The Republican-controlled U.S. Senate handed President Donald Trump a major pre-election political victory on Monday by confirming his Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. 

The Senate voted 52-48, with Democrats unified in opposing Barrett's confirmation, which creates a 6-3 conservative majority on the high court. One Republican, Susan Collins, voted against the confirmation. 

Barrett will succeed liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died last month. 

Trump, who has been touting the appointment at campaign rallies to the cheers of his supporters, pressed the Senate to confirm Barrett, 48, to the lifetime post before the November 3 election in which he trails Democrat Joe Biden in national opinion polls.  

Barrett's confirmation shifts the Supreme Court further to the right, which could pave the way to conservative rulings curbing abortion rights, expanding gun rights and limiting voting rights, among other things. 

"This is a momentous day for America, for the United States Constitution and for the fair and impartial rule of law," Trump, standing alongside Barrett, said before beaming lawmakers and others who had gathered on the South Lawn of the White House. 

"I stand here tonight, truly honored and humbled," Barrett said shortly after Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas administered the constitutional oath.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said the Republican majority was "lighting its credibility on fire" by proceeding with the vote so close to the election after blocking Democratic President Barack Obama's election-year nominee in 2016. 

"The truth is this nomination is part of a decades-long effort to tilt the judiciary to the far right," he added. 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell defended Barrett's nomination. 

"We don't have any doubt, do we, that if the shoe was on the other foot, they'd be confirming," McConnell said. "You can't win them all, and elections have consequences." 

Barrett, a federal appeals court judge, is Trump's third selection for the court, enabling him to remake it in dramatic fashion as part of his success in moving the broader federal judiciary to the right since taking office in 2017. 

(With input from Reuters, AFP)