[News] Ginsburg Supreme Court: Trump to name nominee by week's end

[Alcooliks ;x]

US President Donald Trump has said he will name his nominee for Supreme Court justice by the end of the week, and urged the Republican-controlled Senate to confirm his choice before the presidential election.

The plan has launched a high-stakes battle ahead of the 3 November vote.

Mr Trump wants to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a liberal stalwart who died on Friday aged 87, with a conservative.

He appears to have secured enough support in the Senate.

This would cement a right-leaning majority on the US's highest court, where justices serve for life or until they choose to retire.

The ideological balance of the nine-member court is crucial to its rulings on the most important issues in US law, with decisions made in recent years on immigration, carbon emissions and gay marriage.

Democrats have criticised Mr Trump's plan, with presidential candidate Joe Biden dubbing it an "abuse of power".

Meanwhile, Ms Ginsburg is set to become the first woman in history to lie in state in the US Capitol building later this week. Following her death from cancer, people around the country have been paying tribute to the prominent feminist, who served on the court for 27 years.

What happens next with the nomination?
On Monday, Mr Trump said he was "constitutionally obligated" to nominate someone for the Supreme Court.

"We're looking at five incredible jurists... women that are extraordinary in every way. I mean, honestly, it could be any one of them, and we're going to be announcing it on Friday or Saturday," he told supporters at a rally in Ohio.

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The president earlier had a private meeting at the White House with potential nominee Amy Coney Barrett, an appeals court judge who is backed by anti-abortion conservatives.

Once the president names a nominee, it is the Senate's job to vote on whether to confirm them. The Judiciary Committee will review the pick first, and then vote to send the nominee to the floor for a full vote.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has vowed to hold a confirmation vote before the election in November. Democrats have accused him of hypocrisy.

Following the death of conservative justice Antonin Scalia in 2016, Mr McConnell refused to hold a vote to confirm a nominee put forward by then-President Barack Obama, a Democrat.