Trump nominates Brett Kavanaugh to replace retiring judge Kennedy

Washington, July 10: US President Donald Trump on Monday (July 9) night announced his nomination of federal appeals Judge Brett Kavanaugh to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is set to retire on July 31, in the Supreme Court.

Trump said it was an "honour and privilege" to nominate 53-year-old Kavanaugh, who had been serving as the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit since 2006.

Reports said by picking Kavanaugh, the US president wanted to ensure a conservative control of the top court for a long time. The former will now have to obtain confirmation from the Senate, the upper house where Trump's Republican Party has a slim majority.

Kavanaugh is the second judge to the Supreme Court nominated by Trump in his eighteen months of stay in the White House so far. The first was conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch who took over in April 2017.

Trump described Kavanaugh as a "brilliant jurist" and "one of the finest and sharpest legal minds of our time" and said he deserved "a swift confirmation and robust bipartisan support".

The nomination of Kavanaugh is expected to make the time running up to the mid-term elections in November more exciting. Dick Durbin, the Democratic senator from Illinois and the Senate minority whip, told Fox News that it was more important to oppose Trumps' choice of Kavanaugh than get re-elected in the red state re-elections due in another four months. Democratic senators who are going to the re-polling in states where Trump won in 2016 are under pressure to back Kavanaugh even though the Republicans have a wafer thin majority in the Senate.