US President Donald Trump has said he has a shortlist of his candidates for the position of judge on the Supreme Court to succeed Judge Ruth Beder Ginsburg, and that he prefers to be a woman.
Trump added that he would announce his or her candidate next week, indicating that he would prefer the voting process to take place in the Senate before the third elections of next November.
On the other hand, Republican Senator Susan Collins said that the Senate should not fill the vacant seat in the Supreme Court until after the presidential elections, noting that the winner of the presidency is the one who has the right to choose the candidate for this seat.
"In the interest of the American people, who will either choose to re-elect the president or elect a new president, the decision to appoint a person to a position for life should be in the hands of the president who will be elected," Collins, who faces a fierce battle in Maine to retain her Senate seat, added in a statement .
But the leader of the Republican majority in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, announced that he would hold a vote, although in 2016 he refused to organize a hearing for a judge chosen by Barack Obama for this position, on the pretext that he was an election year.
Ginsburg's death sparked a wave of grief in the country (Getty Images)
Biden and Obama
And 45 days before the next presidential election, former President Barack Obama and Democratic candidate Joe Biden issued a warning to Trump.
Biden said in a press statement, "The voters must choose the president, and the president must choose a judge for the Senate to consider."
In turn, Obama called on his successor to refrain from doing so at the time when "polls" began in the upcoming presidential elections.
Ginsburg, a progressive judge who was an icon of the left surrounded by her family, died after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Her death sparked a wave of sadness in the country and anxiety among Democrats, as the arrival of a judge appointed by Trump would put the court in the hands of conservatives for a long time.
The vacancy of her position provides an opportunity for the president to reverse the odds in the court, which has 9 members, which has historically leaned to the right, toward a majority of governorates by 6 to 3.
The nine judges are appointed to this court for life. Trump has previously appointed two, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, and his political team holds 5 seats in the court now.
The Supreme Court has the final word on all major social issues that Americans are divided over, such as abortion, the right of minorities, possession of weapons, the death penalty, and others. This court also has the final say in electoral disputes.