Senate Democrats ready for battle over Supreme Court nominee

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers are girding for a battle in the Senate over the president’s pick of federal appellate Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Some Democrats in the Senate have vowed revenge for Republicans blocking former President Barack Obama’s nomination of U.S. Circuit Court Judge Merrick Garland after Scalia died in Texas on Feb. 13, 2016.

But GOP Senate leaders on Tuesday remained confident that they would be able to get Gorsuch through a gantlet of confirmation procedures.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he expects Democrats in the Senate to abide by the same rules that allowed former Presidents Bill Clinton and Obama to appoint two justices each to the high court.

U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., praised President Donald Trump’s selection of Gorsuch, while U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., said she would wait for the confirmation hearing process to determine whether to support or oppose the nominee.

Heller said he hopes to “fill this vacancy with a well-qualified candidate who supports a conservative judicial philosophy.”

“I look forward to meeting with Neil Gorsuch and vetting his qualifications as we begin this important process. It’s critical this seat is occupied by someone who can live up to the legacy of the late Justice Antonin Scalia,” Heller said.

Cortez Masto said she would evaluate the nominee on “individual merits and without bias. That’s what I have been doing and will continue to do.”

“Any individual who is nominated to serve on the Supreme Court will be making decisions with broad implications for our safety, our rights and our core values as Americans,” she said, “… and I believe Judge Neil Gorsuch’s views on the issues and his full record deserves to be intensely scrutinized.”

Republicans blocked Garland last year for the post that was held by Scalia, a conservative justice and pillar of a 5-4 court split along ideological lines.

A conservative group, Judicial Crisis Network, vowed to spend $10 million to sway vulnerable Democrats on the Senate to support Gorsuch, first nominated to the appellate bench by President George W. Bush, to retain a conservative majority on the Supreme Court.

Exit polling in the November election showed that more than 20 percent of voters said the Supreme Court vacancy was the primary reason they voted for Trump, according to Carrie Severino, Judicial Crisis Network chief counsel and policy director.

Severino said Trump “clearly has a mandate when it comes to the Supreme Court and this effort will ensure that the will of the people prevails.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has warned that a Trump nominee for the Supreme Court who is out of the mainstream would face opposition in the Senate. Schumer indicated after the nomination that he had concern that Gorsuch would not meet the mainstream standard.

Republicans hold a slim 52-48 majority in the Senate, and under current rules, it would take 60 votes to stop a Democratic filibuster and vote on the nominee.

The recent uproar over Trump’s executive orders on immigration and the GOP’s “shoddy treatment of Judge Garland means the Democrats may be up for a fight,” said Carl Tobias with the University of Richmond School of Law.

Tobias said Democrats will insist on hearings to explore issues relevant to the selection. “That is what constitutional advice and consent requires and what the Republic deserves.”

Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Democrats changed Senate rules in 2013 to lower the threshold to a simple majority on lower court judges to overcome Republican opposition to Obama’s judicial picks.

Some Republicans doubt that a rule change will be needed on a Supreme Court nominee — at least this one — because it’s seen as a conservative replacing a conservative justice.

Still, the “nuclear option” to change the rule is still possible.

“I have been the most consistent voice of keeping the rules the way they have been,” said U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. “It’s my Democratic friends who chose to arbitrarily change the rules for executive appointments and all the judges below the Supreme Court.”

But Graham warned that the “Senate is becoming the House, and Harry Reid’s legacy, in my view, is to accelerate the demise of the Senate. I hope we can get 60 votes for a qualified nominee. We should.”’

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.