Senate showdown looms over Gorsuch nomination
WASHINGTON — The Senate marched Wednesday toward a series of critical votes on a rule change and the expected confirmation of a Supreme Court nominee at the center of a political firestorm.
A vote requiring a supermajority of the Senate to end debate and move on to another vote on the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch is scheduled for Thursday.
Democrats have the votes to filibuster, or stop debate from ending, and block an up-or-down vote on the nomination.
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, took the Senate floor to warn Democrats that he has the votes to change procedural rules if the Democrats filibuster.
That change, referred to as the “nuclear option,” would allow the nomination to proceed to a confirmation vote on Friday and require only a simple majority vote.
McConnell chastised Democrats for forcing a change in Senate rules. He said Democrats were “under a great deal of pressure from special interests on the far left.”
“There is still time to make the right choice,” he said.
But Democrats portrayed Republicans as pawns of a president tied down by an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, and Gorsuch as a jurist outside the mainstream.
They noted a $10 million campaign supporting Gorsuch by the Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative 501(c)(4) group that does not have to publicly disclose donors.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Republicans unfairly blocked Judge Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s pick for the open court seat, by refusing to hold a hearing on his nomination last year, an unprecedented move.
“Mitch McConnell has shown he will do anything to get his people on the court,” Schumer said.
Gorsuch, 49, is a judge on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. He was nominated by Trump earlier this year to fill the vacancy created when Justice Antonin Scalia died Feb. 13, 2016.
The back-and-forth between Democrats and Republicans over the vacant seat has heightened tension in a hyper-partisan atmosphere following the 2016 election.
Rank-and-file Republicans and Democrats have aligned with party leaders as the Senate moves closer to a showdown.
Nevada Sens. Dean Heller, a Republican, and Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat, are expected to vote along party lines.
Republicans hold a slim 52-48 majority in the Senate. They need eight Democrats to break ranks to end the filibuster. Only four Democrats have announced their intention to do so, three from states that Trump won.
If Democrats are successful, as expected, McConnell said he would force a rule change to confirm Gorsuch on Friday before the Senate begins a two-week recess.
Cortez Masto said a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court should require a 60 votes.
In an op-ed in Univision Noticias, Cortez Masto said the rule change “threatens to politicize our courts, fundamentally change the way the United States Senate operates, and further polarize our country.”
The nuclear option was first used by then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in 2013 to break Republican opposition to Obama’s judicial nominees to lower courts.
In a 2016 interview with the Review-Journal, Reid said he was forced to change the rule, which resulted in seating 98 judges. But he left the rule intact for Supreme Court justices.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the second-highest Republican leader, on Wednesday called the change the “Reid Rule,” and claimed it was used to fill the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals with Democratic nominees.
Meanwhile, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., held the Senate floor for 15 hours and 27 minutes Tuesday night in a talk-a-thon peppered with attacks on Trump, Republican leaders and Gorsuch.
Merkley referenced last-minute charges of plagiarism that appeared in news reports, showing familiar passages in a Gorsuch book and documents on assisted suicide published earlier.
Cornyn called the charge baseless. “It has absolutely no merit.”
Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.
