Amy Coney Barrett: Trump's Supreme Court nominee one step closer to confirmation
Video report by ITV News Washington Correspondent Robert Moore
The US Senate has voted to advance Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, despite attempts to stall the process ahead of the upcoming presidential election.
The 51-48 vote gives the go-ahead for the conservative nominee to head towards final confirmation.
Democrats had tried to keep the Senate in session into the night to delay the vote - they argue that the November 3 election winner should choose the nominee to fill the vacancy left by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
But the Republican vote has carried the nomination through the Senate, and conservatives are excited by the chance to install a third Trump justice on the court.
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Judge Barrett's nomination would secure a conservative majority in America's highest court for years to come.
Liberals fear this could open up a potential new era for rulings on some of the most contested subjects in the US, including abortion, gay marriage and the Affordable Care Act.
The 48-year-old judge presented herself in public testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee as a neutral arbiter and even said: "It’s not the law of Amy."
But Judge Barrett's past writings against abortion and a ruling on "Obamacare" suggest a deeply conservative thinker.By pushing for a Supreme Court judge ascension so close to the presidential election, Mr Trump and his Republican allies are counting on a campaign boost.
Similar was seen in 2016 when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to allow the Senate to consider President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee.
It was a move that created excitement for Donald Trump among conservatives and evangelical Christians eager for the Republican president to make that nomination.