Donald Trump to nominate woman to succeed Ginsburg on supreme court
ANDREA SHALAL and LAWRENCE HURLEY
President Donald Trump said on Saturday he would nominate a woman to sit on the US Supreme Court, a move that would tip the court further to the right following the death of liberal Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
“I will be putting forth a nominee next week. It will be a woman,” Trump said at a campaign rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
“I think it should be a woman because I actually like women much more than men.”
Trump praised Ginsburg as a “legal giant ... Her landmark rulings, fierce devotion to justice and her courageous battle against cancer inspire all Americans”.
Earlier, Trump named Amy Coney Barrett of the Chicagobased seventh Circuit and Barbara Lagoa of the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit as possible nominees for a lifetime appointment to the highest US court.
Ginsburg’s death on Friday from cancer after 27 years on the court handed Trump the opportunity to expand its conservative majority to 6-3 at a time of a gaping political divide in the US.
Any nomination would require approval by a simple majority in the Senate, where
Trump’s Republicans hold a 5347 majority.
Not all Republican senators supported the move: Maine’s Susan Collins on Saturday said a nomination should wait.
“In fairness to the American people, who will either be reelecting the president or selecting a new one, the decision on a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court should be made by the president who is elected on November 3,” Collins said. Democrats are still seething over the Republican senate’s refusal in 2016 to act on then Democratic president Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland to replace conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who had died.
Even if Democrats win the White House and a Senate majority in November, Trump and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell might be able to push through their choice before the new president and congress are sworn in on January 20. —