Prez Trump likely to announce Supreme Court Justice nominee next week

US President Donald Trump said he will soon nominate a Supreme Court justice to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who passed away on Friday.

"We will have a nominee very soon," Trump told reporters on Saturday, specifying that it would likely happen next week and adding that "most likely it would be a woman."

Trump may name Amy Coney Barrett of the Chicago-based 7th Circuit and Barbara Lagoa of the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit as nominees.

Later on Saturday, speaking at a campaign rally in North Carolina, Trump confirmed that he will announce his Supreme Court justice pick next week and that it will be a woman.

"We are going to fill the seat," Trump said, stressing that "There have been 29 times of vacancy open during an election year or prior to it ... every single time the sitting president made a nomination."

"I will be putting forward the nominee next week, it will be a woman," Trump told his supporters in North Carolina.

On Friday, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died of complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer, at the age of 87, at her home in Washington.

Trump now has the opportunity to expand the Supreme Court's conservative majority to 6 (out of a total of 9) justices.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Friday that the Senate would vote on Trump's pick to replace Ginsburg despite the fact that it is an election year.