Trump announces Judge Amy Coney Barrett is his pick for the Supreme Court

Here’s what you need to know about President Trump’s announcement, nominating federal appeals court judge Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court on Sept. 26. (Video: The Washington Post, Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

By Seung Min Kim

and

Colby Itkowitz

September 26, 2020 at 10:20 p.m. EDT

President Trump announced Saturday that he would nominate federal appeals court judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the recent death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, setting up a bitter confirmation fight in the final weeks of the presidential campaign.

In a Rose Garden ceremony, Trump called Barrett “one of our nation’s most brilliant and gifted legal minds,” saying “she is a woman of unparalleled achievement, towering intellect, sterling credentials and unyielding loyalty to the Constitution.”

Barrett is a deeply conservative jurist in the mold of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, whose confirmation would cement the right’s hold on the nation’s highest court for many years and ensure Trump’s legacy is felt for generations.

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement that the Barrett nomination "will receive a vote on the Senate floor in the weeks ahead, following the work of the Judiciary Committee supervised by Chairman Graham.”

Barrett, a disciple of Justice Scalia, is poised to push the Supreme Court further right for decades to come.

Democratic senators are mapping out how they will fight Trump’s SCOTUS nominee given they have little power to actually derail his pick.

Trump is expected to personally attack Biden at the candidates’ first debate on Tuesday, and Biden is being prepped for the anticipated barrage.

A majority of Americans, 57 percent, say the winner of November’s presidential election should choose the next Supreme Court justice, while 38 percent say Trump should fill the seat.

Biden leads Trump by eight percentage points nationally, 51 percent to 43 percent, according to a Washington Post average of polls. Biden’s margin is the same in Michigan and Pennsylvania and smaller in other key states: seven points in Wisconsin, five in Arizona and one in Florida.

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