Trump leaning toward Barrett for Supreme Court pick
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump is leaning heavily toward choosing federal appeals court Judge Amy Coney Barrett of Indiana as his nominee to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, multiple Republican and conservative sources told USA TODAY on Friday, but until he makes his formal announcement Saturday, anything can change.
Although Barrett, 48, has been the front-runner for the nomination all along, the sources said she has become the sole focus of the process, and other potential candidates do not seem to be in the running at this point.
Democrats have denounced Barrett as an ideologue who wants to end abortion rights and promote corporate interests. Republicans have hailed her as a model of judicial restraint who already has the votes needed for a quick confirmation.
Trump said earlier this week that he planned to make the announcement at 5 p.m. EST Saturday.
Returning from a campaign trip to
Florida and Georgia on Friday, Trump said he has made a decision “in my own mind,” but he didn’t say who will get the nod. “You’re going to find out tomorrow,” Trump told reporters. Asked specifically about Barrett, Trump replied: “I haven’t said it was her, but she is outstanding.”
The decision to move forward with the nominee has been decried by the president’s critics. They point to Ginsburg’s reported dying wish that her replacement not be picked by Trump and argued that with the election just weeks away, the decision should wait on the will of the voters.
They also have accused Republicans of hypocrisy for blocking then-President Barack Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland in 2016 on the grounds that the election, which was nearly nine months away when Associate Justice Antonin Scalia died, was too close.
Despite the political firestorm over the high court’s future, Trump and the Republicans are pushing to have the new nominee confirmed by Election Day on Nov. 3 – in part so that a full nine-member conservative court can rule on lawsuits arising from Trump’s bid for re-election.
Barrett’s confirmation would give Republican appointees a 6-3 advantage on the nation’s highest court, perhaps locking in conservative dominance for decades over issues like abortion, civil rights, health care, police powers, free speech and government regulations in general.
Trump’s search for a new Supreme Court justice began immediately after Ginsburg’s death on Sept.18 and has been inextricably linked to the ongoing presidential election campaign.
This week, Trump said he wanted a ninth member of the court to help rule on election challenges. Democrat lawmakers said he is only looking for a Trump-friendly court to hand him the election over Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump “urged the confirmation of a Supreme Court justice to hand him an election if the results are contested,” tweeted Julian Castro, a former Democratic presidential candidate. “This is fascism, alive and well in the Republican Party.”
Trump has been clear he may challenge the results if he loses to Biden, and his campaign is already involved in lawsuits against mail-in ballots.
In the Supreme Court term that ended in July, Republican appointees held a 5-4 advantage, though Trump and others questioned just how conservative the court was under the leadership of Chief Justice John Roberts.