But Democratic leaders are talking tough.
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Senate Republicans blocked Garland from getting a hearing for 10 months, killing his chances of confirmation so that President Obama’s successor could nominate a replacement. He clerked for Supreme Court Justices Byron White, a fellow Coloradan, and Anthony Kennedy before earning a philosophy degree at Oxford University and working for a prominent Washington, D.C., law firm.
Trump has encouraged McConnell to change the rules of the Senate to make it impossible to filibuster a Supreme Court nominee, a change known as the “nuclear option”.
Who is President Trump’s nominee to be the new Supreme Court Justice?
The top Democrat, Senator Chuck Schumer, said he has “serious doubts” about Gorsuch and that his party will insist any Supreme Court nominee receive 60 votes in order to be confirmed. “Because that would be an absolute shame if a man of this quality was caught up in this web”, Trump said at the White House.
“Millions of voters said this was the single most important issue to them when they voted for me as president”, said Trump, during a television broadcast of his announcement.
The US president named the conservative Neil Gorsuch on Tuesday night to fill the vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia almost a year ago.
Gorsuch was one of two Trump finalists the other federal appeals court judge being Thomas Hardiman of Pittsburgh.
The Trump administration has concluded it has “a large number of options” but stressed “we are considering things from a different perspective” than did the Obama administration, one of the officials said.
For the new Republican leader, the selection is part of a tacit election compact with conservatives, some of whom reluctantly backed him after he promised to choose an anti-abortion, pro-gun justice.
Similarly, in response to last night’s announcement, Democrats are effectively saying, “The fight isn’t about this particular nominee; it’s about responding to Republican abuses that led to a stolen Supreme Court seat”. They were unsuccessful, and he was ultimately confirmed with fewer than 60 votes.
In a statement, Johnson said: “From what I’ve heard and read, it appears that Judge Gorsuch has a similar fidelity to the Constitution and integrity to apply the law as a judge, not a superlegislator”.
“This Congress needs to stand on its own”. “We look forward to engaging in the confirmation process to further evaluate Judge Gorsuch’s views on issues of core importance to the Reform Movement, including civil rights, separation of church and state, religious freedom, women’s rights, LGBTQ equality, and many more”.
That would mean Republicans, who control 52 seats, would need at least eight votes from Democrats in support of Gorsuch to add him to the high court. That could “create even more difficulties for Judge Gorsuch”, said Elliot Mincberg, a senior fellow at People for the American Way. The group will sink $2 million into television and web ads, focusing first on Missouri, Indiana, North Dakota and Montana.
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Trump was meeting with “Scotus [supreme court] groups” in the Roosevelt Room and expressed hopes that Democrats would find his nominee acceptable.
