WASHINGTON -- Calling her a woman with "sterling credentials," President Donald Trump nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court on Saturday.
Barrett, a former clerk to the late Justice Antonin Scalia, whose widow, Maureen, was in the audience, said she was "truly humbled" by the nomination and aligned herself with Scalia's conservative approach to the law, saying his "judicial philosophy is mine, too -- a judge too must apply the law as written."
"Judges are not policymakers and they must be resolute in setting aside any policy views they might hold," Barrett said.
Barrett, 48, was joined in the Rose Garden by her husband, Jesse, and seven children. Barrett and her husband, a former federal prosecutor, both graduated from Notre Dame Law School. Their children include two adopted from Haiti and one with special needs.
Trump said Saturday that Barrett would be the first female justice to serve with small children. Looking at her kids in the front row, the president said: "Thank you for sharing your mom."
If confirmed by the Senate, she would fill the seat vacated by liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It would be the sharpest ideological swing since Justice Clarence Thomas replaced Justice Thurgood Marshall nearly three decades ago.
She would be the sixth justice on the nine-member court chosen by a Republican president, and the third of Trump's first term in office.
Trump hailed Barrett as "a woman of remarkable intellect and character," saying he had studied her record closely before making the pick.
The president called Barrett "one of our nation's most brilliant and gifted legal minds," saying "she is a woman of unparalleled achievement, towering intellect, sterling credentials and unyielding loyalty to the Constitution."
Republican senators are lining up for a swift confirmation of Barrett.
At stake in her nomination is the future of gun rights, religious liberty and public safety, Trump added, as he pressed for a quick confirmation that he has said should come before the election on Nov. 3. "This should be a straightforward and prompt confirmation."
Trump half-joked that the confirmation process ahead "should be easy" and "extremely noncontroversial." No court nominee has been considered so close to a presidential election before, with early voting already underway. The president asked Democrats to "refrain from personal and partisan attacks."
In 2016, Republicans blocked Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court to fill the election-year vacancy, saying voters should have a say in the lifetime appointment. Senate Republicans say they will move ahead this time, arguing the circumstances are different now that the White House and Senate are controlled by the same party.
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A PARTISAN DIVIDE
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a statement that the Barrett nomination "will receive a vote on the Senate floor in the weeks ahead, following the work of the Judiciary Committee supervised by Chairman [Lindsey] Graham."
Graham, R-S.C., has circulated a schedule to Republican lawmakers that includes four consecutive days of confirmation hearings beginning Oct. 12, and a committee vote on Barrett's nomination Oct. 22.
Republicans expect to lose two of their more moderate members. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has said she will not vote to confirm anyone before Election Day out of fairness. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska took a similar position and then backtracked, but she is a vocal supporter of abortion rights and is expected to look skeptically upon the nominee's views of Roe v. Wade.
The defections, though, are unlikely to go any further and McConnell has made clear to colleagues that he is pleased with Barrett's selection.
Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer of New York and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California warned that a vote to confirm Barrett to the high court would be a vote to strike down the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Schumer added that the president was once again putting "Americans' health care in the crosshairs" even while the coronavirus pandemic rages.
Schumer called the nomination so close to the election a "reprehensible power grab" and "a cynical attack on the legitimacy of the court."
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden took that route of criticism as well, framing Trump's choice as another move in Republicans' effort to scrap the 2010 health care law passed by former President Barack Obama. The court is expected to take up a case against it this fall.
The president, addressing a late-night campaign rally in Newport News, Va., on Friday, rejected complaints by Democrats that he was rushing to fill the seat too close to an election.
"The Democrats are saying, 'Well, it's the end of a term,'" Trump told supporters who chanted "fill that seat" during the rally. "You know, we have a lot of time left. Think of this. If it were them -- don't forget, we don't have to do it by the election, but we should really be able. That would be a great victory, going into the election with that biggest of all victories." He added that the appointment could influence the country "for 40 years, 50 years."
Barrett would be the youngest member of the current court and could serve for decades.
VOWS TO SERVE THE PEOPLE
The set design at the Rose Garden, with large American flags hung between the colonnades, appeared to be modeled on the way the White House was decorated when former President Bill Clinton nominated Ginsburg in 1993.
Barrett, recognizing that flags were still lowered in recognition of Ginsburg's death, said she would be "mindful of who came before me." Although they have different judicial philosophies, Barrett praised Ginsburg as a trailblazer for women and for her friendship with Scalia, saying, "She has won the admiration of women across the country and indeed all across the world."
She referred to herself as a "parent, car pool driver and birthday party planner" who in recent months has had to learn the vicissitudes of online education just like so many others during the pandemic that has closed schools.
And she sought to address "my fellow Americans" who might be concerned about her views, vowing to faithfully discharge her duties without bias. "If confirmed, I would not assume that role for the sake of those in my own circle, and certainly not for my own sake," she said. "I would assume this role to serve you."
Within hours of Ginsburg's death, Trump made clear he would nominate a woman for the seat. Barrett was the early favorite and the only one to meet with Trump.
Barrett has been a judge since 2017, when Trump nominated her to the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. But as a longtime University of Notre Dame law professor, she had already established herself as a reliable conservative in the mold of Scalia, for whom she clerked in the late 1990s.
She would be the only justice on the current court not to have received her law degree from an Ivy League school. The eight current justices all attended either Harvard or Yale.
Barrett had become known to Trump in large part after her 2017 appeals court confirmation that included allegations that Democrats were attacking her Catholic faith. The president also interviewed her in 2018 for the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, but Trump ultimately chose Brett Kavanaugh.
HIGH STAKES
While Democrats appear powerless to stop Barrett's confirmation in the GOP-controlled Senate, they are seeking to use the process to weaken Trump's reelection chances.
Barrett's nomination could become a reckoning over abortion, an issue that has divided many Americans for almost half a century. The idea of overturning or gutting Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion, has animated activists in both parties for decades.
Increases in mail, absentee and early voting brought about by the pandemic have already led to a flurry of election litigation, and both Trump and Biden have assembled armies of lawyers to continue the fight once vote-counting begins.
"I think this will end up in the Supreme Court," Trump said Wednesday of the election. "And I think it's very important that we have nine justices."
No Democratic senators are expected to vote to confirm Barrett before the election, even though some did support her in 2017.
Two Democrats still serving in the Senate who voted to confirm Barrett in 2017, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, now say it's too close to the election to consider her nomination.
Meanwhile, outside conservative groups are planning to spend more than $25 million to support Trump and his nominee. The Judicial Crisis Network has organized a coalition that includes American First Policies, the Susan B. Anthony List, the Club for Growth and the group Catholic Vote to help confirm Barrett.
The Republican National Committee has launched a $10 million digital campaign of its own, in conjunction with Trump's reelection campaign.
"If she is nominated and confirmed, Coney Barrett would work to dismantle all that Ruth Bader Ginsburg fought for during her extraordinary career," Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign, which promotes rights for LGBTQ Americans, said before Trump's announcement. "An appointment of this magnitude must be made by the president inaugurated in January."
Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life, an anti-abortion group, called Barrett's selection "exciting news" for conservatives. "We have confidence that she will fairly apply the law and Constitution as written, which includes protecting the most vulnerable in our nation: our unborn children," she said.
Information for this article was contributed by Zeke Miller, Lisa Mascaro, Mary Clare Jalonick and Michael Tarm of The Associated Press; by Colby Itkowitz of The Washington Post; and by Peter Baker and Nicholas Fandos of The New York Times.
