RBG’s death sparks battle royal

Donald Trump wants “no delay” in replacing the influential liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the nine-member bench of the powerful US Supreme Court. Her death from cancer at the age of 87 has unleashed a titanic battle, with big implications for November’s election, especially if the court has to rule on any dispute, as it did in 2000 between George W Bush and Al Gore over Florida ballots.

Before she died Justice Ginsburg said: “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.” But Mr Trump has the constitutional power to nominate a replacement whenever he likes. Doing so now offers an opportunity to fulfil his promise to enshrine a conservative majority on the bench for a generation. That prospect fired up his support base in 2016. His reported frontrunner is Amy Coney Barrett, 48, a Catholic mother of seven who is reportedly anti-abortion and anti-same-sex marriage.

With a conservative majority, Cameron Stewart reports, the Supreme Court would be more supportive of Mr Trump on gun rights, religious freedom, and free speech and more hostile to abortion, anti-discrimination laws and immigration. But he needs to be cautious. As much as enshrining a 6-3 majority would energise his base, it is also likely to energise Democrat voters at a time he is trailing Joe Biden by 7 per cent in most polls. At seven million US cases and 200,000 deaths, Mr Trump’s handling of COVID-19 weighs heavily on his chances. Campaigning on the court could divert attention.

Democrats are claiming “gross hypocrisy” over the rush. Republican senators in 2016 refused a vote on Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland, insisting it be left to whoever won the election. This time, some Senate Republicans also want a replacement left to the winner in November, and note Mr Trump’s 2018 nomination of Justice Brett Kavanaugh took three months to pass the Senate.