US election 2020: Senate votes to confirm Amy Barrett to Supreme Court; Trump celebrates at White House

President Donald Trump revelled in one of his signature achievements on Monday at a White House ceremony to celebrate US Senate confirmation of his third Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, eight days before the election.  

Washington DC: With just a week to go until Election Day, Senate Republicans pushed through the confirmation of Trump Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett, potentially giving the Supreme Court a 6-3 conservative majority for decades.

Donald Trump was planning on Monday to dismiss public health concerns and hold a swearing-in ceremony within hours of Amy Coney Barrett’s expected Senate confirmation to the supreme court.

The President’s announcement of Barrett’s nomination in the White House Rose Garden last month was described as a “superspreader” event, after officials including the president himself became infected with the coronavirus.

Trump hailed his nominee Barrett's confirmation to the Supreme Court as "a momentous day for America," in a ceremony coming just eight days before the presidential election.

"This is a momentous day for America, for the United States Constitution and for the fair and impartial rule of law," the president, standing alongside Barrett, said before beaming lawmakers and others who had gathered on the South Lawn of the White House.

"I stand here tonight, truly honored and humbled," Barrett, a 48-year-old religious conservative, said shortly after Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas administered the constitutional oath.

The deeply divided chamber voted 52 to 48, largely along party lines in the Republican-controlled Senate, making Barrett the third Trump nominee to reach the high court and cementing a six-to-three conservative majority.

Barrett, who was nominated to replace liberal justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s, will be the first mother of school-aged children and the fifth ever woman appointed to the Court. With her appointment, six of the nine judges of the Supreme Court will be Catholic.

Trump, who has been touting the appointment at campaign rallies to the cheers of his supporters, had pressed the Senate to confirm Barrett, 48, before the November 3 election in which he trails Democrat Joe Biden in national opinion polls. No Supreme Court justice had ever been confirmed so close to a presidential election.

“The Barrett family has captured America’s heart. It is highly fitting that Justice Barrett fills the seat of a true pioneer for women, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg,” Trump said with a smiling Barrett at his side.