Trump's nominee could remain in office for 50 years, 'it's a momentous decision'

Foreign Editor of the Australian Greg Sheridan says US President Donald Trump’s pick of a nominee for Supreme Court Justice is an “enormous” and “momentous” decision because the candidate could well remain in office for 50 years.

It comes as the President is seeking to nominate and approve a Supreme Court Justice before the Presidential election in November, against the dying wishes of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who died after a long battle with cancer on September 18.

“It’s an enormous decision because the Supreme Court is the most powerful judicial body in the world and what it decides in America has a very big effect on the way we live in Australia,” Mr Sheridan told Sky News.

“But take what happened between Al Gore and George W. Bush. In the end, Bush won Florida by 500 votes in an electorate of many tens of millions, there was an intense dispute about which ballots should be counted …. finally, the matter found its way into the Supreme Court and they ruled in Bush’s favour.”

“You’re not going to suggest that the judges Trump nominates will automatically rule in his favour in any electoral dispute – they’re not automatons, they’re people of integrity, but a conservative majority on the court will be more likely to rule contentious ballots out of order, more likely to be conservative in the way it interprets the franchise.

“This election, if its close, could end up in the Supreme Court.

“If Trump nominates and succeeds in getting his judge, there will be a 6-3 conservative majority.

“If he nominates a young woman, she might be there for the next 40 or 50 years, so this is a momentous decision.”

Видео Trump's nominee could remain in office for 50 years, 'it's a momentous decision' канала Sky News Australia