Republicans in the United States Senate have delivered a victory to President Donald Trump a week before the presidential elections in confirming the appointment of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
Republicans voted 52-48 to approve the appointment, which seals for the foreseeable future a 6-3 conservative majority on the bench of America’s highest court. The new justice is the third appointed by the Republican president, after Neil Gorsuch in 2017 and Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.
Coney Barrett, who fills the vacancy left by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a liberal icon who died last month, took the oath of office at the White House alongside President Trump.
The BBC reported that only one Republican, Senator Susan Collins, who faces a tough re-election battle in Maine, voted against the president’s nominee in Monday evening’s vote.