Amy Coney-Barrett confirmed as Supreme Court justice

Amy Barrett is the third conservative judge appointed in Donald Trump’s first term, giving him a major victory.

Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed to the Supreme Court a week ahead of the November 3 election. Picture; Getty Images.

Amy Barrett has been confirmed as the new Justice of the Supreme Court after the Senate approved her nomination, delivering Donald Trump a major victory on the eve of the election.

The vote means the 48-year-old Ms Barrett becomes the third conservative judge to be appointed in the president’s first term. Because she is appointed for life, it is an outcome which will shape the decisions of the nation’s highest court for a generation, impacting issues from health care to abortion to gun rights and labour and anti-discrimination laws.

As expected the Senate voted along partisan lines on Ms Barrett’s nomination, passing it on a 52 to 48 vote with all Democrats opposing it and only one Republican, Senator Susan Collins opposing it.

After confirmation, Ms Barrett was due to be officially sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas at a ceremony at the White House later on Tuesday (AEDT).

Ms Barrett’s rise to the Supreme Court gives it a clear 6-3 conservative majority following the death of liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg in September, just months from the election.

Ms Barrett’s nomination so close to an election was opposed by the Democrats on the grounds that Republicans blocked Barack Obama’s proposed Supreme Court appointment of Judge Merrick Garland in 2016 because they said it was too close to an election.

The Democrats, knowing they did not have the numbers to block the nomination, have used the confirmation process to claim that her appointment would threaten the Affordable Care Act and abortion rights.

A Trump supporter waves a thin blue line flag in support of all law enforcement officers, outside the US Supreme Court ahead of Ms Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation. Picture: AFP.

Ms Barrett, is a pro-life Catholic who has previously questioned the legality of the ACA, dubbed Obamacare.

But during her confirmation hearings, Ms Barrett refused to be drawn on how she might vote on these or other issues, instead saying that she would be a judge who followed the letter of the law and would not seek to make policy. That role, she said, belongs to the Congress.

“Her intellectual brilliance is unquestioned,” Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said of Ms Barrett. “Her command of the law is remarkable. Her integrity is above reproach”.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said the mother of seven was “a conservative woman who embraces her faith.” “(She is) unabashedly pro-life, but she’s not going to apply ‘the law of Amy’ to all of us,’ he said.

But liberal Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren said: “A vote for Barrett is a vote to strip health care from millions of people. It’s a vote to turn back the clock on reproductive freedom. To endanger Dreamers and immigrants. To let climate change rampage unchecked. To imperil efforts to address systemic racism. To place workers’ rights, voting rights, LGBTQ rights, and gun violence prevention at risk.”

Ms Barrett’s confirmation follows the confirmation of two other conservative judges in recent years, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

Republicans have also appointed conservative judges to a raft of lower courts, including 53 judges to the circuit court as well as 162 district court judges and two to the US Court of International Trade.

(Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia)