US President Donald Trump's decision to nominate a woman to fill the vacancy in the US Supreme Court left by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg has created two front-runners for the post.
Appeals court judges Amy Coney Barrett and Barbara Lagoa are emerging as the most likely to be picked after Mr Trump announced his intention at a rally in North Carolina on Saturday. A third judge, Amul Thapar, had also been in the running until Mr Trump’s comment.
All three appeared on a long list of possible high-court picks that Mr Trump updated earlier this month. Ms Barrett and Mr Thapar were among the nominees whom the president considered before selecting Brett Kavanaugh for the court in 2018.
Ms Barrett, 48, a favorite of social conservatives, was appointed to the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in 2017 after a tough confirmation battle. Mr Trump has said privately before that he was saving Ms Barrett as a nominee to replace Ginsburg.
“She’s very highly respected, I can say that,” Mr Trump told reporters at the White House Saturday, when asked about her. He later said at a rally: "I think it should be a woman – because I actually like women more than I like men.”
Any nominee would have to be approved by a majority in the US Senate, where Mr Trump's Republican party holds 53 of the 100 seats.
“She would be ideal in my mind,” said Indiana Senator Mike Braun, a Republican. The appointment of Brett Kavanaugh in 2018, on the eve of midterm elections, was crucial in driving Republican support at the polls, he said, crediting it with helping him and Missouri Senator Josh Hawley win their races.
“Republicans would expect that when we hold the Senate, and we’ve got the presidency, this is the most important thing to get done.”
Ms Lagoa, 52, a Miami-born judge on the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit Court of Appeal, has seen a quick ascent. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Trump ally, appointed her to the Supreme Court of Florida in 2019 – she was the first Cuban-American woman to serve on the court, and is bilingual – before Mr Trump nominated her to the Eleventh Circuit in September a year ago.
“She’s an extraordinary person, I’ve heard incredible things about her,” Mr Trump said Saturday. “I don’t know her. She’s Hispanic and highly respected.”
As a woman of Hispanic heritage from Florida, Ms Lagoa’s nomination could boost Mr Trump’s prospects of re-election. He is trailing Democratic rival Joe Biden in Florida and trailing widely among women, but polls show he is doing better among Hispanic voters than he did in 2016.
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Mourners gather on the steps of the US Supreme Court in Washington DC after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died from pancreatic cancer at the age of 87, on September 18, 2020. EPA -
US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg gestures to the attendees of her presentation at the National Book Festival presented by the Library of Congress at the Walter E Washington Convention Center in Washington on August 31, 2019. EPA -
The flag at the White House flies at half-mast on September 18, 2020 after the Supreme Court announced that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died. AP Photo -
Ruth Bader Ginsburg poses in her robe in her office at the US District Court in Washington on August 3, 1993 after the Senate voted 96-3 to confirm her appointment as the 107th justice and the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court. AP Photo -
A man holds a sign reading "RBG HERO" as mourners hold a vigil for Ruth Bader Ginsburg outside the US Supreme Court in Washington. Bloomberg -
People gather under a mural of Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the U Street neighbourhood in Washington after the announcement of her death. AP Photo -
Ruth Bader Ginsburg types while on a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship in Italy in 1977. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP -
Ruth Bader in 1948. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP -
Ruth Bader Ginsburg poses with her family at the Supreme Court in Washington. From left are, son-in-law George Spera, daughter Jane Ginsburg, husband Martin, son James Ginsburg. The judge's grandchildren Clara Spera and Paul Spera are in front. AP Photo -
Ruth Bader Ginsburg with her husband Martin and their daughter Jane in 1958. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP -
Ruth Bader's engagement photograph, while a senior at Cornell University in December 1953. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP -
Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her husband Martin. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP -
Ruth Bader Ginsburg's daughter Jane, born in 1955 and son James, born in 1965, pose for a photo. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP -
Joan Ruth Bader at two years old in 1935. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP -
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, her husband Martin Ginsburg, and their children Jane and James off the coast of St Thomas in 1979. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP -
US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg shows the many different collars she wore with her robes, in her chambers at the Supreme Court building in Washington on June 17, 2016. Reuters -
US Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Justice Anthony Kennedy, Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Stephen Breyer, Justice Elena Kagan, Justice Samuel Alito, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, at the Supreme Court building on June 1, 2017. Reuters -
Ruth Bader Ginsburgh holds up a drawing of herself with the words "My Grandmother Is Very Special by Paul Spera" as she appears before the Senate Judicary Committee July 20, 1993, the first day of her confirmation hearings for the post of Supreme Court Justice. Paul is Ginsburg's grandson. Reuters -
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, US President Bill Clinton's first Supreme Court nominee, is greeted by the first two women to serve on the Senate Judicary Committee, Dianne Feinstein and Carol Moseley-Braun, on July 20, 1993, before the opening of her confirmation hearings. Reuters -
Ruth Bader Ginsburg gets a hug from President Barack Obama as he arrives for his address to a joint session of Congress on February 24, 2009. Reuters -
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg attends the lunch session of The Women's Conference in Long Beach, California on October 26, 2010. Reuters -
President Bill Clinton applauds as Ruth Bader Ginsburg prepares to speak in the Rose Garden of the White House, after the president announced he would nominate her to the Supreme Court on June 14, 1993. AP Photo -
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shakes hands with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor along with Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G Breyer before President Barack Obama's State of the Union Address. AFP -
The first female US Supreme Court justice, Sandra Day O'Connor, speaks as fellow Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg listens during a forum at the Newseum in Washington on April 11, 2012, to mark the 30th anniversary of O'Connor's first term on the Supreme Court. Reuters -
President Bill Clinton and Ruth Bader Ginsburg walk along the Colonnade of the White House in Washington, as they head to the Rose Garden for a news conference where the resident nominated Ginsburg to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court. AP Photo -
Ruth Bader Ginsburg stands during the national anthem at a US Citizenship and Immigration Services naturalisation ceremony at the New York Historical Society Museum and Library in Manhattan, New York on April 10, 2017. Reuters -
US President George W Bush's nominee to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Judge John Roberts, walks past Associate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the steps of the court in Washington on September 6, 2005. AFP -
US Supreme Court judges Sandra Day O'Connor, Ruth Bader-Ginsburg and the US Ambassador in Paris Howard Leach stand with French President Jacques Chirac at him at the Elysee Palace on July 8, 2003. AFP
