SENATE CONFIRMS GORSUCH FOR HIGH COURT
Senate approval of younger justice could herald sharp swing to the right
Neil McGill Gorsuch of Colorado won Senate confirmation Friday as the 113th justice of the Supreme Court, completing a 419- day odyssey that stretched from the death of Justice Antonin Scalia and the denial of a hearing for President Obama’s nominee to a Senate rules change known as the “nuclear option.”
Senators voted 54- 45 to confirm Gorsuch, including just three Democrats in support. All three — Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin of West Virginia — represent states President Trump won handily in November. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R- Ga., recovering from back surgery, was absent.
Justices are appointed for life, and Gorsuch, 49, could serve for decades on the court, giving Trump a lasting legacy.
“His judicial temperament, exceptional intellect, unparalleled integrity and record of independence makes him the perfect choice to serve on the nation’s highest court,” Trump said in a statement released after the vote. “As a deep believer in the rule of law, Judge Gorsuch will serve the American people with distinction as he continues to faithfully and vigorously defend our Constitution.”
Gorsuch, a conservative judge on the U. S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, was confirmed the day after Republicans changed Senate rules to end a Democratic filibuster and advance the nominationwith a simplemajority, rather than the 60 votes needed before the rules change. That was the so- called nuclear option.
“He’s going to make a fantastic addition to the court,” Majority Leader MitchMcConnell, R- Ky., said before the final vote. “He’s going to make the American people proud.”
Minority Leader Charles Schumer, DN. Y., said he hopes Gorsuch will stand up for average Americans rather than corporate interests.
“I hope Judge Gorsuch has listened to our debate here in the Senate, particularly about our concern about the Supreme Court increasingly drifting towards becoming a more pro- corporate court that favors employers, corporations and special interests over working Americans,” he said. “We need a justice on the court who will help swing it back in the direction of the people.”
Gorsuch will be sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts at 9 a. m. Monday, followed by a public White House ceremony presided over by Justice Anthony Kennedy, for whom Gorsuch clerked 23 years ago.
He will attend his first private conference with his new colleagues Thursday and sit for the next round of oral arguments that begins April 17 — including an important case on the separation of church and state that’s been delayed for months, presumably because of the risk of a 4- 4 tie vote.
The conclusion of the 14- month- long process will have a major impact on all three branches of government.
It will bring the court back to full strength after a period in which it deadlocked on four cases, delayed others and avoided sweeping rulings. It will leave the Senate deeply riven, both politically and procedurally. And it will give Trump his firstmajor achievement amid imbroglios over health care, immigration and the WhiteHouse’s ties to Russia.
A graduate of Columbia University, Harvard Law School and the University of Oxford, Gorsuch arrived at the Senate with a glamorous pedigree. His mother, Anne Gorsuch Burford, was administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in the Reagan administration until she was forced out after a dispute with Congress. He clerked for two Supreme Court justices and later took a high- ranking Justice Department post.
For the past 10- plus years on the 10th Circuit, Gorsuch has developed a reputation as a strict “textualist” and “originalist” — like Scalia, someone who reads statutes and the Constitution literally and seeks to interpret them through the eyes of their authors. He is an expansive thinker and a facile writer whose law clerks often go on to bigger and better things — including similar postings at the Supreme Court.
Trump’s choice of Gorsuch from a list of 21 potential nominees created in conjunction with the Federalist Society and equally conservative Heritage Foundation soothed Republicans but enraged Democrats, who complained about “dark money” spent on his behalf by other right- wing groups during the confirmation process. The campaign on Gorsuch’s behalf wooed less than a handful of Democrats to his side, leaving McConnell to deploy the nuclear option.
“We know he’ll be independent,” said Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley, R- Iowa. “He told us that he’s his own man, that no man speaks for him. He’s not beholden to the president who appointed him. And his testimony shows that he’s not beholden to us, either. He wouldn’t compromise his independence to win confirmation votes.”
Attention will now quickly turn to the possibility of more vacancies during Trump’s time in the White House. Kennedy is 80 and may be contemplating retirement. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer are 84 and 78, respectively. If Trump gets to replace any of them, the court could swing much further to the right.
After the Senate’s rules changed to eliminate the minority party’s power, “the president no longer needs to garner support from any Democrats,” said John Malcolm, senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation. “Republicans may be more emboldened to nominate more judges that have a conservative track record.”