"The Senate should not fill this vacancy until after the American people have elected their next president and a new Congress," Biden said shortly after President Donald Trump announced his nomination of Amy Coney Barrett.
Replaces Bader Ginsburg
Trump predicts that Barrett, a deeply conservative judge, will soon be approved by the Senate, the chamber of the US Congress that questions and approves federal judges and where Republicans have a majority.
In that case, Coney Barrett will replace the liberal judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who passed away last Friday.
Refused to question Garland
The quick nomination runs counter to the process that Trump's own party, the Republicans, advocated four years ago. Then Trump's Democratic representative Barack Obama tried to get the lawyer Merrick Garland through as a successor to HD judge Antonin Scalia, who then died. But Republicans, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, stressed that it was an election year and claimed that the next HD judge would be appointed by the next president - and refused to even question Garland.