Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Delayed but not denied, Gorsuch is confirmed
But repercussions of Senate rules shift may linger
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s nominee, Neil Gorsuch, was confirmed Friday for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, filling a 14-month vacancy after a dramatic Senate showdown that risked long-lasting repercussions to both institutions.
The confirmation delivers a much-needed political victory to Trump, whose administration is struggling in its first 100 days to make progress on many campaign promises amid infighting in the White House and on Capitol Hill.
The Senate confirmed Gorsuch 54-45 for the seat that had been open since the 2016 death of Justice Antonin Scalia. The Republican-led Senate had refused last year to consider President Barack Obama’s nominee, Judge Merrick Garland, fueling partisan rancor and Democratic opposition to Gorsuch.
Only three Democrats joined Republicans in voting to confirm Gorsuch.
It was the narrowest approval of a Supreme Court nominee since the 52-48 confirmation of Clarence Thomas in 1991.
Vice President Mike Pence presided over the vote as Republicans sat in their seats and onlookers, including conservative legal activists, filled the visitor galleries. But Friday’s vote, arguably Trump’s most enduring achievement to date, was largely upstaged by the U.S. airstrikes in Syria.
The 49-year-old Gorsuch, who will be sworn in Monday, is a respected conservative who has worked for a decade on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.
Since Gorsuch is replacing Scalia, a conservative icon, the ideological tilt of the bench is not likely to shift.
Democrats had staged a highly unusual filibuster to block the nominee. Only once before had the Senate successfully filibustered a president’s court pick. Republicans responded by changing long-standing Senate rules to allow filibusters of Supreme Court nominees to be broken with 51 votes rather than the previous 60.
Now Trump and future presidents will find it easier to choose Supreme Court nominees without needing much consent from the minority, opening the door to more ideological appointments.
Gorsuch pledged in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee not to be partisan in his approach to the law.
But the senators of both parties made clear they do not agree with that assessment. Republicans were united in support of Gorsuch, believing President Trump’s nominee shares their views on the major issues before the court. The Democrats were nearly as united in opposing him, believing that he will make decisions that protect corporations over employees and consumers.
By some traditional measures, Gorsuch looked to be a high court nominee from central casting. He is a silver-haired father of two with an outstanding academic record. He earned degrees from Columbia University, Harvard Law School and Oxford University. He was a clerk at the Supreme Court for Justice Byron White, a fellow Colorado native, and for Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court’s swing vote. He also served briefly as a Justice Department lawyer before being named to the 10th Circuit in 2006, a position for which he won unanimous Senate confirmation.
But he was nominated in a particularly toxic environment, where Democrats were in no mood to cooperate with Trump or McConnell, who orchestrated the high-stakes strategy to block any nominee from Obama, saying the winner of the 2016 presidential election should make the appointment.
Senators made clear the battle over his confirmation may loom for some time.
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat, said the new justice — like McConnell — “will enter the history books with asterisks by their names.”
Republicans blamed Democrats for opening the door in 2013, when former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid changed the rules to make it easier to break filibusters for executive branch and lower court nominees.
Some senators fear the filibuster will one day be eliminated for legislation, further eroding long-standing practices that separate the Senate from the House, where a simple majority always rules.