary Committee, made up of 22 Republicans and Democrats.

Hearings typically last three to five days. The committee members then vote on whether to send the candidate to the entire Senate. If they do, all 100 senators will vote to approve or reject it.

Republicans have a majority of the 53 senators on the committee, but appear to have had the 51 votes needed for Judge Barrett to pass.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promised to hold a ratification vote before the White House election on November 3.

Except as a surprise, Democrats appear to have few legal options to prevent Barrett from crossing the Senate to the Supreme Court bench.

During his 2017 hearing to approve Judge Barrett in the Seventh Court of Appeals, he was asked if his religious beliefs could influence his judgments.

Dianne Feinstein, a senator from California, told Ms. Barrett during that hearing, “You are full of doctrines.”

Judge Barrett emphasized that her professional and religious beliefs would separate. It’s unclear if the Democrats will make their religion a problem this time.

Since Ginsburg’s death, Republican senators have been accused of hypocrisy for running to nominate a supreme court judge in election year.

In 2016, McConnell refused to hold hearings to approve Democratic President Barack Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland for the supreme court.

That nomination, which took place 237 days before the 2016 U.S. presidential election, was successfully stopped by Senate Republicans and they said it should take place outside of election year.

With 39 days left until the 2020 election, Democrats now say Republicans should stick with their previous stance and let voters decide.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said Trump’s attempt to appoint a judge was an “abuse of power.”