The on-deck circle

Or maybe the on-deck bullseye

IN 1994, when a president you might have heard of nominated Stephen Breyer to the U.S. Supreme Court, this is how his nomination played out in the United States Senate:

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved him unanimously. He was approved by the full Senate 87 to 9.

Sen. Alan K. Simpson said Judge Breyer would be “a superb addition to the High Court.” Sen. Orrin Hatch (remember him?) said of the nominee: “He’s a man of integrity, a man of exceptional legal ability.” These were Republican senators.

In 1993, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was confirmed by the Senate with only three opposing votes. Bob Dole (remember him?) said this about RBG’s rise to the nation’s top court: “By any measure, she is qualified to become the Supreme Court’s ninth justice … . Some have criticized Judge Ginsburg for being more interested in the fine print rather than the big picture, and for being a legal technician rather than an interpretive philosopher—criticisms that Judge Ginsburg should wear as a badge of honor.”

For the kids out there, it should be noted that Bob Dole was the Republican minority leader at the time.

Madam Justice Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed in 2009 with a 68-31 vote in the Senate. A former president—the first George Bush, who put her on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1991—supported her nomination in 2009, and even chided a few high-profile conservatives for opposing her. One of them being Newt Gingrich (remember him?). Need we say that George H.W. Bush was a Republican?

At this point it would be easy to point out the Clarence Thomas hearings, and how he was treated by Democrats. Even easier to point out that Robert Bork’s last name would become a verb after a Senate speech by Ted Kennedy. Or we could relive, and rewrite, the Brett Kavanaugh hearings from two years ago. But that would be too easy.

There is a man on the United States Supreme Court today named Neil Gorsuch. He’s not in the news much. He seems a decent fellow, a fair judge. He told senators at his nomination hearing that he “doesn’t give a whit” about politics. Yet some Democrats filibustered his nomination. And not, they said, just because his seat should have been filled by Barack Obama instead of Donald Trump. They held Neil Gorsuch’s rulings against him, personally.

Elizabeth Warren & Co. rallied in freezing temperatures outside the Supreme Court in March of 2017 to get the word out: Neil Gorsuch would lead to corporations taking over the United States.

Chuck Schumer held his own rally: Donald Trump “campaigned and talks about helping average folks. His first nominee to the Supreme Court has an instinctive reaction to side with big special corporate interests over average folks.”

According to several Democratic senators quoted in the papers back then, Neil Gorsuch showed “a stunning lack of humanity” in his rulings, who “doesn’t even trust workers to make their own medical decisions,” and should have to “explain his hostility to women’s rights, support of corporations over workers and opposition to campaign finance reform.” Jeff Merkley of Oregon called the day of Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation a “very dark day for America.”

A headline in The Atlantic in March of 2017:

Democrats go to war over Neil Gorsuch

Imagine going to war over Neil Gorsuch.

SO NOW that a Republican president is preparing to nominate another judge to the nation’s highest court, what should we expect from Democrats in the Senate? Will the nomination hearings be more like the ones held for Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito (all Republican appointees) or Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ruth Bader Ginsburg (all Democratic appointees)?

You’re right, Gentle Reader. Expect scorched earth.

It doesn’t matter who this president picks, or her résumé (it’s bound to be a her), or her life story, or her judicial temperament, or her thoughts on judicial restraint and/or the role of the United States Supreme Court. Expect the opposition to tear her reputation to pieces.

If they can go to war over Neil Gorsuch, they’ve long since decided that no nominee will do.

That is, no Republican nominee.