SUPREME CHOICE
President Trump announce she will nominate conservative favorite Amy Coney Barrett to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on top U.S. Court
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court on Saturday, capping a dramatic reshaping of the federal judiciary that will resonate for a generation and that he hopes will provide a needed boost to his reelection effort.
Barrett, a former clerk to the late Justice Antonin Scalia, said shewas “truly humbled” by the nomination and quickly aligned herself with Scalia’s conservative approach to the law, saying that his “judicial philosophy is mine, too.”
Barrett, 48, was joined in the Rose Garden by her hus
band and seven children, as guests looked on. If confirmed by the Senate, she would fill the seat vacated by liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in what would
be the sharpest ideological swing since Clarence Thomas replaced Justice Thurgood Marshall nearly three decades ago.
She would be the sixth justice on the nine-member court to be appointed by a Republican president, and the third of Trump’s first term in office.
Trumphailed Barrett as “a woman of remarkable intellect and character,” saying he had studied her record closely before making the pick.
“I looked and I studied, and you are very eminently qualified,” he said as Barrett stood next to him.
Republican senators are lining up for a swift confirmation of Barrett ahead of the Nov. 3 election, as they aim to lock in conservative gains in the federal judiciary before a potential transition of power. Trump, meanwhile, is hoping the nomination will serve to galvanize his supporters as he looks to fend off Democrat Joe Biden.
For Trump, whose 2016 victory hinged in large part on reluctant support from white evangelicals on the promise of filling Scalia’s seat with a conservative, the latest nomination in some ways brings his first term full circle. Even before Ginsburg’sdeath, Trumpwasrunning on having confirmed in excess of 200federal judges, fulfilling a generational aim of conservative legal activists.
“This is my third such nomination after Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh, and it is a very proud moment indeed,” Trump said in the Rose Garden.
Trumpjoked that the confirmation process ahead “should be easy” and “extremely noncontroversial,” though it is likely to be anything but. No court nominee has been considered so close toapresidential election before, with early voting already underway. He encouraged legislators to take up her nomination swiftly and askedDemocrats to “refrain from personal and partisan attacks.”
In 2016, Republicans blocked President Barack Obama’s nomination ofMerrick Garland to the Supreme Court to fill an election-year vacancy, sayingvotersshould have a say in the lifetime appointment.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Senate will vote “in theweeks ahead” on Barrett’s confirmation, adding that Trump “could not have made a better decision.”