⁍ President Donald Trump’s bid to quickly fill the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy could end the already remote chance of a pandemic relief package before the Nov. 3 election.

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⁍ In the meantime, the vacancy is adding uncertainty in an already uncertain environment, a top Fed official told Reuters.

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⁍ But it may raise the odds of a Democratic sweep in the election, which could clear the way for a bigger stimulus package afterward to fight economic impacts of the coronavirus.

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– With the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the US Supreme Court is down three justices. President Trump plans to nominate “very strongly” conservative judge Neil Gorsuch to replace Ginsburg, the president said Monday, though Senate Democrats have vowed to block any nominee until after the November election. If Gorsuch is confirmed, he would take over a nine-member court that has been more conservative than it has been in decades. Reuters reports that the death of Ginsburg, who was appointed by a Republican president, has added uncertainty to an already uncertain economic environment. “We are in the middle of a pandemic and we are not out of the woods yet,” Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan says. “Business contacts have ‘a lot of uncertainty to begin with, because of the pandemic; if you add some more uncertainty, they are sensitive to it, and that’s what I’ve heard today.” Goldman Sachs economists wrote in a note before Ginsburg’s death that a Democratic victory in the election would likely allow a President Biden to pass a “large spending increase,” which could boost the economy faster than expected.