Ginsburg’s replacement Archives - Iran News Daily

Trump to Announce US Supreme Court Nominee in Weekend

reporter 1222 — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 13:56:27 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – US President Donald Trump said on Monday he is looking at four or five jurists to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the US Supreme Court and he will announce his nominee on Friday or Saturday.

Trump pushed ahead with plans for his third US Supreme Court nomination, which would cement a 6-3 conservative majority, as some Republicans wavered on whether to support the move weeks before an election.

The Republican president said in an interview with Fox News that he wanted to wait out of respect for Ginsburg, a liberal justice who died on Friday at age 87. “We should wait until the services are over for Justice Ginsburg,” he said, Reuters reported.

The death of liberal icon Ginsburg upended the campaign season, giving Trump and his party an opportunity to strengthen its grip on the court whose decisions influence most spheres of American life, from healthcare to gun rights to voting access.

Trump said a vote on his Supreme Court nominee should come before the Nov. 3 election.

“We won the election and we have the right to do so we have plenty of time, a lot of time,” Trump told Fox. “The final vote should be taken frankly before the election. We have plenty of time for that.”

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Trump: US Supreme Court Nominee To Be A Woman

reporter 1222 — Sun, 20 Sep 2020 09:03:37 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – US President Donald Trump said Saturday evening that he will choose a candidate to fill the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Supreme Court seat next week and his candidate will be a woman.

“I will be putting forth a nominee next week. It will be a woman,” Trump said during a rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Trump told rallygoers that Ginsburg’s “landmark rulings, fierce devotion to justice and her courageous battle against cancer inspire all Americans,” offering prayers to the justice’s family.

The US President also noted her friendship with the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, saying it’s “a powerful reminder we can disagree on fundamental issues, while treating each other with decency, dignity and respect.”

He also discussed how he has the power to fill her vacant seat.

“So, Article 2 of the Constitution says that the President shall nominate justices of the Supreme Court. I don’t think it can be any more clear, can it?” Trump asked, prompting chants of “Fill that seat!” from the rally crowd.

He told reporters earlier Saturday there are about 45 people on his list, but he does have a “short list” for potential nominees.

A source told CNN that Trump specifically has said he would “love to pick” federal appeals Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who is a favorite among religious conservatives, but doubts she’ll secure support from the US Senate. Barrett is among Trump’s list of 20 potential conservative nominees he released earlier this month in an attempt to galvanize his base.

“We want to respect the process, and the process will move, I think it is going to move very quickly actually. I agree with the statement put out by Mitch McConnell. I agree with it actually 100%. I put out a very similar statement you saw, so I think we’re going to start the process extremely soon, and we’ll have a nominee very soon,” Trump told reporters before departing the White House on Saturday.

On Friday night the Senate Majority Leader said in a statement just hours after Ginsburg passed away that, “President Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate.”

“I think the choice will be next week, I do,” Trump later added.

Trump and McConnell spoke by phone Friday, a source familiar later confirmed to CNN on Saturday. Trump raised the names of Barrett and Barbara Lagoa as potential nominees during his call with McConnell, according to two people familiar with the conversation. Trump raised them unsolicited and McConnell didn’t weigh in on either or talk about his personal preferences, the sources said.

Lagoa has the backing of many evangelicals while Trump lawyer Pat Cipillone has shown support for Barrett.

The White House wants to announce Trump’s nominee to fill Ginsburg’s vacant seat before the first presidential debate less than two weeks away, a Trump adviser close to the process told CNN earlier Saturday. Trump’s first face off with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is scheduled for September 29.

According to a source familiar with the internal conversations, naming an announcement is dependent on when Ginsburg is buried. Allies have raised concern about naming a replacement before she has had a proper burial, two sources said.

Ginsburg’s death — and McConnell’s subsequent statement Friday — opens up a political fight over the future of the court less than two months before Election Day on November 3. The vacancy on the bench creates what many conservatives view as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to move the makeup of the court from its current split of five conservative justices and four liberal justices to a more dominant 6-3 majority.

Trump on Saturday morning said that Republicans have an “obligation” to fill the vacant seat on the Supreme Court “without delay,” as Democrats argue the Senate should refrain from confirming a replacement until after the next president is sworn in.

“@GOP We were put in this position of power and importance to make decisions for the people who so proudly elected us, the most important of which has long been considered to be the selection of United States Supreme Court Justices. We have this obligation, without delay!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

White House communications director Alyssa Farah told Fox News on Saturday that the administration will move in “Trump time” on a Supreme Court nominee.

“Well, whether we have a vote or not is really a question for the Senate and for Leader (Mitch) McConnell, but it is fully this President’s intention to do his job under the Constitution and to appoint someone to the seat,” Farah said, also claiming that the date of the November 3 election is “irrelevant” to the President’s desire to nominate someone.

When it comes to determining who will be the replacement — one source said conversations are revolving around three main issues — are they a committed conservative and textualist, do they have any Brett Kavanaugh issues, and will they cause problems for conservatives down the road by evolving like Chief Justice John Roberts.

Whatever happens, one of the sources involved said that everyone knows how ugly this process is going to get. “This is going to make the Kavanaugh hearings look like a pillow fight,” the source said.

CNN previously reported that the President had been “salivating” to nominate a replacement for the liberal justice even before Ginsburg’s death Friday and the possibility of picking her successor has weighed on his mind, according to a source close to the President.

In a message to GOP senators on Friday, McConnell did not indicate a timeframe for considering the nomination but made clear he believes there’s enough time to take up the nominee this year. While nominees typically take two to three months to process, McConnell, who controls the majority of the Senate, could fast track the process.

Conservatives are pushing McConnell behind the scenes to consider moving before the November election to fill the vacancy — potentially leaving the conference divided over what timeline is best.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Fox News on Friday that he believes Trump should nominate a successor to the court next week.

In speaking with reporters Saturday morning, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was asked by CNN’s Joe Johns if the President has been in contact with McConnell or other Senate Republicans on next steps.

“Not that I’m aware of,” she replied, adding, “Right now the President is squarely focused on honoring the legacy of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.”

Before news of Ginsburg’s passing, Biden told reporters Friday that he doesn’t think he will release any names of potential Supreme Court nominees before the election.

Trump has tried pressuring his 2020 rival to release a similar list, saying that Biden has “refused” to do so “perhaps because he knows the names are so extremely far left that they could never withstand public scrutiny or receive acceptance.”

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Biden: Winner of November Election Can Pick Ginsburg Replacement

reporter 1222 — Sat, 19 Sep 2020 07:21:50 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – US Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said on Friday that “there is no doubt” that the winner of November’s presidential election should pick the replacement of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

“There is no doubt – let me be clear – that the voters should pick the president and the president should pick the replacement justice for the Senate to consider,” Biden told reporters after learning of the death of Ginsburg.

Biden’s remarks appear to set the stage for a partisan fight over the judiciary that could dominate the fewer than seven weeks remaining until the Nov. 3 presidential election.

Ginsburg, a stalwart liberal on the Supreme Court since 1993, died on Friday at age 87, giving President Donald Trump a narrow window in which to expand the court’s conservative majority with a third appointment during a tough re-election fight.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he intends to act on any nomination Trump makes. Biden’s comments signal he and the party will fight such a move, Reuters reported.

McConnell’s stance reverses the position he took four years ago, when he refused to act on Democratic President Barack Obama’s election-year nomination of centrist appeals court judge Merrick Garland to replace conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February 2016.

Some Democrats accused McConnell and his fellow Republicans of “stealing” a Supreme Court seat by blocking Garland’s appointment. Biden, who was Obama’s vice president, has said he wished Democrats had been “a whole heck of a lot harder” on McConnell during that fight.

McConnell’s explained his position in a statement on Friday, saying that in 2016 the Senate and White House were controlled by different parties, while now they are both controlled by Republicans. Democrats have called McConnell’s about-face hypocrisy.

The Democratic former vice president learned of Ginsburg’s death while flying home from a campaign trip in Minnesota and he delivered brief remarks to reporters at an airport in New Castle, Del., without taking questions. As a senator, Biden presided over Ginsburg’s confirmation hearings for the job in 1993.

“Ruth Bader Ginsburg stood for all of us,” Biden said. “She has been absolutely consistent and reliable and a voice for freedom and opportunity for everyone.”

Ginsburg’s death could dramatically alter the ideological balance of the court, which already had a 5-4 conservative majority, moving it further to the right. The issue thrust courts into the center of an election that had been dominated by the coronavirus and its public health and economic consequences.

Trump on Sept. 9 unveiled a list of potential nominees to fill any future Supreme Court vacancies in a move aimed at bolstering support among conservative voters. Biden has pledged to name a Black woman to the Supreme Court but so far has resisted unveiling his own list of nominees.

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