BLUMENTHAL TO OPPOSE GORSUCH, AGREES TO A SENATE FILIBUSTER
Hartford — Connecticut U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal says he has decided to oppose Judge Neil Gorsuch for the U.S. Supreme Court, vowing to “do anything in my power” to block his nomination.
Appearing at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford, the Democrat said Friday that “anything” includes using the filibuster, if necessary.
A Senate Judiciary Committee member, Blumenthal says Gorsuch “evaded my questions at every turn” about whether he agrees with major court rulings guaranteeing rights to abortion, birth control, samesex marriage and other issues.
Blumenthal says that shows Gorsuch “will not be a neutral caller of balls and strikes” but rather a “stealth acolyte” of “hard-right groups that supported his nomination” and President Donald Trump’s agenda.
With Blumenthal’s opposition, Democrats are nearing the number of senators needed for a filibuster. Story,
Washington — Absent a thunderbolt from the blue, the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday will likely vote 11-9 along party lines to approve Judge Neil Gorsuch for a Supreme Court seat kept open last year by Republican hardball.
Then comes the real storm, as unified Senate Republicans, joined by some red-state Democrats, push to confirm Gorsuch by the end of the week. One way or another, they seem likely to succeed, with consequences both predictable and unforeseen.
Gorsuch’s confirmation could happen with a significant, long-lasting change in how the Senate does business.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever play the game the same,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
Like all 51 other Senate Republicans, Graham supports Gorsuch. Unlike most, he voted for both of President Barack Obama’s successful Supreme Court nominees, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. He has participated in past judicial confirmation compromises designed to retain Senate traditions including the filibuster.
Now, facing a threatened Democratic filibuster that would effectively raise the threshold for Gorsuch’s confirmation to 60 votes instead of 51, Graham is prepared to join in the so-called “nuclear option.” This would allow Republicans acting on their own to revise Senate rules and prohibit filibusters on Supreme Court nominees.
The rules change would secure the Supreme Court seat for Gorsuch, much as an earlier rule change imposed by Democrats when they ran the Senate in 2013 enabled Obama to place three of his picks on the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The changes, though, would spur long-term effects as well as short-term victories.
“It means judges will become more ideological, because you don’t need to reach across the aisle to get somebody to convert, so the left and the right will have more say about judges,” Graham said.”
A 49-year-old Colorado native, Gorsuch has served since 2006 on the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He casts himself as a conservative in the mold of Scalia.
At the same time, Gorsuch noted that he’s been part of a unanimous panel in 97 percent of the approximately 2,700 cases he’s helped decide; 99 percent of the time, he said, he’s been in the majority. Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats failed to unsettle him during 21 hours of testimony or in the follow-up written questions.
“What worries me is you have been very much able to avoid any specificity like no one I have ever seen before. And maybe that’s a virtue. I don’t know,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the Judiciary Committee’s senior Democrat, told Gorsuch. “But for us on this side, knowing where you stand on major questions of the day is really important.”