President Trump to nominate Supreme Court replacement for Justice Kennedy
US President Donald Trump is set to reveal his Supreme Court replacement for Anthony Kennedy, who announced his retirement last month.
Trump is rumoured to have narrowed down his nominee list to Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Raymond Kethledge—three conservative legal figures that would shift the Court’s ideological composition further to the right. It remains to be seen whether the White House will moderate its pick. A Senate confirmation requires 51 votes, which the White House barely holds, and Republican Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski have stated that their votes are contingent on the nominee’s support for Roe v Wade, the key legal case underpinning abortion rights.
The Democrats, hoping for a major boost in the November midterm elections, will seek to block the nomination on the grounds that President Trump is still under investigation by Special Counsel Mueller. The prospect of Trump succeeding with a second court appointment would pose a great threat to the integrity of other key legal opinions that have long formed the core of abortion rights, affirmative action and same sex marriage. A major political fight, which could play out for months, is to be expected.
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