Credit: Evan Vucci/AP Photo

President Trump wants to fill the vacancy as soon as possible.

After the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg last Friday, funeral services are set to be held this week. After these services conclude, US President Donald Trump intends to announce his new nominee for the Supreme Court by either Friday or Saturday. He also intends to have the senate confirm his nominee with a vote before the Presidential election in November.


According to Trump, there are five potential candidates for his nominee. Details are scarce on the majority of them, though he did divulge that one of them is only 38 years old, which means they could serve on the court for up to 50 years if selected. One of Trump’s candidates has allegedly been confirmed to be Judge Barbara Lagoa of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

When asked about Judge Lagoa, Trump spoke highly of her. “She’s excellent, Hispanic. She’s a terrific woman from everything I know,” he said during an interview with “Fox and Friends.” “I don’t know her. … Florida. We love Florida. So very smart — they’re all very smart.”

Credit: SCOTUSblog

When asked why he wants to fill Judge Ginsberg’s vacancy so quickly, Trump expressed concerns that there may be legal problems during the Presidential election that could require Supreme Court intervention, and that he didn’t want a 4-4 vote to be an option.

“We have an obligation to do what’s right and act as quickly as possible.” the president said. “We should act quickly because we’re going to have probably election things involved here, you know, because of the fake ballots that they’ll be sending out which is a terrible. … We don’t want to have a tie, no, we don’t. And we want to have nine justices.”

In the days leading up to her death, Judge Ginsberg was reported to have told her daughter that her last wish was to not be replaced on the Supreme Court until after a new President is elected. When presented with this, Trump said “I don’t know that she said that, or was that written out by Adam Schiff, and Schumer and Pelosi? I would be more inclined to the second, okay, you know. It came out of the wind, it sounds so beautiful. But that sounds like a Schumer deal, or maybe a Pelosi or shifty Schiff. So that that came out of the wind.”