Donald Trump, pictured September 19, 2020, in Minnesota.
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Evan Vucci / AP / SIPA
Donald Trump said on Saturday that he was "obliged" to appoint a new judge to the Supreme Court "without delay" the day after the death of his dean Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Appointing the magistrates of the Temple of Law is "the most important decision" for which a president is elected, he justified in a tweet, while the Democratic opposition asks him not to exercise this power before the presidential election of November 3.
According to the Constitution of the United States, the president appoints the nine wise men of the High Court for life, who must still obtain a green light from the Senate.
Republicans have a majority of 53 out of 100 seats in the Upper House and their leader, Mitch McConnell has already made it known that he will organize a vote if Donald Trump announces his choice.
He had however refused to audition a candidate nominated by Barack Obama in 2016, on the grounds that such a decision should not be taken in the middle of an election year.
Some moderate Republican elected officials, who face complicated re-election campaigns, could be embarrassed by this change of foot and the fight to convince them should be fierce.
The progressives indeed want to avoid at all costs Donald Trump bringing a third judge to the Supreme Court because this would anchor this key institution, arbiter of the great debates of American society, in a lasting way in conservatism.
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