“The nominee is going to be supported by every Republican in the Judiciary Committee,” Chairman Lindsey Graham told Fox News late Monday. “We’ve got the votes to confirm the justice on the floor of the Senate before the election and that’s what’s coming.”

Trump is expected to announce his choice to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg by week’s end, setting off a monumental Senate battle with Democrats, who contend it’s too close to the November election.

Related: Judge Amy Coney Barrett emerges as Supreme Court favorite, Trump to announce pick by weekend

The president met with conservative Judge Amy Coney Barrett at the White House on Monday and told reporters he would interview other candidates and might meet with Judge Barbara Lagoa when he travels to Florida later this week. Conversations in the White House and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office have been increasingly focused on Barrett and Lagoa, according to a person granted anonymity to discuss the private deliberations.

Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the chamber and can confirm a justice by a simple majority.

Barrett has long been favored by conservatives, and those familiar with the process said interest inside the White House seemed to be waning for Lagoa amid concerns by some that she did not have a proven record as a conservative jurist. Lagoa has been pushed by some aides who tout her political advantages of being Hispanic and hailing from the key political battleground state of Florida.

Related: Supreme Court drapes black cloth over Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat, photos show

Barrett, 48, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, was a strong contender for the seat that eventually went to Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. At the time, Trump told confidants he was “saving” Barrett for Ginsburg’s seat.

Before joining the 7th Circuit, she had made her mark in law primarily as an academic at the University of Notre Dame, where she received a law degree and later began teaching at age 30. She clerked at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, clerked at the Supreme Court for Justice Antonin Scalia, worked at the Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & Lewin law firm in Washington, D.C., then returned to Notre Dame.

Barrett has long expressed sympathy with a mode of interpreting the Constitution, called originalism, in which justices try to decipher original meanings of texts in deciding cases. Many liberals say that approach doesn’t allow the Constitution to change with the times.

Related: Justice Ginsburg’s death puts Roe v. Wade on the ballot in November

Trump has said he would choose a woman, and he admitted that politics may play a role. He gave a nod to another election battleground state, Michigan, and White House officials confirmed he was referring to Joan Larsen, a federal appeals court judge there.

The president also indicated that Allison Jones Rushing, a 38-year-old appellate judge from North Carolina, is on his short list. His team is also actively considering Kate Todd, the White House deputy counsel who has never been a judge but was a clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas.

Democrats, led by presidential nominee Joe Biden, are protesting the Republicans’ rush to replace Ginsburg, saying voters should speak first, on Election Day, and the winner of the White House should fill the vacancy.

Related: Biden to GOP senators: Don’t jam through nominee to replace late Justice Ginsburg

Trump dismissed those arguments, telling TV’s “Fox & Friends” on Monday, “I think that would be good for the Republican Party, and I think it would be good for everybody to get it over with.”

The mounting clash over the vacant seat — when to fill it and with whom — injects new turbulence in the presidential campaign with the nation still reeling from the coronavirus pandemic that has killed nearly 200,000 Americans, left millions unemployed and heightened partisan tensions and anger.

Democrats point to hypocrisy in Republicans trying to rush through a pick so close to the election after McConnell led the GOP in refusing to vote on a nominee of President Barack Obama in February 2016, long before that year’s election. Biden is appealing to GOP senators to “uphold your constitutional duty, your conscience” and wait until after the election.

Related: Late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to lie in repose this week

Ginsburg, 87, died Friday of metastatic pancreatic cancer. She will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol this week, the first woman ever accorded that honor. First, her casket is to be on view midweek on the steps of the high court.

With just over a month before the election, McConnell said the Senate has “more than sufficient time.”

No nominee has won confirmation so quickly since Sandra Day O’Connor — with no opposition from either party — became the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court in 1981.

Both sides are mobilizing for a wrenching confirmation fight punctuated by crucial issues before the court — healthcare, abortion access and even the potential outcome of the coming presidential election. Some protesters showed up early Monday morning outside the homes of key GOP senators.

Related: Ginsburg’s death draws big surge of donations to Democrats

At a Trump rally later Monday in Ohio, people chanted, “Fill the seat!”

As the Senate returned to Washington on Monday, several key GOP senators, including Mitt Romney of Utah, declined to say whether they would agree to a swift vote.

Four Republicans could halt a quick confirmation and Trump criticized Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska for opposing a vote before elections. The president warned they would be “very badly hurt” by voters.

Related: GOP Sens. Murkowski, Collins opposed vote on Supreme Court vacancy before elections prior to Ginsburg’s death

Others, including GOP Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Cory Gardner of Colorado, declined to join in opposing the president’s plan.

Biden has appealed to Republicans to join Murkowski and Collins in opposing a confirmation vote before the Nov. 3 election. He said, “Let the people speak. Cool the flames that have engulfed our country.”

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer objected to what he called McConnell’s “utterly craven” pursuit of Supreme Court confirmation under current circumstances, warning it would shatter Senate norms. “It’s enough to make your head explode,” he said.

Source: https://www.fox13news.com/news/gop-has-votes-to-confirm-trumps-supreme-court-pick-by-nov-3-lindsey-graham-says

The post GOP has votes to confirm Trump’s Supreme Court pick by Nov. 3, Lindsey Graham says first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Two names have been emerging from the list of Supreme Court contenders President Trump is said to be considering following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, according to reports.

Judges Amy Coney Barrett in Chicago and Barbara Lagoa in Atlanta are said to top the list.

Trump told a North Carolina rally crowd Saturday night that he intended to nominate a woman to succeed Ginsburg, who died Friday at age 87 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

“It will be a woman — a very talented, very brilliant woman,” Trump said of his potential choice. “I think it should be a woman. I actually like women much more than I like men.”

“It will be a woman — a very talented, very brilliant woman. I think it should be a woman.”

— President Trump

Barrett, 48, a judge with the Chicago-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, is a conservative, pro-life Roman Catholic who clerked for late Justice Antonin Scalia after she graduated from law school.

SUPREME COURT NOMINEES IF BIDEN WINS: WHO MIGHT BE CONSIDERED

The New Orleans native was appointed by Trump to the Seventh Circuit in 2017. She previously taught law at the University of Notre Dame for 15 years but had no judicial record at the time, according to the Washington Post.

She believes in originalism, the idea that judges should interpret the Constitution as the Founding Fathers intended.

Judge Amy Coney Barrett is seen in a 2017 photo. (University of Notre Dame Law School via The Associated Press)

During her confirmation hearing to the Seventh Circuit, she said she wouldn’t let her personal religious beliefs affect her judicial decisions and would consider rulings like Roe v. Wade binding precedent, although experts have said she would likely support overturning it, the newspaper reported.

TRUMP RALLY CROWD CHANTS ‘FILL THAT SEAT!’ AS SUPREME COURT CHOICE LOOMS

Lagoa, 52, on the other hand, has an extensive judicial record.

Judge Barbara Lagoa, center, speaks as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Lt. Gov Jeanette Nunez, left, look on, Jan. 9, 2019, in Miami. (Associated Press)

The Miami native was nominated in 2006 by then-Gov. Jeb Bush to Florida’s 3rd District Court of Appeals, where she served for more than a decade before being elevated briefly to the state’s Supreme Court. Last year, Trump nominated her to the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit and she was easily confirmed, according to USA Today.

Lagoa is a member of the conservative Federalist Society and is backed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis but some have questioned her conservative credentials, especially on abortion, according to Politico.

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She’s also a Roman Catholic and of Cuban descent, which could help Trump in November.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trumps-supreme-court-court-pick-likely-to-be-amy-coney-barrett-or-barbara-lagoa-reports

The post Trump’s Supreme Court court pick likely to be Amy Coney Barrett or Barbara Lagoa: reports first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.