Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away at the age of 87 on Friday evening after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
The new vacancy on the Supreme Court has caused controversy. Democrats think the Senate should wait to consider a new Trump nominee during an election year, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has promised to hold a confirmation hearing.
Additionally, McConnell has secured some key votes from Republican Senators over the weekend.
Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Rob Portman (R-OH), and Roy Blunt (R-MO) confirmed they will fulfill their roles as US Senators by “judging a nominee based on his or her merits,” as Portman said in a statement.
This begs the question: Who will Trump nominate?
The current betting odds give us an insight into the likelihood of who the nominee will be.
According to PredictIt, federal appellate court Judge Amy Coney Barrett leads the pack.
Coney, an Indiana native with seven children, has been on Trump’s Supreme Court shortlist for some time but was ultimately passed over last time for now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Coney is a Catholic who is firm in her faith (NY Post):
A graduate of Notre Dame University Law School, she clerked for the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia and then spent two decades as a law professor at Notre Dame.
Barrett, 48, is a favorite of the religious right, and her deep ties to her Catholic faith earned her a grilling from Democrats during her confirmation hearings to the federal bench. California Sen. Dianne Feinstein memorably told her: “The dogma lives loudly within you, and that’s a concern.”
Barrett responded: “It’s never appropriate for a judge to impose that judge’s personal convictions, whether they arise from faith or anywhere else, on the law.”
The other candidate who is picking up steam in the betting markets is Barbara Lagoa, a former Florida Supreme Court Justice who now serves on the US Court of Appeals.
Lagoa, 52, is of Cuban-American descent. Her parents fled from Fidel Castro’s Cuba following that countries revolution.
She’s a law graduate from Columbia Law School and notably worked as a pro bono attorney for Elian Gonzalez’s family before becoming a federal prosecutor.
Her and her husband Paul Huck, who is a district judge, have three children and reside in South Florida.
Trump has made it clear he will appoint a woman to the vacancy. Three other women receiving notable support in the betting markets include US Court of Appeals Judges Allison Jones Rushing, Joan Larsen, Britt Grant, and Allison Eid.
