President Trump says he will name a replacement for recently deceased Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Friday or Saturday.
The declaration has sparked a firestorm with the Presidential Election just over 40 days away but ULM Poli Sci Professor John Sutherlin said he expects that nominee won’t be confirmed before November 3rd.
“I think what we are really looking at is a January, February process,” said Sutherlin. “Remember the President nominates and then the Senate has to approve, and many of these Senators are up for re-election so depending on where they are this could be a hot-button issue.”
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell says the upper chamber will move to confirm before the inauguration next year. That’s caused Democrats to cry foul over precedent Senate Republicans set when they blocked President Obama’s nominee in 2016.
Sutherlin said the next justice will almost certainly have to be a woman, and New Orleans native and Federal Appellate Judge Amy Coney Barrett appears to be at the top of the shortlist.
“She checks all of the boxes that normally would need to be checked for a Republican to want to nominate her for judge,” said Sutherlin.
The 48-year-old Barrett is a protégée of former Justice Antonin Scalia, and a graduate of Dominican High in New Orleans, and Notre Dame Law School. She was named to the Appellate Court by President Trump in 2017.
A replacement judge for Ginsburg would likely shift the High Court’s balance on issues like the Affordable Care Act and abortion. Sutherlin said Barrett is clear on one of them.
“She believes that the constitution does not afford a woman a right to protections under Roe vs. Wade,” said Sutherlin.
Democratic leaders have signaled that they’re willing to pull out all the stops to halt the nomination process until after the inauguration, and even threatened to add new seats to the court if a Trump nominee is approved and Democrats win the upcoming election.
Comments