President Trump's pick Amy Barrett sworn in as Supreme Court justice

Washington DC: Conservative jurist Amy Coney Barrett was sworn in as a justice of the US Supreme Court, an hour after the Republican-controlled Senate confirmed her controversial nomination, handing President Donald Trump a major victory just a week before the election.

The deeply-divided Senate confirmed the nomination of Barrett as the 115th Supreme Court Judge by 52-48 votes on Monday, pushing the top court in a more conservative direction for generations to

come.

Barrett, a 48-year-old religious conservative, was administered the official constitutional oath by Justice Clarence Thomas on the South Lawn of the White House alongside President

Trump.

"I stand here tonight, truly honoured and humbled," she said shortly after she took the constitutional oath.

"This is a momentous day for America, for the United States Constitution and for the fair and impartial rule of law," said Trump in his remarks on the occasion.

"She is one of our nation's most brilliant legal scholars, and she will make an outstanding justice on the highest court in our land, he said about his nominee.

Out of nine Supreme Court Justices, Trump, so far, has nominated three of them.

In the US a Supreme Court justice is appointed for life and does not have a

retirement age.

Barrett is likely to serve on the court for decades and will give conservatives a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court, a shift in its makeup that could have dramatic implications for a range of issues that could come before it, including the future of the Affordable Care Act and any potential disputes regarding the 2020

election.