Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has vowed that his party will not allow President Donald Trump to place a conservative justice on the Supreme Court once Democrats take control of the Senate in January 2027.

“The bottom line is we’re not going to allow a right-winger on the court,” Schumer told The Associated Press in an interview on Thursday. He added that Democrats were “not going to allow any crappy nominees” to be confirmed to the Supreme Court, the lower federal courts or Trump’s Cabinet.

The pledge follows the Democrats’ victory in the midterm elections on 3 November, when the party won control of both houses of Congress. Democrats are projected to hold at least 54 seats in the new Senate, which does not convene until January 2027, so Republicans retain control of the chamber until then.

Schumer declined to say whether Democrats would hold a Supreme Court vacancy open until after the next presidential election, the approach taken by then-Republican leader Mitch McConnell in 2016 after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. There is currently no vacancy on the nine-member court.

Attention has nevertheless turned to the court’s two oldest members, Justice Clarence Thomas, 78, and Justice Samuel Alito, 76, both appointed by Republican presidents. Both have signalled that they do not intend to retire. Trump appointed three justices during his first term, helping to build the court’s current 6-3 conservative majority, and 56 of his judicial nominees have been confirmed so far in his second term.