US Republicans must practise what they preached over Supreme Court

THE death of the famously progressive Supreme Court Judge Ruth Bader Ginsberg will prove to be a test of Republican good faith.

They argued back in 2016 — 10 months before the US election — that they could not allow then-president Barack Obama to make any appointment to the Supreme Court so close to a general election, that it would be both unfair and constitutionally dangerous.

Indeed, Republican Senate leader Mitch Mcconnell organised a bitter campaign blocking all appointments by Obama.

This gave Donald Trump the opportunity to make two very conservative appointments to the Court in the first year of his presidency.

Trump will now appoint a third judge out of nine to the court and completely change it to a 6-3-majority conservative body for the next 10 to 20 years.

If both Trump and the Republicans had the national interest at heart and wished to heal some of the partisan rifts tearing their polity apart, they would stick by the principles they fought tooth and nail to uphold in 2016 and delay the appointment of a new judge until after the election in six weeks’ time.

I don’t expect this to happen: it already appears Trump has an appointment lined up and Mcconnell will attempt to force the process on so that, whatever happens in the election, the judge will be in place before the new administration is inaugurated.

If this happens Trump will have changed the face of US politics for the next generation — even if he loses the election.

Then, even if Biden wins the presidency, attempts at progressive policies will face constant legal challenge, with the expectation that a majority conservative Supreme Court will block them all.