Trump Nominates Judge Amy Coney Barrett to Supreme Court

U.S. President Donald Trump nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, the president said Saturday, in a widely awaited announcement setting up a political showdown between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate, BBC reports.

Barrett, 48, is a constitutional scholar and conservative lawyer elected Trump to the Federal appeals bench in 2017.

Her nomination comes just over a week after the death of long-standing Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a staunch liberal, on 18 September.

“Today it is my honour to nominate one of our nation’s most brilliant and gifted legal minds to the Supreme Court,” Trump said at a Rose Garden event that was attended by Barrett, her husband and their seven children.

“She is a woman of unparalleled achievement, towering intellect, sterling credentials and unyielding loyalty to the [US] Constitution, Judge Amy Coney Barrett.”

The president then thanked Republican senators for their “commitment and to providing a fair and timely hearing”.

The Republican Senate leadership has promised to press forward with a vote of confirmation before the November 3 presidential election. Democrats, meanwhile, also said that whoever wins the election should be selected by the next justice.

“[It] should be a straightforward and prompt confirmation … It’s going to be very quick. I’m sure it’ll be extremely non-controversial,” Trump said about the process.

Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the Senate, and with only two Republican senators opposed to a pre-election nomination, Democrats are expected to have little leverage to block the appointment.

If Barrett is confirmed, the party will change the nine-member Supreme Court to a 6-3 conservative majority, likely to form the US legal landscape for decades.

Later on Saturday, Trump said the Senate is likely to open hearings on Barrett's selection on October 12, and predicted a full Senate vote before the November 3 elections.

“It’s going to go fast. We’re looking to do it before the election. So it’s going to go very fast,” he said.

Barrett is expected to begin on Tuesday the traditional courtesy calls to individual senators, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell up first.

Social issues

If approved, Barrett will also become the youngest court judge and the first mother with school-aged children to serve as a justice, Trump said.

Barrett, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame before being named to the federal judiciary in 2017, has conservative bona fides that are supposed to energize the Republican base on social issues such as gun rights, abortion, and religion.

Democrats have also warned that should Barrett be appointed to the Supreme Court bench, former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act may be repealed.

“My fellow Americans, the president has nominated me to serve on the United States Supreme Court and that institution belongs to all of us,” Barrett said at the event. “If confirmed, I would not assume that role for the sake of those in my own circle, and certainly not for my own sake, I would assume this role to serve you.

“I have no illusions that the road ahead of me will be easy, either for the short term, or the long haul,” she added.

Barrett attended Notre Dame Law School and then clerked for conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia from 1998 to 1999.

On Saturday, Barrett said she and Scalia share the same “judicial philosophy”.

“Judges must apply the law as written. Judges are not policymakers,” she said.

‘Stakes are incredibly high’

During his remarks, Trump noted the significance of the potentially court-shifting nomination, his third since taking office.

“The stakes for our country are incredibly high,” he said. “Rulings that the Supreme Court will issue in the coming years will decide the survival of our Second Amendment, our religious liberty, public safety and so much more.”

Barrett’s past writings and rulings indicate how she may rule on some of those defining issues.

In 2017, she criticised conservative Chief Justice John Roberts’ vote to uphold a key component of the Affordable Care Act, arguing that he pushed the act “beyond its plausible meaning to save the statute” when it came to a fee required of those who choose to not have health insurance.

Last year, she wrote a dissenting opinion against a federal law that bars felons, including those who have not committed violent offenses, from the possession of weapons.

Barrett also argued in another dissenting opinion in support of Trump's administration regulations that make it more difficult for people who are likely to rely on public services to receive a green card.

Although Barrett's position on abortion rights remains more elusive, many anti-abortion groups see her as the top candidate to reverse Roe v Wade, a landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling that constitutionally guarantees the right to abortion without unreasonable government barriers.

Barrett largely sidelined questions on the issue in her 2017 Senate Confirmation Hearing and argued that her devout Catholic faith would not warn her of the interpretation of the rule.

Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera's Kimberly Halkett said that Barrett "is in many ways ... a polar opposite" to Justice Ginsburg, particularly on abortion rights. Ginsburg was a defender of women's rights and a committed democrat.

“That is why many are concerned, given that [Barrett] has a background that is deeply religious. Many are fearful that this could in some way affect her decisions, something she has denied repeatedly,” Halkett said.