Trump news: Obama warns democracy at risk as president pushes to nominate right-wing justice before election

Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Supreme Court judge dies aged 87

Barack Obama has warned US democracy is at risk if Republicans press ahead with plans to fill the Supreme Court seat left vacant by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Her death just over six weeks before US election day is likely to trigger a fierce battle over whether President Donald Trump should nominate her replacement at the highest court in America, or if the seat should remain vacant until the result of the race in November against Democratic challenger Joe Biden is known.

In a statement, Mr Obama said: “A basic principle of the law — and of everyday fairness — is that we apply rules with consistency, and not based on what’s convenient or advantageous in the moment. The rule of law, the legitimacy of our courts, the fundamental workings of our democracy all depend on that basic principle.” 

Democrats are still seething over the Republican Senate's refusal to act on Mr Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, in 2016 after conservative Justice Antonin Scalia died 10 months before that election. 

Mr McConnell in 2016 said the Senate should not act on a court nominee during an election year, a stance he has since reversed.

Despite that anger, Democrats have little chance of blocking Mr Trump's pick. His fellow Republicans control 53 of the Senate's 100 seats and Mr McConnell, who has made confirmation of Mr Trump's federal judicial nominees a top priority, said the chamber would vote on any Trump nominee.

Even before justice Ginsburg's death, Mr Trump had made public a list of potential nominees.

Conservative activists for years have sought to get enough votes on the Supreme Court to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. During the 2016 campaign, Mr Trump promised to appoint justices who would overturn that decision. But the court in July, even with its conservative majority, struck down a restrictive Louisiana abortion law on a 5-4 vote.

The two justices already appointed by Mr Trump were Neil Gorsuch in 2017 and Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. Kavanaugh's confirmation process was particularly heated, as he faced accusations by a California university professor, Christine Blasey Ford, that he had sexually assaulted her in 1982 when the two were high school students in Maryland. Justice Kavanaugh angrily denied those accusations and was narrowly confirmed.

Republicans risk the possibility of liberals embracing more radical proposals should Mr Trump replace justice Ginsburg but Democrats win November's election, with some activists on the left suggesting even before her death that the number of justices on the court should be expanded to counter Trump's appointees.

Confirmation votes could also put more pressure on incumbent Republican senators in highly competitive election races, including Maine's Susan Collins and Arizona's Martha McSally, at a time when Democrats are eying a chance to win control of that chamber. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska also could play a pivotal role.

Many court-watchers expect Mr Trump to attempt to replace Ms Ginsburg with a woman. One possible contender on Trump's list is Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative judge on the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals who was under consideration in 2018 before Mr Trump picked justice Kavanaugh.

Additional reporting by Reuters. Check out The Independent’s live updates and coverage below:

Key Points

• Obama cautions ‘fundamental workings’ of democracy at risk in Supreme Court row
• Trump says he will move forward with Supreme Court nominee ‘without delay’
• Ginsberg’s final ‘fervent wish’ before dying made public
• US president pays tribute to Ginsberg

[19 September 2020 11:37 · Tom Embury-Dennis]

Before news of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death broke, Donald Trump on Friday evening sent out a series of tweets denigrating Joe Biden.

In them, he baselessly accused the former vice-president of being “corrupt” - a regular false claim by the Trump campaign which they have failed to back up with any evidence.

[19 September 2020 11:21 · Tom Embury-Dennis]

Tributes paid to Ruth Bader Ginsburg following death from cancer

Politicians, legal figures and celebrities have been paying tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the widely respected Supreme Court Judge who died on Friday at age 87.

Justice Bader Ginsburg’s family confirmed she died at her home in Washington DC from complications from metastatic cancer of the pancreas.

The Associate Justice had served on the court since 1993, when she was appointed by Bill Clinton.

“Our nation has lost a justice of historic stature,” Chief Justice John Roberts said. “We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her, a tireless and resolute champion of justice.”

[19 September 2020 10:56 · Tom Embury-Dennis]

A clip from 2016 featuring Senate Republican Lindsey Graham is being widely shared on social media. 

In it, Mr Graham, a close ally of Donald Trump, says he and other Republicans could rightly be branded hypocrites if they were to support a Supreme Court nomination in a Republican president’s final year before an election. 

It came after he successfully opposed allowing Barack Obama’s then-nominee to the Supreme Court, Merrick Garland, to receive a hearing in the Senate.

 

[19 September 2020 10:51 · Tom Embury-Dennis]

Ted Cruz leads Republican calls to fill Supreme Court vacancy before election

Senator Ted Cruz has led Republican calls for Donald Trump to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Supreme Court seat before election day.

Sen Cruz told Fox News he believed that it was “critical” that the Republican-controlled Senate moved quickly to replace Ginsburg before the US votes on 3 November.

“I believe that the president should next week nominate a successor to the court, and I think it is critical that the Senate takes up and confirms that successor before Election day,” said Mr Cruz.

“There is going to be enormous pressure form the media and enormous pressure from Democrats to delay filling this vacancy, but this nomination is why Donald Trump was elected.

[19 September 2020 10:21 · Tom Embury-Dennis]

Mitch McConnell says Senate will vote on Trump’s nominee

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has announced that the Republican-controlled body will hold a vote to consider Donald Trump’s appointment to the US Supreme Court in the wake of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death.

“Americans reelected our majority in 2016 and expanded it in 2018 because we pledged to work with President Trump and support his agenda, particularly his outstanding appointments to the federal judiciary,” he said in a statement. “President Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate.“

The Kentucky Republican sought to block former president Barack Obama’s appointment to the nation’s high court in 2016 following the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia in February of that year.

[19 September 2020 10:05 · Tom Embury-Dennis]

Donald Trump overnight tweeted a statement regarding the death of Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

In it, he calls Ginsberg a “titan of the law” who possessed a “brilliant mind”. 

[19 September 2020 09:48 · Tom Embury-Dennis]

Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Pioneering justice and liberal icon

When then-President Bill Clinton nominated Ruth Bader Ginsburg for the Supreme Court, so impressed was he with her career he honored her with the biggest compliment he could think of.

“Many admirers of her work say that she is to the women’s movement what former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall was to the movement for the rights of African Americans,” Mr Clinton said during a Rose Garden ceremony in 1993. “I can think of no greater compliment to bestow on an American lawyer.”

Ms Ginsburg, a feminist and women’s rights icon, passed away on Friday from complications linked to pancreatic cancer. She left behind a dying wish, that her Supreme Court seat be left vacant until after November’s presidential election. She also left behind a legacy that was immediately hailed by Republican and Democratic officials. The late justice was 87.

[19 September 2020 09:29 · Tom Embury-Dennis]

Ted Cruz has already come out and urged Republicans to push through the nomination of a new Supreme Court justice.

It comes four years after Mr Cruz demanded the Senate block Democratic president Barack Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court, arguing that a president should not be granted a pick in the year before an election.

“You don’t do this in an election year,” he said at the time.

[19 September 2020 09:14 · Tom Embury-Dennis]

Bader Ginsburg makes final statement before death

Ruth Bader Ginsburg gave a final statement shortly before her death from complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer on Friday, saying she did not want her successor appointed to the Supreme Court until a new president had been installed, according to reports.

The 87-year-old dictated a statement to her granddaughter Clara Spera days before her death, according to NPR, saying: “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”

Ginsburg’s death, coming just six weeks before the 2020 presidential election, will have profound implications for the makeup of the US Supreme Court and the direction of the country.

[19 September 2020 08:52 · Tom Embury-Dennis]

Battle lines being drawn among Republicans and Democrats following death of Ginsburg

Hello and welcome to The Independent’s up-to-the-minute coverage of US politics, on the morning after the momentous death of Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 

Battle lines are already being drawn between Republicans and Democrats following the passing of the liberal icon and mischievous celebrity, who was suffering from pancreatic cancer.

Barely an hour after Chief Justice John Roberts announced the 87-year-old had died at home on Friday evening, surrounded by friends, from the  complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer, Republicans began pushing for her replacement to be made before voters went to the polls.