A nearly two-year investigation by Democratic senators of Supreme Court ethics details more luxury travel by Justice Clarence Thomas and urges Congress to establish a way to enforce a new code of conduct.

Republicans will control the White House and both houses of Congress come January.

Donald Trump has already appointed three Supreme Court justices.

One of the allures of being a Supreme Court justice is that the job has lifetime tenure.

In declining to step aside from two high-profile Supreme Court cases, Justice Samuel Alito has provided a rare window on the opaque process by which justices decide to recuse themselves.

In courtrooms across America, defendants get additional prison time for crimes juries found they didn’t commit.

On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples had the right to marry.

Four of the five Supreme Court justices who overturned the constitutional right to abortion showed up at the conservative Federalist Society’s black-tie dinner marking its 40th anniversary.

A Supreme Court that is the most diverse in history will hear two cases Monday challenging the use of affirmative action in higher education.

When the Supreme Court takes up the issue of affirmative action again Monday, it'll be for the second time in six years.

Journalists often have to be friendly to sources to get information.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson says she has “a seat at the table now and I’m ready to work,” leaning into her history-making role as the first Black woman on the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade at a time when it has an unprecedented Catholic supermajority.

Last week Clarence Thomas achieved two long-sought goals: expanding gun rights and overturning Roe v. Wade’s nationwide protection for abortion.

Sweeping Supreme Court rulings on guns and abortion this past week have sent an unmistakable message.

A man armed with a machete once broke into Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer’s vacation home in the Caribbean and took $1,000.

Justice Clarence Thomas says that the Supreme Court has been changed by the shocking leak of a draft opinion earlier this month.

The Supreme Court’s nine justices met in private for the first time since the leak of a draft opinion that would overrule Roe v.

A milestone Supreme Court confirmation that endured a flawed process.

Tearfully embracing a history-making moment, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson said Friday her confirmation as the first Black woman to the Supreme Court shows the progress of America.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will join a Supreme Court that is both more diverse than ever and more conservative than it’s been since the 1930s.

When presidents nominate a candidate to serve on the Supreme Court, they often ask an experienced Washington hand to help shepherd that candidate through the Senate confirmation process.

Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson may not get any Republican votes.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas says he's worried about efforts to politicize the court or add additional justices.

President Joe Biden knows better than anyone the unexpected turns a Supreme Court nomination can take after it lands on Capitol Hill.

The Justice Department is scrapping the name of a Trump-era initiative intended to crack down on economic espionage by Beijing but criticized as unfairly targeting Chinese professors at American colleges because of their ethnicity.

If President Joe Biden’s search for a nominee to the Supreme Court could be summed up by a Help Wanted ad it might read: “Seeking a well-respected liberal jurist.

Sen. Lindsey Graham is among a handful of Republicans declaring a willingness to back President Joe Biden's yet-to-be-announced Supreme Court nominee.

When Ketanji Brown Jackson’s younger daughter was 11, she drafted a letter to President Barack Obama suggesting her federal-judge mom for a vacancy on the Supreme Court.

For years the Supreme Court moved to the left or right only as far as Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Anthony Kennedy allowed.

Justice Neil Gorsuch is speaking this weekend to the conservative legal group that boosted his Supreme Court candidacy.

Democrats have fractured repeatedly over President Joe Biden’s agenda, stalling legislation and creating an atmosphere of mistrust that threatens the party’s political prospects in November.

In the nearly 30 years that Justice Stephen Breyer has spent on the Supreme Court, it's been conservative, then more conservative and now much more conservative.

Multiple sources say Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is planning to retire.

The commission tasked by President Joe Biden with studying potential changes to the Supreme Court has released its final draft report.

Merrick Garland finally made his Supreme Court debut on Tuesday.

A commission tasked with studying potential changes to the Supreme Court is releasing a first look at its review.

To some observers, the Supreme Court is facing the most serious threat to its legitimacy since its decision in Bush v.

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett is expressing concerns that the public may increasingly see the court as a partisan institution.

The road to a Texas law that bans most abortions in the state began in a town called Waskom, population 1,600.

President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats are putting judges on federal trial and appellate courts at a much faster clip than Biden’s recent predecessors.

The end of the current Supreme Court term is coming up, and Stephen Breyer is the justice to watch.

A closely watched voting rights dispute from Arizona is among five cases standing between the Supreme Court and its summer break.

A closely watched voting rights dispute from Arizona is among five cases standing between the Supreme Court and its summer break.

Abortion.

President Joe Biden has put the kibosh on his predecessor’s planned “National Garden of American Heroes."

Legislation introduced by a group of Democratic lawmakers would to add four seats to the nine-member Supreme Court, in a long-shot bid designed to counter the court’s rightward tilt during the Trump administration.

President Joe Biden has ordered a study of adding seats to the Supreme Court, creating a commission that will spend the next 180 days examining the incendiary political issues of expanding the court and instituting term limits for its justices.

Justice Stephen Breyer is telling liberal advocates of big changes at the Supreme Court, including expanding the number of justices, to think “long and hard” about what they’re proposing.

FILE - In this Nov. 30, 2018, file photo, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer sits with fellow Supreme Court justices for a group portrait at the Supreme Court Building in Washington. Scott Applewhite, File)WASHINGTON – Forgive progressives who aren't looking forward to the sequel of their personal “Nightmare on First Street," a Supreme Court succession story. Other liberal voices have said Breyer should retire when the court finishes its work for the term, usually by early summer. Among the names being circulated are California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger, U.S. District Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson and U.S. District Court Judge Michelle Childs. Breyer's departure wouldn't do anything to change the conservatives' 6-3 edge on the Supreme Court.

FILE - In this Nov. 2, 2020, file photo the Supreme Court is seen at sundown in Washington. Barring an improbable expansion of the Supreme Court, Biden won’t be able to do anything about the high court’s entrenched conservative majority any time soon. That’s because Republicans who controlled the Senate in the final two years of the Obama White House confirmed relatively few judges. Biden already has pledged to name a Black woman to the Supreme Court if a seat opens up. But some Republicans and conservative groups are wary about what Democrats might try to do now that they control Congress and the White House.

Judge Merrick Garland, nominee to be Attorney General, is sworn in at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Monday, Feb. 22, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington. That is what I intend to do as the attorney general," Garland said. Garland said his first briefing as attorney general would be focused on the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Other backers include two sons of former Attorney General Edward Levi. “There have been few moments in history where the role of attorney general — and the occupant of that post — have mattered more,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the Senate Judiciary chairman.

The once-snubbed Supreme Court pick will finally come before the Senate, this time as President Joe Biden's choice for attorney general. Now, the once-snubbed Supreme Court pick will finally come before the Senate, this time as President Joe Biden's choice for attorney general. Garland's high court nomination by President Barack Obama in 2016 died because the Republican-controlled Senate refused to hold a hearing. The Justice Department on late Saturday released a copy of Garland’s opening statement. Graham said in a tweet that Garland would be a “sound choice” to lead the Justice Department.

President-elect Joe Biden is set to name Garland as Attorney General. If confirmed by the Senate, which is likely, Garland would take over as the U.S. attorney general at a critical moment for the country and the agency. His confirmation prospects as attorney general were all but ensured when Democrats scored control of the Senate majority by winning both Georgia Senate seats. Biden also introduced three others for senior Justice Department leadership posts on Thursday, including Obama administration homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco as deputy attorney general and former Justice Department civil rights chief Vanita Gupta as associate attorney general, the No. Garland was selected over other finalists including former Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates.

President Donald Trumps deep imprint on the federal courts is a rare point of agreement about the president across the political spectrum. The three Supreme Court picks could still be on the court at the 21st century’s midpoint, 30 years from now. In Trump’s first two years, they pushed through 30 appellate court judges and 53 district court nominees. “You know, when I got in, we had over 100 federal judges that weren’t appointed," he said. That nominee was Stephen Breyer, now a Supreme Court justice.

WASHINGTON – Alabama Sen. Doug Jones and federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland are emerging as the leading contenders to be nominated as President-elect Joe Biden’s attorney general, three people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. Biden's thinking was described by people with knowledge of the presidential transition's internal thinking who were not authorized to speak publicly. Jones, who is white, has had a long-standing personal relationship with Biden dating back to Biden’s first presidential campaign in 1988. Jones would not comment Tuesday on the possibility of a nomination as attorney general. The Biden team has also been considering a number of other potential candidates for the post, including former Justice Department official Lisa Monaco.

The confirmation was expected to be the first of a Supreme Court nominee so close to a presidential election. On Sunday, the Senate voted 51-48 vote to begin to bring the process to a vote by launching the final 30 hours of Senate debate. Collins, who faces a tight reelection in Maine, remains the only Republican expected to vote against Trump's nominee. Barrett was a professor at Notre Dame Law School when she was tapped by Trump in 2017 for an appeals court opening. Two Democrats joined at that time to confirm her, but none is expected to vote for her now.

Scott Applewhite)WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans voted overwhelmingly Sunday to advance Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett toward final confirmation despite Democratic objections, just over a week before the presidential election. Barrett's confirmation on Monday was hardly in doubt, with majority Republicans mostly united in support behind President Donald Trump's pick. "The Senate is doing the right thing," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, vowing to install Barrett to the court by Monday. Murkowski said she disliked the rush toward confirmation, but supported Trump's choice of Barrett for the high court. Now the only Republican expected to vote against Barrett is Collins, who faces a tight reelection in Maine.

Barrett's nomination already appeared to have enough votes for confirmation from Senate Republicans who hold the majority in the chamber. But the minority party has no realistic chance of stopping Barrett’s confirmation, which is set to lock a 6-3 conservative court majority for years to come. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., noted the political rancor, but defended his handling of the process. Majority Republicans turned aside those efforts and kept Barrett's confirmation on track. With a 53-47 GOP majority, Barrett’s confirmation is almost certain.

Barrett, a federal appeals court judge, is expected to be confirmed on Monday and quickly join the court. "It’s hard to think of any nominee we’ve had in the past who is any better than this one," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told Fox News late Thursday. With a 53-47 GOP majority, Barrett’s confirmation is almost certain. That rate outpaces Graham’s third-quarter total of $28 million, which his campaign said represented the largest amount ever raised by any Republican Senate candidate in a single quarter, in any state. In trying to derail or at least slow Barrett's confirmation, Democrats argue the winner of the presidential election should decide who replaces Ginsburg.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., shakes hands with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., at the close of the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington. “This has been one of the best set of hearings that I’ve participated in,” Feinstein said at the Senate Judiciary Committee. “It’s time for Sen. Feinstein to step down from her leadership position on the Senate Judiciary Committee,” said Brian Fallon, the executive director of Demand Justice, which opposes conservative nominees to the courts. Trump has been able to install more than 200 judges on the federal bench and is now poised to seat his third justice on the Supreme Court. “Judiciary Committee Democrats had one goal this week: to show what’s at stake under a 6-3 conservative Supreme Court — and we did that,” Feinstein said.

The Senate Judiciary Committee set Oct. 22 for its vote to recommend Barrett’s nomination to the full Senate, with a final confirmation vote expected by month’s end. Relying on a slim Senate majority, Trump's Republicans are poised to lock a 6-3 conservative court majority for years to come. A former Notre Dame Law School professor, Barrett would be the only one of her Supreme Court colleagues not groomed in the Ivy League. But Barrett is the most open opponent of abortion nominated to the Supreme Court in decades. Others testifying Thursday included Laura Wolk, the first blind woman to be a law clerk for the Supreme Court, who told senators that Barrett’s encouragement and support were life-changing.

WASHINGTON – Over and over, Amy Coney Barrett said she’d be her own judge if confirmed to the Supreme Court. Barrett is the most open opponent of abortion nominated to the Supreme Court in decades, and Democrats fear that her ascension could be a tipping point that threatens abortion rights. She called the Voting Rights Act a “triumph in the civil rights movement,” without discussing the specifics of the earlier challenge to it. It would be applying laws that are designed to protect the election and protect the right to vote,” Barrett said. The health care debate has been central to the week’s hearings, as Americans struggle during the pandemic, leading to a sharp exchange among senators at one point.

WASHINGTON – Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Tuesday quickly turned to discussion of a few notable high court cases, including key decisions on abortion and gun rights. One of the cases is coming to the Supreme Court while others were decided years ago. Barrett is the most openly anti-abortion nominee to the Supreme Court in decades. CALIFORNIA v. TEXASThe Supreme Court will hear this case on Nov. 10, a week after the election. The Supreme Court upheld key parts of the law in the two earlier cases.

(Leah Millis/Pool via AP)WASHINGTON – Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett will face senators' questions over her approach to health care, legal precedent and even the presidential election during a second day of confirmation hearings on track to lock in a conservative court majority for years to come. Americans “deserve an independent Supreme Court that interprets our Constitution and laws as they are written,” Barrett told the committee. Republicans also hope to seat Barrett quickly enough to hear any legal challenges after the election. Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut was among several Democrats demanding that Barrett pledge not to take part in any election case. One after another, Democrats sought Monday to tie her nomination to the upcoming Obama-era health care case.

(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, Pool)WASHINGTON – The Latest on the Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett (all times local):5:50 p.m. The Senate Judiciary Committee has wrapped up the first of four days of planned Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett. She warned it’s not just health care that is at risk if Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed. Sen. Michael Lee was present for the start of Senate Judiciary Committee hearings Monday for Barrett. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham opened the hearing by defending holding the hearing so close to the presidential election.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut was among several Democrats demanding that Barrett pledge not to take part in any election case. Barrett also praised the liberal icon, saying she was “forever grateful" for Ginsburg's trailblazing path as a woman on the court. “Health care coverage for millions of Americans is at stake with this nomination,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the committee’s senior Democrat. In one message, he tweeted that he’d have a “FAR BETTER” health care plan, with lower costs and protections for preexisting conditions. But he has not, as yet, discussed an actual health care plan.

In this Oct. 1, 2020, photo, Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett, meets with Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., at the Capitol in Washington. Confirmation hearings begin Monday for President Donald Trumps Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett. If confirmed, the 48-year-old appeals court judge would fill the seat of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died last month. She says courts "should not try” to make policy, and believes she would bring “a few new perspectives” as the first mother of school-age children on the nine-member court. Barrett also is the most openly anti-abortion Supreme Court nominee in decades and her vote could provide a majority to restrict if not overturn abortion rights.

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)Judge Amy Coney Barrett, President Donald Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, has written roughly 100 opinions in more than three years on the 7th U.S. In July, the Supreme Court threw out the panel's ruling and ordered a new look at the case. Supreme Court abortion decisions "hold that, until a fetus is viable, a woman is entitled to decide whether to bear a child. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, then serving as a federal appeals court judge in Washington, D.C, said one utterance was enough. In short, the case law demonstrates that a single, sufficiently severe incident may create a hostile work environment actionable” under federal anti-discrimination laws.

Lawmakers know the public is watching, but as the hearing gets going and lawmakers seek to probe the nominee’s views, they often slip into using legal jargon and refer to past Supreme Court cases in shorthand. Barrett is the most open anti-abortion nominee to the Supreme Court in decades. ___CHEVRON DEFERENCEA 1984 Supreme Court ruling, in a case involving the Chevron oil company, says that when laws aren’t crystal clear, federal agencies should be allowed to fill in the details. But a growing conservative legal movement has questioned the Chevron decision. If a future Supreme Court were to limit the Chevron ruling, it would mark a big change in the law that would potentially make it harder to sustain governmental regulations.

In this Oct. 1, 2020, photo, Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett, meets with Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., at the Capitol in Washington. Confirmation hearings begin Monday for President Donald Trumps Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett. If confirmed, the 48-year-old appeals court judge would fill the seat of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died last month. (Graeme Jennings/Pool via AP)WASHINGTON – Confirmation hearings begin Monday for President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett. If confirmed, the 48-year-old appeals court judge would fill the seat of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died last month.

PHOENIX – There are few topics that Joe Biden isn't willing to opine on — except the Supreme Court. The debate is likely to intensify next week when Senate Republicans start confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett. The progressive movement clamoring for a larger Supreme Court also wants a single-payer health insurance system, tuition-free college for all Americans and a complete phase-out of fossil fuels. “They’re denying the American people the one shot they have, under constitutional law, to be able have their input” by electing a president, Biden said. As Judiciary chair in 1987, he presided over a hearing and vote that ended with conservative luminary Robert Bork being denied a Supreme Court seat.

She has never said publicly she would overturn Roe, or other precedents expanding abortion rights. To buttress her legal analyses, she nearly always brought up Scalia, for whom she clerked in the late 1990s. Scalia, who like Barrett was a Catholic, said the Constitution leaves the question up to the states. “What Roe v. Wade said was that no state can prohibit it,” he said. Jamal Greene, a professor at New York’s Columbia Law School, said Barrett could stop short of shooting down Roe v. Wade and other abortion-rights precedents — and still end up gutting them.

Judge Amy Coney Barrett speaks after President Donald Trump announced her as his nominee to the Supreme Court, in the Rose Garden at the White House, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020, in Washington. She said she would be mindful of the woman whose place she would take on the Supreme Court. Barrett has been critical of Chief Justice John Roberts' opinion upholding the Affordable Care Act, which is again facing a constitutional challenge at the Supreme Court. Barrett had the chance to serve as a Supreme Court clerk. Barrett’s ascension to the Supreme Court could give gun rights advocates the vote they need to bring the issue back to the court in the near future.

FILE - In this June 15, 2020, file photo the columns of the Supreme Court are seen with the Capitol at right, in Washington. But if Trump fills Ginsburg's seat, there will be six conservative justices, three of them appointed by him. A more conservative court might be seen as more sympathetic to striking down the Affordable Care Act, but the court might still choose not to. Earlier this year, a divided Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law regulating abortion clinics, reasserting a commitment to abortion rights. ___GUNSThe Supreme Court has for years been reluctant to take on new guns cases, but that could change under a more conservative court.

Judge Amy Coney Barrett applauds as President Donald Trump announces Barrett as his nominee to the Supreme Court, in the Rose Garden at the White House, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020, in Washington. Trump hailed Barrett as “a woman of remarkable intellect and character,” saying he had studied her record closely before making the pick. Trump, meanwhile, is hoping the nomination will galvanize his supporters as he looks to fend off Democrat Joe Biden. “We don’t have to do it before, but I think this will be done before the election," Trump told reporters Saturday. “I think this will end up in the Supreme Court,” Trump said Wednesday of the election.

Within weeks, she is likely to be the newest associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. First among them was the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Scalia, but they also dug deeper. Months later, in the fall of 2017, Trump set about updating his list of potential nominees to the Supreme Court. Trump and McGahn set about elevating Barrett's profile for the next opening on the high court –- with Trump telling some aides he was “saving” her for Ginsburg's seat. “I am truly humbled by the prospect of serving on the Supreme Court,” she said.

Supporters of President Donald Trump arrive by bus for a Trump campaign rally at Harrisburg International Airport, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020, in Middletown, Pa. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark)WASHINGTON – The Republican National Committee is putting Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court confirmation fight front and center with voters just weeks before Election Day. The confirmation battle will be featured in a new $10 million RNC digital ad campaign to encourage battleground state voters to return vote-by-mail ballots or go to the polls. The national party, in concert with President Donald Trump's campaign, is planning local events and protests across the country to support Barrett’s confirmation as well. The RNC on Saturday unveiled a website, ConfirmBarrett.com, to allow supporters to contact lawmakers to urge them to put Barrett on the court. It also anticipates trying to fundraise off the confirmation fight, including Democratic vice president nominee Kamala Harris' position on the Senate Judiciary committee.

This image provided by Rachel Malehorn shows Judge Amy Coney Barrett in Milwaukee, on Aug. 24, 2018. (Rachel Malehorn, rachelmalehorn.smugmug.com, via AP)WASHINGTON – Here’s a bio box on President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. Amy Coney Barrett, age 48- A judge on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals nominated by President Donald Trump in 2017 and considered once before by Trump for a high court seat; her three-year judicial record shows a clear and consistent conservative bent. - A graduate of the University of Notre Dame Law School and Rhodes College who has taught law at Notre Dame, worked for a Washington law firm and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. - A devout Catholic mother of seven and Louisiana native born in 1972, she would be the youngest justice on the current court if confirmed.

FILE - In this May 3, 2020 photo, the setting sun shines on the Supreme Court building on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)WASHINGTON – The Latest on the expected nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court (all times local):4:05 p.m.An airplane believed to be carrying likely Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett and her family has arrived at Joint Base Andrews. Barrett is expected to be nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday evening by President Donald Trump. The plane left from South Bend, Indiana, where Barrett and her family live. The seat was made vacant by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg last week at the age of 87.

Judge Amy Coney Barrett listens as President Donald Trump announces Barrett as his nominee to the Supreme Court, in the Rose Garden at the White House, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)CHICAGO – Although Amy Coney Barrett is the president's choice to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she is more aptly described as heir to another departed Supreme Court justice: conservative hero Antonin Scalia. Circuit Court of Appeals. Ara Lovitt, who clerked with her at the time, recalls that at her investiture ceremony for the 7th Circuit, Scalia had high praise for her. Barrett has twice joined dissenting opinions asking for abortion-related decisions to be thrown out and reheard by the full appeals court.

The Senate is ready to move quickly on a Supreme Court nominee. A confirmation vote so close to a presidential election would be unprecedented, creating significant political risk and uncertainty for both parties. Collins has said the next president should fill the court seat, and she will vote “no” on Trump’s nominee on principle. No matter what happens in this year’s election, Republicans are still expected to be in charge of the Senate during that period. DIDN’T MCCONNELL SAY IN 2016 THAT THE SENATE SHOULDN’T HOLD SUPREME COURT VOTES IN A PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION YEAR?

Judge Amy Coney Barrett applauds as President Donald Trump announces Barrett as his nominee to the Supreme Court, in the Rose Garden at the White House, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court on Saturday, capping a dramatic reshaping of the federal judiciary that will resonate for a generation and that he hopes will provide a needed boost to his reelection effort. Trump hailed Barrett as “a woman of remarkable intellect and character,” saying he had studied her record closely before making the pick. “We don’t have to do it before, but I think this will be done before the election," Trump told reporters Saturday. “I think this will end up in the Supreme Court,” Trump said Wednesday of the election.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump is expected to announce Saturday that he is nominating Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court as he aims to put a historic conservative stamp on the high court just weeks before the election. Ever the showman, Trump remained coy about his choice Friday evening as he returned from a campaign swing. When asked whether lawmakers were being told it was Barrett, Trump responded with a nod on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews, before replying, “Is that what they’re telling you?”“You’ll find out tomorrow,” he went on to say, flashing a wide smile. Trump had said he was considering five women for Ginsburg's seat, but Barrett was at the White House at least twice this week, including for a Monday meeting with Trump. The staunch conservative’s 2017 appeals court confirmation on a party-line vote included allegations that Democrats were attacking her Catholic faith.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., arrives to meet with reporters following a Republican strategy session, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2020. Scott Applewhite)WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump marveled at a rally this week about how important Supreme Court nominations are to voters. But Senate Republicans are with the voters on that. No Supreme Court nominee in U.S. history has been confirmed by the Senate so close to balloting. At a rally late Tuesday in Pittsburgh, Trump told supporters how surprised he was in 2016 over voter reaction to the Supreme Court.

___4:20 p.m.President Donald Trump is expressing increasing confidence that a Republican-controlled Senate will approve whichever Supreme Court nominee he chooses to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. ___11:30 a.m.Joe Biden won't say if he is vetting a list of potential Supreme Court picks. ___10 a.m.Chief Justice John Roberts is remembering his colleague Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as tough and brave, a fighter and a winner. The White House says President Donald Trump will pay his respects to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Thursday at the Supreme Court. The casket of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has arrived at the Supreme Court for the start of two days of public viewing.

WASHINGTON – With crowds of admirers swelling outside, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was remembered Wednesday and Thursday at the court by grieving family, colleagues, President Donald Trump and others as a prophet for justice who persevered against long odds to become an American icon. “This was Justice Ginsburg’s life’s work. Since Ginsburg’s death Friday evening, people have been leaving flowers, notes, placards and all manner of Ginsburg paraphernalia outside the court in tribute. On Friday, Ginsburg will lie in state at the Capitol, the first woman to do so and only the second Supreme Court justice after William Howard Taft. Martin Ginsburg died in 2010.

WASHINGTON – Barack Obama spent hours reading legal briefs as he mulled candidates for the Supreme Court. President Donald Trump has a style all his own for selecting a nominee for the high court. He's flying by the seat of his pants with his frequent public deliberations on replacing Ginsburg, a process that’s moving at warp speed. Trump is holding little back, readily airing his thinking on the state of the deliberations. He settled on someone he knew well: Harriet Miers, a Texan who worked for Bush when he was governor and then as White House counsel.

For now at least, Biden is spurning talk of court expansion, dubbed “court packing” by its opponents, although the Democratic platform does include support for amorphous “structural court reforms to increase transparency and accountability." In the Democratic primaries, Biden prevailed over candidates who supported big changes for the court, including former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Roosevelt lost the fight in Congress over court expansion, though retirements soon eliminated FDR's need for legislation. One of the attractions of court expansion is that it does not require amending the Constitution, as imposing term limits on justices might. “The conversation about court expansion is not so much about the court but restoring democracy.

In just five years, Joan L. Larsen has gone from a little-known University of Michigan legal scholar to a prominent federal appeals court judge and now a candidate for the high court. For Trump, picking Larsen could give him a boost in the critical battleground state of Michigan, where she has raised her two children, advanced her career and won election to the state Supreme Court. At 52, Larsen would be a candidate who could serve on the high court for three decades or longer. Rick Snyder appointed her to fill a vacancy on the state Supreme Court in September 2015, praising her as a “superb attorney” who had experience in government, academia and private practice. She said that Scalia taught her “that the law governs, not personal interest.”Larsen is married to University of Michigan law professor Adam Pritchard.

Kate Comerford Todd is a deputy White House counsel, helping navigate Trump's White House through a thicket of legal issues. Her experience is otherwise diverse: she's twice counseled the White House, worked at a prestigious law firm and represented the interests of a leading business advocacy group. “She is absolutely brilliant,” said Helgi Walker, a partner at the Gibson Dunn law firm who also served as a Thomas law clerk and as an associate White House counsel to Bush. Amy Coney Barrett is emerging as the early favorite to be the nominee after he met with her Monday before leaving the White House to campaign in Ohio. At the White House, for instance, she has helped vet federal judges but much of her work has taken place outside of public view and outside the headlines.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., departs the chamber after speaking about the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Sept. 21, 2020. Democrats accuse the Kentucky Republican of blatant hypocrisy after McConnell refused to consider President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Merrick Garland, eight months before the 2016 election. “The American people,'' McConnell said then, "should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice.'' So we stuck with the historical norm," McConnell said Monday as he recounted past fights over the Supreme Court. “All the rights enshrined in our Constitution that are supposed to be protected by the Supreme Court of the United States” are at stake.

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, leaves the Senate Chamber following a vote, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Sept. 21, 2020. No court nominee in U.S. history has been considered so close to a presidential election. Elsewhere, as tributes poured in for Ginsburg with vigils and flowers at the court’s steps, Democrats led by presidential nominee Joe Biden vowed a tough fight. Romney, the GOP's 2012 presidential nominee, dismissed that argument, saying “it was not unfair” for Republicans to refuse to consider Obama’s choice of Merrick Garland. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska for opposing a Senate vote before elections.

The political battle is being quickly joined over replacing Ginsburg on the Supreme Court. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File)WASHINGTON – Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death drew mourners to the steps of the Supreme Court, where they sang “Amazing Grace” in the dark. Inevitably, and against her last wishes, Ginsburg became a political football mere minutes after her death was disclosed Friday night. “BREAKING: The future of the Supreme Court is on the line,” said a fundraising email from Republican Sen. Joni Ernst’s Iowa campaign shortly after the justice's death was announced. But not Christopher Scalia, son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, a conservative foil to the liberal Ginsburg who also happened to be a dear friend.

Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2020, about the Supreme Court. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)WASHINGTON – Joe Biden on Sunday slammed President Donald Trump and leading Senate Republicans for trying to jam through a replacement for the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and urged more senators to stand with a pair of GOP colleagues who oppose the election-season rush. It takes four Republicans to break ranks to keep Trump's nominee off the court. But Biden and other Democrats said voters should choose the next president, who should pick Ginsburg's successor. But he added, “If I win this election, President Trump’s nominee should be withdrawn and as the new president I should be the one to nominate Justice Ginsburg’s successor.”Nonetheless, the process for replacing her moved swiftly ahead.

This image provided by the Supreme Court shows Ruth Bader Ginsburg types while on a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship in Italy in 1977. Ruth Bader Ginsburg died at her home in Washington, on Sept. 18, 2020, the Supreme Court announced. Ginsburg liked to note they had one important thing in common. “They were much more reluctant to take a man away from his work than a woman," Ginsburg liked to explain. Ginsburg would sometimes ask audiences: “What’s the difference between a bookkeeper in New York’s Garment District and a U.S. Supreme Court justice?"

WASHINGTON – Republican senators weighing what to do about the vacancy on the Supreme Court are facing questions about their own past comments amid complaints by Democrats that their views have shifted with changing political reality. A look at what key Republican senators were saying in the past — and what they are saying now — about filling a seat on the Supreme Court during an election year. Her comments to Alaska Public Radio on Friday also occurred before McConnell said the Senate will vote on Trump's nominee to replace Ginsburg. SEN. THOM TILLISTillis, a North Carolina Republican who serves on the Judiciary panel, was among several GOP senators in tough reelection battles to join Trump in calling for a swift vote on a Supreme Court nominee. His spokeswoman called a report that Romney would insist on delaying the vote until after Inauguration Day “grossly false.” Romney has never faced a vote on a Supreme Court nominee as a senator.

Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell of Ky., takes the elevator as he leaves a Senate Republican policy meeting on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)WASHINGTON – It’s legacy time for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. For better or worse, this will be how McConnell’s tenure as a Senate leader will be measured. Absent a robust legislative agenda aligned with Trump, McConnell set out on the Senate’s other main role — confirmations. Along with the two Supreme Court justices, he has installed more than 200 federal appellate and trial court judges in the Trump era.

NEW YORK – Across television and streaming services, the life and legacy of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was already front and center Saturday, a day after her death at 87. “Ruth Bader Ginsburg gave us hope, a public figure who stood for integrity and justice — a responsibility she did not wear lightly,” she wrote. On MSNBC, a past profile, “Justice Ginsburg,” was re-broadcast as word of her death spread, with plans to show it again Saturday night. Throughout Saturday, Fox News shows “FOX & Friends,” “CAVUTO Live” and “America’s News HQ” will discuss the legacy and historic career of Ginsburg. Joining the live coverage will be Chris Scalia, a son of Ginsburg's close friend and colleague, late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

Any time the justices divide 4-4 in a case, the lower court ruling remains in place. If say, the court were to split that way in a case involving the election, the tie would ratify whatever the lower court decided. In 2016, “the court actually did a pretty good job when the court had eight justices for a while. Any case that divides the court 4-4 after arguments could be held and set for a new round of arguments when the court is back at full strength. The Supreme Court has managed at less than its full nine-member strength at three points in the past 50 years, in 1970, 1987-88 and 2016.