President Trump named Amy Coney Barrett as his nominee for the Supreme Court Saturday evening with a live, televised reveal from the White House Rose Garden.
“Today, it is my honor to nominate one of our nation’s most creative and gifted legal minds to the Supreme Court,” he said as Barrett stood alongside him.
“She is a woman of unparalleled achievement, towering intellect, sterling credentials, and unyielding loyalty to the Constitution: Judge Amy Coney Barrett.”
Trump said she would make history if confirmed as the first mother of school-age children to serve on the Supreme Court.
In announcing Barrett, he underlined her record as an originalist, known for sticking close to the original text of the Constitution.
“You are not there to decide cases, as you may prefer. You are there to do your duty and to follow the law, whatever it may take,” he said.
For her part, Barrett thanked the president and other officials for their kindness during what she said was an “overwhelming experience.”
“I love the United States, and I love the United States Constitution. I am truly humbled by the prospect of serving on the Supreme Court,” she said.
Barrett also paid tribute to the role of her predecessor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in not just breaking but “smashing” glass ceilings for women and reminded the audience of the liberal justice’s friendship with her conservative counterpart, the late Justice Antonin Scalia, for whom she clerked 20 years ago. She also promised to uphold his judicial philosophy, which will excite conservatives and alarm liberals in equal measure.
“A judge must apply the law as written,” she said. “Judges are not policymakers, and they must be resolute in setting aside any policy views they might hold.”
About 150 officials and guests, many of whom were not wearing masks, stood and applauded as Trump made the announcement.
Immediately following the announcement, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hailed the nomination.
“Judge Amy Coney Barrett is an exceptionally impressive jurist and an exceedingly well-qualified nominee to the Supreme Court,” he said in a statement. “A brilliant scholar. An exemplary judge. President Trump could not have made a better decision.”
Insiders said the Catholic mother of seven had been his favorite all along for the vacant seat following the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg earlier this month.
Her nomination will tee up a bitter Senate confirmation process and will define the ideological dividing lines between Republicans and Democrats as the election campaign enters its final stretch.
Trump appears to have sufficient Senate support to confirm his nominee, cementing a conservative majority with his third pick for the court. He previously successfully nominated Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the court, although the latter’s confirmation hearing was particularly acrimonious.
Democrats have been fiercely hostile to his plan. With crucial votes expected soon on everything from abortion to the future of Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said it was an “abuse of power” to nominate a justice so close to an election.
In a sign of the bitter fight to come, Biden released a statement following the announcement, pegging her as an existential threat to healthcare, as the court prepares to consider a critical Obamacare case amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“She has a written track record of disagreeing with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision upholding the Affordable Care Act. She critiqued Chief Justice John Roberts’ majority opinion upholding the law in 2012,” Biden said in a statement.
He added, “The American people know the U.S. Supreme Court decisions affect their everyday lives. The United States Constitution was designed to give the voters one chance to have their voice heard on who serves on the court. That moment is now, and their voice should be heard.”
Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, also voiced his strong opposition to the nomination, saying: “After holding a Supreme Court vacancy open for eight months before a presidential election, and after failing for the last six months to address the tremendous pain the American people are feeling amidst this pandemic, President Trump and Leader McConnell are doing what no Senate has done before: shamelessly rushing to fill Justice Ginsburg’s seat less than 40 days before a presidential election.
“Justice Ginsburg’s dying wish was that she not be replaced until a new president is installed. Republicans are poised to not only ignore her wishes, but to replace her with someone who could tear down everything that she built. This reprehensible power grab is a cynical attack on the legitimacy of the Court.
“I will strongly oppose this nomination.”
Meanwhile, Trump supporters clashed with protesters outside the White House on Saturday following the announcement.
The protesters, many of whom carried signs demanding the president respect the legacy of Ginsburg, chanted “racist scumbag” to combat the shouts of “four more years” coming from people decked out in Trump paraphernalia. Many of the Trump supporters previously attended the evangelical pastor Franklin Graham’s March for Prayer, which also took place in Washington, D.C., earlier Saturday.
The vacancy arrived with the death of Ginsburg last week at the age of 87. Trump waited until after her funeral at Arlington National Cemetery on Friday before making his announcement.
He had promised to name a woman to the vacant seat and appeals court judges Barrett, 48, and Barbara Lagoa, 52, emerged as favorites. Joan Larsen, 51, of the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; Allison Jones Rushing, 38, who would have been the youngest Supreme Court justice ever; and deputy White House counsel Kate Todd, 45, made up the five-woman shortlist.
Sources familiar with White House thinking said Lagoa, a Cuban American from Miami, could have helped Trump win the crucial battleground state of Florida but that Barrett, 48, was better known, and her conservative, anti-abortion Catholic credentials would help drive turnout among his base.
One of the new justice’s first roles may be to rule on the outcome of an election as questions circulate about the role of mail-in ballots amid a coronavirus pandemic that has already sparked early litigation.
Trump himself raised the prospect of disputed results on Wednesday.
“I think this will end up in the Supreme Court,” he said. “And I think it’s very important that we have nine justices.”
Tea Party Patriots Action Honorary Chairman Jenny Beth Martin said Barrett had the right experience and judicial philosophy. “She will be an asset to the court as it considers landmark cases that directly bear on our constitutional rights — from religious liberty to the Second Amendment, from healthcare to immigration,” she said.
