WASHINGTON — In a messy political floor fight Thursday, the Republican-controlled Senate eliminated the filibuster for nominees to the Supreme Court, an unprecedented order made to sidestep a Democratic blockade of Judge Neil Gorsuch to become an Associate Justice on the highest court in the land.
The move — described in doomsday terms as “the nuclear option” — ended the formal Senate debate over Gorsuch, snuffing out the Democrats’ ability to delay the nomination vote by filibuster. A full floor vote on Gorsuch nomination is scheduled for Friday.
Before the rules change, Senate rules held that 60 votes were required to end debate on Supreme Court nominees. Republicans — who control just 52 Senate seats — eliminated the filibuster rule in order to move Gorsuch’s nomination forward with a simple majority vote.
Vermont’s two U.S. Senators — Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders — both decried the elimination of the filibuster.
“A lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court should be done in a bipartisan way, but unfortunately Mitch McConnell chose to do it in an extremely partisan manner,” Sanders said. “Further, I am deeply concerned about the role that Judge Gorsuch will play on the Supreme Court. I fear very much that he will be part of an extreme right-wing majority that will attack workers’ rights, women’s rights and environmental protection as well as make our political system less democratic.”
The chamber’s most senior senator, Leahy retains an interest in maintaining bipartisan decorum, and he has long expressed concern about the politicization of judicial nominees. In an interview with VTDigger last week, Leahy announced his opposition to Gorsuch, but said he was “not inclined” to filibuster him.
But following intense pressure from the left wing of the party, Leahy said he would support the filibuster, and he voted, along with Sanders, to prevent Gorsuch from receiving a vote on the floor.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., looked to stall the vote as long as possible, offering a resolution to postpone the nomination until after the upcoming two-week Easter recess. Earlier this week, U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., held the floor for 15 hours, decrying the nomination of Gorsuch, Trump’s nominee.
“The majority team in this chamber decided to steal a Supreme Court seat,” Merkley said at one point, referencing Garland’s nomination. “Such a theft never, ever has happened in the history of our nation.”
The change sets the stage for a more politicized Supreme Court. If another Supreme Court seat opens up during President Donald Trump’s tenure — and the Senate remains in Republican control — the president could submit a conservative nominee who could be confirmed without any support from Democrats.
The Senate floor was crowded for the vote, as staffers looked on from the sidelines anxiously. In the viewing gallery above the floor, tourists from across the country and reporters took in the historic event.
The rules change is the latest sign of political polarization in a chamber designed to encourage cooperation and empower the minority party. Supreme Court nominees have historically attracted broad bipartisan support. Conservative Justice Antonin Scalia — whom Gorsuch has been compared to philosophically — received 98 ‘yes’ votes on his 1986 nomination.
Leahy, D-Vt, has voted for six nominees of Republican presidents, including Scalia. As Scalia smoked a pipe during his confirmation hearings, Leahy told the conservative justice he he was “extremely impressed with your impressive background.”
But perceived slights going back decades from nominees of both parties has ratcheted up the brinksmanship over judicial nominees.
Republicans see Democrats as firing the first shot in 1987 with their aggressive questioning of conservative Justice Robert Bork, a nominee of President Ronald Reagan. Democrats still harbor resentment over the year-long Republican blockade of Merrick Garland, President Obama’s third nominee.
Republicans also blocked an unprecedented number of Obama’s federal judicial nominees — more than half of all the blocked nominees in American history occurred in Obama’s eight years, according to PolitiFact.
In the face of obstruction to President Obama’s federal judicial nominees, Democrats blew up the filibuster for all executive branch and judicial nominees in November 2013. Republicans justified their use of the “nuclear option” as a response to that action.
Senators of both parties acknowledged that the elimination of the filibuster could irrevocably hurt the chamber, and some now wonder if the Senate filibuster over all legislation is in jeopardy.
Shortly before the Thursday vote, U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told Politico it was a “bad day for democracy” while Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, told The New York Times, “We need to get back to the comity that we’ve had.”
