President Trump has nominated U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill the vacancy left by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court.
Coney Barrett is a conservative jurist well-known to members of the Senate and well-liked by social conservatives, an important part of the president’s base. She clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia and currently serves as circuit judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
The White House says the President waited to announce his nominee out of respect for Justice Ginsburg.
She lay in repose at the Supreme Court Wednesday and Thursday, where over a hundred of her former clerks greeted her casket upon her final arrival. They alternated standing vigil at her casket over the two day period, as is Court tradition.
In keeping with Ginsburg's legacy of blazing a trail for women, on Friday she became the first woman to receive the honor of lying in state in the Capitol. Justice Ginsburg joined the company of the 34 men who have done so since 1852, before being buried Arlington National Cemetery.
In the US Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he’ll bring the President’s nominee to a vote before the election. The Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Lindsey Graham (R-SC), will hold hearings first and it will be must-see tv.
Among those who will question the nominee is vice presidential candidate and longtime prosecutor Kamala Harris, who made headlines during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings for her fierce interrogation style.
If the Supreme Court pick is voted out of committee, it would move to a full vote in the Senate in mid- to late- October. McConnell only needs 51 votes – or 50 with Vice President Pence as a tie breaker – and he has them.
Approval is expected in time to let many of the senators who are campaigning themselves hit the trail again for a final push before election day.
It is assumed the vote will be easy, but one never knows what happens in a Senate confirmation hearing, or on live television.