Trump to make court pick by Saturday, Ginsburg services set

By JONATHAN LEMIRE, LISA MASCARO and ALEXANDRA JAFFE

 WASHINGTONP) (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday he expects to announce his pick for the Supreme Court on Friday or Saturday, after funeral services for Ruth Bader Ginsburg and just days before the first presidential election debate.

Ginsburg’s casket will be on public view Wednesday and Thursday at the iconic steps outside the court building to allow for public mourning during the coronavirus pandemic. On Friday, Ginsburg will lie in state in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall in a ceremony open only to invited guests, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

The court said Ginsburg will be buried next week at Arlington National Cemetery in a private service.

Trump told “Fox & Friends” that he had a list of five finalists, “probably four,” and that he is pushing for a confirmation vote before Election Day. Democrats vigorously oppose that, pointing to the hypocrisy of Republicans for rushing through a pick so close to the election after refusing to do so months earlier for President Barack Obama in 2016.

Dismissing that argument, Trump said of a rapid nomination and confirmation, “I think that would be good for the Republican Party, and I think it would be good for everybody to get it over with.”

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dies at 87

 By MARK SHERMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a towering women’s rights champion who became the court’s second female justice, died Friday at her home in Washington. She was 87.

Ginsburg died of complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer, the court said.

Her death just over six weeks before Election Day is likely to set off a heated battle over whether President Donald Trump should nominate, and the Republican-led Senate should confirm, her replacement, or if the seat should remain vacant until the outcome of his race against Democrat Joe Biden is known. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said late Friday that the Senate will vote on Trump’s pick to replace Ginsburg, even though it’s an election year.

Trump called Ginsburg an “amazing woman” and did not mention filling her vacant Supreme Court seat when he spoke to reporters following a rally in Bemidji, Minnesota.

Biden said the winner of the November election should choose Ginsburg’s replacement. “There is no doubt -- let me be clear -- that the voters should pick the president and the president should pick the justice for the Senate to consider,” Biden told reporters after returning to his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, from campaign stops in Minnesota.

Temperature in Bowling Green at 11:30 a.m.

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