Donald Trump has seized a chance to swing the US Supreme Court back to conservative leanings but a drawn-out battle loomed Wednesday over this and other nominations, jarring with the president's vow to sweep aside politics as usual. Trump, in the second week of his already-unorthodox presidency, on Tuesday nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch to replace conservative justice Antonin Scalia, whose death last year sent the Supreme Court rocketing to the top of the list of presidential campaign issues.
"He'll be approved very quickly," Trump declared on Wednesday as he met with African-American business and community leaders.
But that pronouncement belies what by most accounts will be a monumental battle in the Republican-controlled Senate to approve Gorsuch, after Trump's party refused for much of last year to fill the vacant court seat with Barack Obama's nominee.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer has already warned that Democrats will insist on Gorsuch obtaining a supermajority of 60 votes in the 100-seat Senate. That could result in Republicans changing the Senate rules to push him through with a simple majority - the so-called "nuclear option."
If confirmed, Gorsuch would tilt the balance of the court five-to-four in conservatives' favour. At 49, the silver-haired jurist from Colorado with a flair for writing incisive rulings is the youngest nominee in a generation. His appointment could have a major impact on cases ranging from business regulation to gender rights to gun control.
Despite Trump's hype about his upcoming court announcement, and the reality TV show flair with which he unveiled his nominee, Gorsuch was a remarkably orthodox pick for a president who has scythed through norms and precedent during his brief time in office.
Like Scalia, Gorsuch is considered an "originalist" - guided in his legal thinking by the constitution's original intent and meaning. For Trump, the selection is payback to evangelical Christian and conservative Republicans who backed his bid for the presidency - at times reluctantly. "Millions of voters said this was the single most important issue to them when they voted for me for president," Trump said Tuesday.
Republicans hold 52 seats in the upper house meaning that to secure 60, Gorsuch must win some Democratic votes - a task made tougher by the acrimonious row over Trump's ban on travellers from several Muslim countries.
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