On Saturday, President Donald Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, setting in motion a rush by Republicans to cement a conservative majority on the court on the eve of a tense and potentially disputed US election.
Trump stood alongside Barrett at a White House Rose Garden ceremony to announce his decision, calling her one of the most brilliant and gifted minds in the legal world.
Despite strong opposition from Democrats, he predicted a very quick and straightforward confirmation in the Republican-led Senate, with the process completed before the November 3 election.
If confirmed, Barrett will fill the seat of late liberal justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, likely steering the court to the right for years, expanding the current conservative wing’s sometimes shaky 5-4 advantage to a solid 6-3.
Trump has previously filled two of the nine seats on the high court.
With the liberals’ influence waning, the court will likely see a replay of some of the biggest judicial disputes in the nation, not least abortion rights and the already battered Obamacare health care plan.
More immediately and even more explosively a quick confirmation of Barrett would tilt the court just as fears are growing that the body may have to arbitrate a post-election dispute in which either Trump or his Democratic opponent Joe Biden refuses to accept the result.
Senate Judiciary Committee hearings to consider Barrett’s nomination are scheduled to begin October 12.
