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 16:59 · Tom Embury-Dennis]

Obama says democracy at risk if Republicans try to fill Ginsburg Supreme Court vacancy before election

Former president Barack Obama has called on the Senate not to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

In a statement, he urged Republican senators to abide by the principle that “they invented” in 2016 when they refused to hold a hearing for the nomination of Merrick Garland before a new president was sworn in, and warned that democracy was at risk should they push ahead.

“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,” the former president wrote.  

[19 September 2020 16:50 · Tom Embury-Dennis]

Lindsey Graham, chair of the senate judiciary committee, and therefore a vital figure in any Supreme Court nomination process, has tweeted a very non-committal message about the issue following the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

“I fully understand where President [Trump] is coming from,” he writes. It comes after Donald Trump said he would nominate a Supreme Court justice candidate "without delay".

It comes four years after Mr McConnell said Republicans were setting a precedent that Supreme Court nominees must not be confirmed in the year before an election.

[19 September 2020 16:30 · Tom Embury-Dennis]

Republican senators are already coming out urging Donald Trump to nominate a Supreme Court justice, in order that they might be able to confirm any conservative judge before the election.

Senator Thom Tillis says he will vote for the “well-qualified and conservative” jurist, even though no nominee has been picked yet.

Senator Josh Hawley is demanding the selection of a judge who opposes pro-choice abortion legislation.

And senator Marsha Blackburn has said he “looks forward” to a nominee being subject to a vote in the Senate.

[19 September 2020 15:59 · Tom Embury-Dennis]

Video of Lindsey Graham insisting Supreme Court vacancies should never be filled in election years goes viral

Lindsey Graham, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is under pressure to reject any Supreme Court nominee put forward by Donald Trump to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg – as he himself has repeatedly promised to do.

The South Carolina senator, who is currently fighting his most competitive Democratic challenger since he was elected to the chamber in 2002, has previously voted for nominees put forward by presidents of both parties.

However, in 2016, he joined the Republican boycott of Merrick Garland, the man Barack Obama nominated to replace Antonin Scalia. The Republican senate leadership justified their refusal to take up the nomination on the basis that in an election year, it should be for the next president to decide who to pick.

[19 September 2020 15:47 · Tom Embury-Dennis]

Ed Markey, a Democratic senator, has explicitly called for the removal of the filibuster and the expansion of the Supreme Court if Mitch McConnell moves forward to confirm a Supreme Court nominee. 

[19 September 2020 15:32 · Tom Embury-Dennis]

Trump says he has 'obligation' to nominate Supreme Court judge 'without delay'

Donald Trump has suggested he will announce a nomination for the Supreme Court in the wake of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death “without delay” despite the judge’s dying wish that her replacement would not be selected “until a new president is installed”.

Tagging the official account of the Republican Party in a Saturday morning post, the president wrote on Twitter: “We were put in this position of power and importance to make decisions for the people who so proudly elected us, the most important of which has long been considered to be the selection of United States Supreme Court Justices.“

He added: “We have this obligation, without delay!”

[19 September 2020 15:15 · Tom Embury-Dennis]

Donald Trump has tweeted for the first time on Saturday. He says nominating judge’s to the Supreme Court is the “most important” decision he can make as president, and intends to push through with it before the election. 

[19 September 2020 14:46 · Tom Embury-Dennis]

This is the moment Donald Trump reportedly heard about the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for the first time. 

In the clip, he is told the news by a reporter.

"She just died? Wow, I didn’t know that, you’re telling me now for the first time," Mr Trump said. 

[19 September 2020 14:26 · Tom Embury-Dennis]

California earthquake: 4.5-magnitude tremor hits West Coast

A magnitude 4.5 earthquake shook southern California on Friday night, the US Geological Survey has reported.

There were no immediate reports of  injuries or damage following the tremor, which happened at around 11.40pm local time, about two miles outside of South El Monte, near Los Angeles.

However, authorities have warned residents to be prepared for potential aftershocks.

The Los Angeles Police Department asked members of the public to call 911 only for emergencies, but said it had not received reports of damage.

[19 September 2020 14:06 · Tom Embury-Dennis]

TikTok files complaint against Trump administration to try to block US ban

Popular video-sharing app TikTok has asked a US judge to block the Trump administration from enforcing a ban on the Chinese social media network, according to court documents filed late on Friday.

TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance Ltd., filed a complaint in a Washington federal court challenging the recent prohibitory moves by the Trump administration.

The US Commerce Department announced a ban on Friday blocking people in the United States from downloading Chinese-owned messaging app WeChat and TikTok starting 20 September.