Trump's choice of top judge may sway election. Anger at plans to nominate swift successor to late liberal Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Donald Trump last night vowed to defy Ruth Bader Ginsburg's dying wish and will nominate her replacement immediately, igniting a tumultuous political battle that could determine the result of the US election in November.

In doing so the US president will redraw the electoral battle lines, making the vote less a referendum on his handling of the coronavirus, and instead an ideological fight over the future of the US Supreme Court. His campaign suggested it was a game-changing development.

"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. We have this obligation, without delay!" Trump said.

Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and the Democrat leadership in the Senate immediately called for the nomination to be delayed until after the election.

However, Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate leader, vowed to press ahead with confirming Trump's nominee. He said: "President Trump's nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the US Senate."

The Senate only has to confirm by a simple majority, and Republicans hold power with 53 seats to 47. But some of the party's more moderate senators - including Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska - may be reluctant to ram through the new nominee in an election year. The confirmation process usually takes about two months, so it could take place after the November 3 election, during the 'lame duck' period before the inauguration of Trump or Biden on January 20. If Trump were to lose, and Republicans drop seats in the Senate, the fate of his nominee would become uncertain.

McConnell wrote to his Republican colleagues urgently telling them to "keep their powder dry". He said: "This is not the time to prematurely lock yourselves into a position you may later regret."

A recent Pew Research Centre survey showed that, even before Justice Ginsburg's death, the Supreme Court was a more important issue to US voters than the coronavirus.

Alex Conant, a Republican strategist, said: "Joe Biden wants this election to be a referendum on Trump. Now it's going to be a referendum on whoever he nominates to the Supreme Court. It's hard to see how this doesn't help Trump politically."

Trump would become the first president since Ronald Reagan to nominate three justices to the nine-member bench. That would give the court a 6-3 conservative majority, securing its ideological leaning for a generation and cementing Trump's legacy.

[link to www.independent.ie (secure)]