Trump reportedly ready to select Amy Coney Barrett for Supreme Court

President Donald Trump plans to nominate federal appeals court Judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, according to several media reports.

Barrett, 48, is a judge for the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, Ill. She was appointed to the position by Trump in 2017 and previously worked as a professor at Notre Dame Law School and clerked for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

She is a favorite among conservatives for her anti-abortion views.

The New York Times reported Trump had selected Barrett but also said “aides cautioned that Mr. Trump sometimes upends his own plans.”

A formal announcement is expected Saturday at the White House. Federal Judge Barbara Lagoa, of Florida, also was reported to have been in the running for the nomination.

Ginsburg died Sept. 18 from complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer. On Friday she became the first Jewish person and woman to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol.

The president and a majority of Republican senators have announced their plans to hold a confirmation hearing before November’s presidential election, producing outrage among Democrats.

Republican Sens. Susan Collins, of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, have announced their objections to filling a Supreme Court vacancy before a new president is elected. But Republicans hold 53 seats in the Senate, and Supreme Court confirmation requires only a simple majority.

In 2016, with more than 100 days before the next presidential election, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., refused to hold hearings for Judge Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s last nominee for the Supreme Court, arguing the nomination should not be filled in an election year.