A fierce political battle shaped up over the future of the US Supreme Court yesterday, with President Donald Trump saying he would quickly name a successor to liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on Friday, a move that would tip the court further to the right.

Affectionately known as the Notorious RBG, the 87-year-old Ginsburg was the oldest of nine Supreme Court justices.

She died after a fight with pancreatic cancer, the court announced, saying she passed away "surrounded by her family at her home in Washington, DC."

Ginsburg was appointed in 1993 by President Bill Clinton. She consistently delivered progressive votes on the most divisive social issues of the day, including abortion rights, same-sex marriage, voting rights, immigration, health care and affirmative action.

Coming just 46 days before an election in which Trump lags his Democratic rival Joe Biden in the polls, the vacancy offers the Republican a chance to expand the court's conservative majority to 6-3 at a time of a gaping political divide in America.

Trump -- who was told of Ginsburg's passing while on the campaign trail -- issued a statement praising her as a "titan of the law," but wasted no time to make his intentions clear.

"We were put in this position of power and importance to make decisions for the people who so proudly elected us, the most important of which has long been considered to be the selection of United States Supreme Court Justices," Trump said on Twitter. "We have this obligation, without delay!"

Democrats are still seething over the Republican Senate's refusal to act on Democratic president Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, in 2016 after conservative Justice Antonin Scalia died 10 months before that election. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in 2016 said the Senate should not act on a court nominee during an election year, a stance he has since reversed.

Despite that anger, Democrats have little chance of blocking Trump's pick. His fellow Republicans control 53 of the Senate's 100 seats and McConnell, who has made confirmation of Trump's federal judicial nominees a top priority, said the chamber would vote on any Trump nominee.

"This is going to set off a titanic battle. This could seriously effect the election," said David Gergen, a political adviser who has served four US presidents, both Republican and Democratic.

Political strategists say Ginsburg death could bolster Trump's effort to shift the subject away from his weak point: handling of the coronavirus pandemic that has killed nearly 200,000 Americans. Trump is trailing Biden in national polls ahead of the November 3 election.

Despite the political wrangling, accolades flowed in for the pioneering Jewish justice.

Trump, campaigning in Minnesota, was on stage at a rally when the news broke, and was informed of her passing by reporters after his speech.

"She just died? Wow. I didn't know that," he said. "Whether you agreed or not, she was an amazing woman who led an amazing life."

"Our Nation has lost a jurist of historic stature," said Chief Justice John Roberts.

Obama said in a tweet that Ginsburg "fought to the end, through her cancer, with unwavering faith in our democracy and its ideals."

Biden, said she was "an American hero, a giant of legal doctrine, and a relentless voice in the pursuit of that highest American ideal: Equal Justice Under Law."

Former president Jimmy Carter called her a "beacon of justice", while Hillary Clinton thanked her for paving the way for "so many women."

In Washington, hundreds of tearful mourners headed to lay flowers and light candles in front of the Supreme Court, where the diminutive Ginsburg sat for 27 years, even taking arguments and issuing opinions from her hospital bed after repeated bouts of illness over the past two years.

People gather outside of the US Supreme Court following the death of US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in Washington, US, yesterday. Photo: Reuters

Ginsburg anchored the court's liberal faction, whittled to four by two Trump appointments since 2017. The two justices appointed by Trump were Neil Gorsuch in 2017 and Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.

The appointment of a sixth conservative justice could lead to a court that would potentially remove abortion rights, strengthen the powers of business, and water down rights provided to minorities and the LGBTQ community over the past three decades.

Trump last week unveiled 20 names of possible choices, all deeply conservative.

Many court-watchers expect Trump to attempt to replace Ginsburg with a woman. One possible contender on Trump's list is Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative judge on the Chicago-based 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals who was under consideration in 2018 before Trump picked Kavanaugh.

Democrats are expected to fight tough to force a delay -- an uphill battle given the control Republicans have on the Senate, which must approve any nominee.

Drawing a line in the sand on Friday, Biden warned: "The voters should pick the president, and the president should pick the justice for the Senate to consider."

"This was the position the Republican Senate took in 2016 when they were almost 10 months to go before the election. That's the position the United States Senate must take today."

Biden was referring to Mitch McConnell's decision in 2016, in Obama's last year in office, to block the president's court nominee so that Trump could name his own the following year.

The stakes are extremely high, according to Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond.

"The political fight will be huge because appointing a very conservative person will make this the most conservative court in a century," he said.

Ginsburg herself was acutely aware of the stakes of her health on the court balance, and her fans fretted at her increasingly frequent trips to the hospital over the past two years.

According to NPR radio, Ginsburg raised the issue this week with her granddaughter Clara Spera.

"My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed," she said.

Ginsburg died on the evening that marked the beginning of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. According to tradition, those who die during the holiday are revered as a "tzaddik," or a person of great righteousness.