Politics

The Telegraph

The death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg will turbocharge the US election, giving Donald Trump an extraordinary call to arms to drive his supporters to the polls. For the third time in just four years Mr Trump will be nominating a replacement justice to the body that decides foundational issues on which American society is based. The substitution of a Right-winger for Justice Ginsburg, the senior liberal on the court, would lead to a deeply conservative 6-3 majority on the nine-member bench. With justices serving for life, it would mean Mr Trump could cement his legacy for decades. But the big question now is how quickly the president, and Republicans in the Senate, can get his nominee on to the court. It may depend on whether Mr Trump is re-elected. He will seize on that to get social conservatives to vote, telling them they have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to secure causes close to their heart like the right to bear arms and restricting abortion.