Trump Says He Will Nominate a Woman to the Supreme Court This Week

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GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski joins Susan Collins to oppose filling Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s vacancy before election

President Trump on Saturday described his Supreme Court nomination plans during a rally of supporters at the Fayetteville, N.C., airport.

PHOTO: MELISSA SUE GERRITS/GETTY IMAGES

By Andrew Restuccia

, 

Natalie Andrews  and Joshua Jamerson

Updated Sept. 20, 2020 4:47 pm ET

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WASHINGTON—President Trump prepared to nominate a woman to the Supreme Court this week, as two key Republican senators broke ranks to oppose filling the vacancy before the presidential election despite calls from the GOP to move quickly.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on Friday of metastatic pancreatic cancer at the age of 87, setting off a scramble to fill her seat. Mr. Trump said Saturday that he would announce his nominee in the coming week. “It will be a woman,” he told the crowd at a rally in North Carolina.

The president’s list has been narrowed to two leading candidates, according to people familiar with the matter: federal appellate judges Amy Coney Barrett of the Seventh Circuit, in Chicago, and Barbara Lagoa of the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta.

Source: Federal Judicial Center

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska) on Sunday joined Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine) in saying she is opposed to confirm‎ing Mr. Trump’s nominee just weeks before

Election Day on Nov. 3.

“For weeks, I have stated that I would not support taking up a potential Supreme Court vacancy this close to the election,” she said in a written statement. “Sadly, what was then a hypothetical is now our reality, but my position has not changed.”

Ms. Murkowski said she didn’t support filling a vacant Supreme Court seat in 2016, ahead of the presidential election that year, and believes the same standard should apply in this case. Sen. Collins said Saturday that the winner of the election should choose the next nominee and that the Senate shouldn’t vote before then.

The bar for blocking Mr. Trump’s nominee remains high, and other Republican lawmakers said they hope to green-light the pick by the election.

President Trump is expected to nominate a replacement for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg just weeks before Election Day. Rarely has a Supreme Court vacancy emerged so close to a presidential contest.

Fifty-one votes are required in the Senate to confirm‎ a Supreme Court justice. Senate Republicans have a 53-member majority. Because Vice President Mike Pence could break a tie, four Republican defections would be required to block the confirmation, if all members of the Democratic caucus oppose the pick, as expected.

Since Friday, more than a dozen Republican senators have said they support moving forward with the confirmation vote as quickly as possible.

THE DEATH OF JUSTICE GINSBURG

• Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Pioneering Justice on Supreme Court, Dies at 87
• Capital Journal: Justice’s Death Affects Everything in Last Stretch of Campaign
• Trump’s Supreme Court List: Potential Candidates for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Seat
• Another Supreme Court Vacancy Puts Re-Election Squeeze on Sen. Susan Collins
• Supreme Court Fight Complicates Coronavirus Aid Talks, Spending Bill
• Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Death Puts Spotlight on Affordable Care Act
• Trump’s Supreme Court Nomination Strategy Steered by White House Counsel, Others
• Supreme Court Vacancy Offers Democrats, Republicans Fresh Way to Energize Supporters
• Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Most Notable Decisions and Dissents
• Photos: Remembering Justice Ginsburg

Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), a member of the Judiciary Committee, said on ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday morning it is “particularly important that the Senate take it up and confirm‎ this nomination before the election” in case the election outcome is contested and eventually decided by the Supreme Court.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, a retiring Republican from Tennessee who Democrats were watching closely as one who might join senators Collins and Murkowski, also on Sunday backed moving forward.

“No one should be surprised that a Republican Senate majority would vote on a Republican President’s Supreme Court nomination, even during a presidential election year,” he said in a statement.

Many senators pointed to timing constraints, rather than objections on principle, as potential roadblocks to trying to confirm‎ the nominee by Nov. 3. For Supreme Court nominees since 1975, the median amount of time from nomination until a floor vote was 69 days, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service. There are 44 days until Election Day, as of Sunday.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, in remarks from Philadelphia, called for leaving the seat open until at least after the election. He invoked Ms. Ginsburg’s final wish that she not be replaced until a new president is installed.

“As a nation, we should heed her final call to us—not as a personal service to her, but as a service to the country, our country, at a crossroads,” the Democratic presidential nominee said, noting that early voting has already begun in some states.

“The people of this nation are choosing their future right now as they vote. To jam this nomination through the Senate is just an exercise of raw political power.”

Mr. Biden said the Senate should move on Mr. Trump’s nominee if he is re-elected.

“But if I win this election, President Trump’s nominee should be withdrawn and as the new president, I should be the one who nominates Justice Ginsburg’s successor,” Mr. Biden said.

Mourners gathered Saturday outside the Supreme Court in honor of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

PHOTO: CARLOS BARRIA/REUTERS

Control of the Senate is considered up for grabs in the election, and it is unclear how the Supreme Court vacancy will affect races.

Should the party win the seats needed, most would assume office in January. But in Arizona, astronaut Mark Kelly could take his seat at the end of November, should he beat Sen.

Martha McSally, since she was appointed as a replacement for the late Sen. John McCain.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) has committed to confirm‎ing the president’s nominee, but hasn’t yet said whether a final vote will occur before or after Election Day.

The Senate was originally slated to be out much of October to campaign, though the Judiciary panel could still meet to hold confirmation hearings.

Marc Short, chief of staff to Mr. Pence, told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that it was feasible that the Senate could confirm‎ a Trump nominee before the election, without committing to doing so.

“I think that the president’s obligation is to make the nomination. We’ll leave the timetable to Leader McConnell,” Mr. Short said.

Asked whether Mr. Trump had considered Justice Ginsburg’s dying wish that a successor not be nominated until a new president was installed, Mr. Short said, “She blazed a trail for many women in the legal profession, but the decision of when to nominate does not lie with her.”

Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) said “it’s too soon to say” whether Senate Republicans intended to hold a vote on President Trump’s nominee before Election Day.

“We’re not going to rush, we’re not going to cut corners and skip steps,” he said Sunday on “Fox News Sunday.”

“We’re going to move forward without delay and there will be a vote.”

Democrats have accused Mr. McConnell of hypocrisy, noting that Republicans denied a hearing to President Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, in 2016 because it was an election year.

Asked about that on Sunday, Sen. John Barrasso (R., Wyo.) said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” “When you have both parties in the White House and the Senate, historically the confirmation goes forward. And that’s what’s going to happen here.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) acknowledged Sunday that Democrats have little power to stop the confirmation process.

When asked about extreme measures, such as impeaching the president or his attorney general, which could potentially jam up the Senate in a trial, she said, “We have our options.”

“We have arrows in our quiver that I’m not about to discuss right now,” she said on ABC on Sunday.

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A shift in the Supreme Court could have significant implications for issues that affect millions of Americans, including abortion, health care and the role of religion in public life.

While justices across the ideological spectrum find common ground in many of the court’s cases, they tend to split into ideological camps on some of the nation’s most hot-button issues because they view disputed areas of the law differently.

The loss of Justice Ginsburg leaves the court’s liberal minority weakened and potentially changes the dynamics of high-stakes cases that are pending on the court’s docket, as well as others that could arrive soon.

Confirmation of a Supreme Court nominee requires a majority vote in the Senate, where Republicans control 53 votes compared with 47 for the Democrats.

Because Vice President Pence can break any ties, Democrats would need to peel off four Republicans to block Mr. Trump’s pick.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), who would preside over a confirmation hearing, said Saturday he was willing to proceed.

Mr. Graham had earlier suggested that he would hold a vacancy open in the last year of President Trump’s term.

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Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, tried to appeal to her GOP colleagues in the chamber to buck Mr. McConnell’s call to quickly approve Mr. Trump’s eventual nominee, previewing how Senate Democrats will try to peel off the four GOP votes needed to block a Trump nominee.

“While Mitch McConnell has said what he has said, these people aren’t beholden to him,” Ms. Klobuchar said of Senate Republicans on CNN’s “State of the Union,” adding later: “They’re beholden to their own integrity to their own moral compasses.”

Sen. Chris Coons (D., Del.), who objected when Republicans blocked Mr. Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court nine months before the 2016 election, said the circumstances are different now.

“In 25 states across our country, half of our states, Americans are already voting for the next president,” he told “Fox News Sunday.” “We’re not 10 or nine months away from an election, we’re just 44 days from an election.”

Former President Bill Clinton decried the effort to appoint a successor to Justice Ginsburg so close to an election.

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“You can’t keep a democracy if there’s one set of rules for one group and another set for everybody else,” Mr. Clinton, who nominated Ms. Ginsburg to the court, said on CNN.

“It’s gonna further spread cynicism in our system,” Mr. Clinton added.

Shortly before her death, Justice Ginsburg said her “most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed,” according to her granddaughter, Clara Spera.

—Kate Davidson and Brent Kendall contributed to this article.

Write to 

Andrew Restuccia at Andrew.Restuccia@wsj.com, Natalie Andrews at Natalie.Andrews@wsj.com 

and Joshua Jamerson at joshua.jamerson@wsj.com

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