Trump to name Supreme Court nominee 'by week's end'
President Trump has said he will name an upgraded to Ruth Bader Ginsburg by week's end and urged the Republican-controlled Senate to confirm his Supreme Court choice before 3 November.
The plan has launched a high-stakes struggle with far-reaching political consequences ahead of the election.
Mr Trump would replace Ginsburg, a liberal stalwart who died on Friday aged 87, with a conservative.
Approval would cement a right-leaning majority on the court for decades.
The appointment of judges to the Supreme Court is a political decision where the president chooses who is put forward. The Senate then votes to verify - or reject - that choice.
The ideological balance of the nine-member court is essential to its rulings on the most crucial issues in US law.
On Monday, the president signalled he'd nominate a replacement on "Friday or Saturday", after memorial services for Ginsburg.
"The end result is we won the election, we have an obligation to accomplish what's right and act as quickly as possible," Mr Trump told Fox News.
Once the president names a nominee, the Senate votes on whether to confirm them. The Judiciary Committee will review the pick first, and vote to send the nominee to the floor for a full vote.
Republicans hold a slim 53-47 majority in the upper chamber. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has vowed to carry a confirmation vote before the election in November.
The declaration has sparked furore from Democrats, who have accused Mr McConnell and the Republicans of hypocrisy.
Following death of conservative justice Anthony Scalia in 2016, Mr McConnell refused to carry a vote to confirm a nominee put forward by then-President Barack Obama, a Democrat.
Mr Obama had nominated Merrick Garland in February of this year - months before the election - but Mr McConnell argued that Supreme Court justices shouldn't be approved within an election year.
In 2017, Mr McConnell also changed Senate rules to permit for a straightforward majority (51 votes) to verify nominees.
However, these times, with a president of the same party, the Senate leader says for the reason that Senate and White House are both Republican-held, unlike 2016, the nomination should proceed.
Typically, it's a months long process to go from selection to confirmation - but there are no rules regarding this time around frame.
Since 1975, it has taken about 70 days typically. This time around, the election is merely weeks away.
The last time lawmakers completed a confirmation this speedily was for Ginsburg's own selection in 1993. She was approved in 42 days.
To determine how things might go this year, there are a few key senators to watch: two Republicans, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, have backed a delay in the vote.
Maine's Ms Collins said she had "no objection" to the process of reviewing a prospect beginning now, but that she didn't believe the Senate should vote on the applicant prior to November's election. Ms Collins is facing a hardcore re-election bid this season.
Alaska Senator Ms Murkowski said she "didn't support taking up a nomination eight months before the 2016 election" and believed the "same standard must apply" now.
However, on Monday, Lindsey Graham, the powerful Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee said he would be "leading the charge to make certain that President Trump's nominee has a hearing, [and] goes to the floor of the United States Senate for a vote."
Even if Republicans lose their Senate majority on 3 November, the brand new Congress does not take office until 3 January, which would provide them with time to confirm Mr Trump's pick.
If the nominee is not confirmed by 20 January, Inauguration Day, they might must be re-nominated by the president (whoever that eventually ends up being).
