Image: Notre Dame University
Trump will announce his SCOTUS nominee on Saturday afternoon. Judge Amy Coney Barrett appears to be the favored candidate to assume the vacant position after Ruth Bader Ginsburg's passing. Ms. Barrett, a former professor at Notre Dame School of Law and a current judge in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, has been reportedly making trips to the White House this week, and sources say the jurist made quite an impression on President Trump after a three-hour-long meeting. Barrett, a devout Roman Catholic and mother of seven, is already attracting criticism for her stance on abortion and ObamaCare's birth control mandate, which she cited as a "grave violation of religious freedom."
Earlier this week, the President hinted that he would contest the presidential election should he find himself on the losing side in November. Trump, who is bringing into question the legality of the mail-in ballots, would need all nine justices to preside over a potential litigation about the validity of the presidential results. In the meantime, critics of the administration point to his extremely conservative choice for the SCOTUS as another Trump powerplay to stack the bench with justices that would be more likely to rule in his favour.