Trump poised to name court choice
Conservative favorite Amy Coney Barrett is almost certain to be nominated to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
WASHINGTON — President Trump plans to nominate Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative federal appeals court judge, to f ill Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s position on the Supreme Court on Saturday, barring a lastminute change of heart — pushing fresh f ights over abortion rights and the Affordable Care Act to the center of an already heated presidential campaign.
A Trump campaign official who had been pushing for rival candidate Judge Barbara Lagoa of Florida said Friday that the president was “99.9%” certain to choose Barrett, who has been on Trump’s short list since he nominated Brett M. Kavanaugh to the court in 2018 to replace Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.
“The president had sort of made a commitment emotionally and in his mind to Amy Barrett,” the official said.
Later in the day, Sen. John Cornyn ( R- Texas), a member of the Judiciary Committee, which will handle the nomination, posted a statement to Twitter treating Barrett’s nomination as a done deal.
“The Senate will begin a thorough review of Judge Barrett’s nomination, a process that shouldn’t be rushed,” Cornyn wrote. “Despite previous attacks based on her religious faith, I hope Democrats choose not to engage in another character assassination, as they did against Justice Kavanaugh.”
When Barrett was nominated to the appeals court, some Democrats, including California’s Sen. Dianne Feinstein, questioned some of her writings, which they believed suggested she saw a justification for putting Roman Catholic teachings
ahead of secular law in some cases.
Trump had been intrigued by Lagoa, a Cuban American from Florida. Some advisors believed that choosing her might help Trump carry Florida, a must- win state for him in November’s election.
Ultimately, however, he decided he was more certain that Barrett would be “a conservative now and a conservative 20 years from now,” the official said.
Trump told reporters Friday night after returning from a trip to Florida that he did not meet with Lagoa while he was there.
He said he had made up his mind on the nomination but would not confirm that Barrett was his choice.
“I haven’t said it was her, but she is outstanding,” he said.
If confirmed to replace Ginsburg, the court’s most liberal member, who died last week, Barrett, 48, would likely give conservatives a solid 6- 3 majority on the court that could leave its imprint for a generation.
Based on her writings as a law professor, antiabortion activists are convinced she would provide the crucial vote on the court to overturn or severely restrict Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide. She also has expressed a broad view of the 2nd Amendment’s right to bear arms, potentially providing a vote to strike down some state or local gun restrictions.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell ( R- Ky.) has pledged that the Senate will vote on Trump’s nominee. He has not said publicly that the vote will take place before the election, but Senate leaders have begun making preparations for a fasttrack process aimed at making that possible.
Democrats have insisted that the winner of November’s election should be allowed to f ill the vacancy on the court — a position that a majority of the public appears to agree with, according to recent polls. A move to confirm Barrett before the election could endanger some incumbent Republicans seeking reelection.
Democrats are particularly incensed that McConnell is moving ahead with the current nomination considering he refused to hold hearings or a vote — with several months to go before the 2016 presidential election — for Merrick Garland, President Obama’s pick to replace Justice Antonin Scalia. At the time, McConnell argued that voters should have a say in the future of the court.
But Republican leaders, who fear they could lose their Senate majority and the White House in the election, appear to have decided that strengthening a conservative majority on the court for what could be decades is worth the potential political price.
Barrett, given her youth and sterling conservative credentials, appears to many Republicans as a near- perfect candidate.
Early in her judicial career, Barrett clerked for Scalia, considered the leading conservative on the court for three decades before he died in February 2016.
Like Scalia, she is considered an originalist, a philosophy whose adherents believe they are upholding the founders’ original intent when interpreting the Constitution, and who cast a skeptical eye on later, more expansive interpretations of rights.
A professor at Notre Dame Law School, Barrett was nominated by Trump in 2017 to serve on the U. S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears cases from Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.
Choosing her could strengthen Trump’s backing from conservatives, especially those who view the court as a central issue and have stuck with him despite reservations about his character and behavior.
Before the 2016 election, Trump released a list of potential court nominees that had been vetted by conservative groups — a move that helped the political outsider lock down support from conservatives. Barrett was not on the original list but was added in 2017.
In addition to overturning abortion rights, many religious conservatives would also like to pull back on the expansion of rights for people in the LGBTQ community, and allow a greater role for religion in public life.
Business- focused conservatives are hoping the court will push back on environmental regulations, protections for labor unions, and legal interpretations that have favored consumers.
But a potential swing to the right could also galvanize political opposition from liberals, who worry not only that the court would overturn the abortion precedent, but that it could also help Trump follow through on his threats to use the courts to litigate the November election if he loses.
The court has also issued two decisions upholding Obamacare that could be in jeopardy. The justices will hear a third challenge to the law the week after the election.