The body of late Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lay in repose at the U.S. Supreme Court this week as hundreds of mourners filed by to pay their respects. The 87-year old will become the first woman to lie in state at the Capitol this Friday. Her colleague Chief Justice John Roberts eulogized her calling her a “rock star.”  Dismissing her final wish to be replaced after a new President is selected, President Donald Trump is rushing ahead to announce his nominee for the GOP-dominated Senate to vote on via a timeline so rushed it would be unprecedented. Trump on Tuesday suggested that a new conservative justice replacing Ginsburg could benefit his reelection attempt. A new poll found that about half of all Americans want the Senate to wait until a new presidential term in order to replace Ginsburg’s seat while only 36% say Trump should move forward immediately. 

Some Democrats are seriously considering packing the courts – which means a new Democratic President adding more seats to the Supreme Court in order to restore balance. But others shot down the idea. Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden has avoided addressing the issue. Meanwhile Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania are considering appealing their case over return dates for mail-in ballots to the Supreme Court. Whether or not Ginsburg is replaced, conservatives currently have a majority of 5 to 3 and the Pennsylvania case is one of several election-related cases that could come before an 8-seat court in the next few weeks. Also in Pennsylvania the state-level Supreme Court just ruled that authorities should discard so-called “naked ballots” or ballots that have been returned without the “secrecy envelope.” An estimated 100,000 ballots could be tossed out in a state that Trump won in 2016 by 44,000 votes. And in Florida, former Democratic Presidential candidate and billionaire Michael Bloomberg raised more than $16 million for the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, which pays off court-related fines of former felons so that they are eligible to vote. 

In other election news polls in states that are solidly Republicans show Biden performing competitively. In analyzing numerous polls the New York Times’ Nate Cohn concluded that in states like Iowa with white-majority populations, “Joe Biden seems to be securing large, broad gains among white voters.” Cindy McCain, the widow of Republican Senator John McCain formally endorsed Biden.