Trump to nominate Amy Coney Barrett for US Supreme Court: Reports

Washington, DC – US President Donald Trump is expected to select Amy Coney Barrett as his nominee to fill the Supreme Court seat vacated by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg last week, according to multiple US media reports citing unnamed Republican sources. Barrett, 48, is a constitutional scholar who Trump named to the federal appeals bench in 2017. She is a favourite of the right-wing Federalist Society, a group that has orchestrated the confirmation of more than 200 conservative jurists to the federal courts since Trump took office. On Friday evening, several US news outlets including CNN, the New York Times and The Hill reported that Trump plans to nominate Barrett for the empty Supreme Court seat in an announcement scheduled for Saturday. Al Jazeera could not independently verify those reports, which cited unnamed people familiar with the nomination process. Trump has not personally confirmed that Barrett is his nominee, but he described her without naming her as widely ‘respected’ and ‘brilliant’ [File: Evan Vucci/AP]In less than two years on the federal appeals bench, Barrett has quickly established herself as a conservative jurist who would swing the nine-member US Supreme Court to a 6-3 conservative majority. Barrett met with Trump at the White House on Monday, according to the president, who described her without naming her as widely “respected” and “brilliant”. Trump told reporters travelling with him on Friday that he has made a decision “in my own mind” and that, while “I haven’t said it was [Barrett] … she is outstanding”, according to a media pool report. Former Scalia clerk Barrett is a graduate of Notre Dame Law School where she was editor of the law review and first in her 1997 class. She returned to Notre Dame to teach in 2002 and was elevated by Trump to the federal appeals bench in 2017. Barrett is believed to oppose abortion, although she sidestepped questions about the topic in her 2017 Senate confirmation hearing. She would be the youngest justice on the Supreme Court and her lifetime appointment would likely shape American law for decades to come. style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0; bottom: 0; right: 0; left: 0;">