Judge Amy Coney Barrett has been nominated to the Supreme Court, US President Donald Trump said Saturday, in a highly anticipated announcement that sets up a political showdown between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate.
Married with seven children, Barrett, 48, is a constitutional scholar and conservative jurist who Trump named to the federal appeals bench in 2017.
Her nomination comes just over a week after the death of longtime Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a staunch liberal, on September 18.
“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”.
Republican Senate leadership has vowed to move ahead with a confirmation vote before the November 3 presidential election. Democrats, meanwhile, have said whoever wins the election should pick 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 opposing moving forward with the confirmation before the election, Democrats are expected to have little power to block the appointment.
If Barrett is confirmed, the party will swing the nine-member Supreme Court to a 6-3 conservative majority, likely shaping the US legal landscape for decades.
The Associated Press news agency, citing three people familiar with the matter, reported Saturday that Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for Barrett would begin the week of October 12.
A White House source also told Reuters news agency that the confirmation process will start right away, with Barrett expected to begin on Tuesday the traditional courtesy calls to individual senators, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell up first.
Social issues
ALJAZEERA says if confirmed, Barrett would also become the youngest justice on the court and the first mother with school-aged children to serve as a justice, Trump noted.
A law professor at the University of Notre Dame before her appointment to the federal judgeship in 2017, Barrett has conservative bona fides that are expected to energise 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.
