Democrats amass enough support for filibuster against Gorsuch nomination

Democrats on April 3 amassed enough support to block a U.S. Senate confirmation vote on President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, but Republicans vowed to change the Senate rules to ensure the conservative judge gets the lifetime job.

As the Judiciary Committee moved to send Gorsuch’s nomination to the full Senate, Sen. Christopher Coons became the 41st Democrat to announce support for a procedural hurdle — a filibuster — requiring a super-majority of 60 votes in the 100-seat Senate to allow a confirmation vote.

But Republican Senate leaders insist Gorsuch will be confirmed on the Senate floor on Friday regardless of what the Democrats do, even if they have to change long-standing Senate rules.

In the face of the filibuster, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would be expected to force a confirmation vote by having the Senate change its rules and allow for a simple majority vote for confirmation of Supreme Court justices, a move sometimes called the “nuclear option” that Trump has urged.

Judiciary Committee Republicans blasted Democrats for pursuing what they called the first “partisan filibuster” of a Supreme Court nominee — there was a successful bipartisan filibuster five decades ago against a Democratic president’s nominee — and said it would come to naught because of the threatened rule change.

Senate Republicans last year refused to even consider Democratic former President Barack Obama’s nomination of appellate judge Merrick Garland to fill the same high court vacancy that Trump has selected Gorsuch to fill.

“Democrats, including me, are still furious at the way Judge Merrick Garland was treated last year. But the traditions and principles that have defined the Senate are crumbling and we are poised to hasten that destruction this week,” Coons said.

Coons left room for a compromise, in which Democrats would allow the vote to go ahead in return for Republicans agreeing to a 60-vote threshold for the next Supreme Court vacancy.

“So for my part, I hope and pray that we can yet find a way together to find a solution,” Coons added.

Senate confirmation of Gorsuch, 49, would restore the nine-seat high court’s conservative majority, fulfilling one of Trump’s top campaign promises.

Trump in January nominated Gorsuch, a conservative appeals court judge from Colorado, to the lifetime job as a justice.

Gorsuch was nominated to fill a vacancy created by the February 2016 death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia.

Republicans control the White House and Congress for the first time in a decade. The inability of Senate Republicans to coax enough Democratic support to avoid the “nuclear option” reflected the intense partisan divide in Washington and the Trump administration’s failure to win the cooperation of the opposition party.

Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein, the committee’s top Democrat, and Mark Warner, not a member of the panel, also announced opposition to Gorsuch on April 3 and support for a filibuster.

The actual confirmation vote would be by a simple majority if the filibuster is stopped. To date, three Democrats have come out in support of Gorsuch and the Republicans would have needed to secure eight Democratic votes to kill a filibuster.

Democrats have said Gorsuch is not sufficiently independent of Trump, evaded questions on key Supreme Court rulings of the past including on abortion and political spending and favors corporate interests over ordinary Americans.

Feinstein said this was not a “routine nomination,” noting what happened to Garland.

“There was simply no reason that the nomination of Judge Garland could not proceed, other than to deny the then-president of the United States, President Barack Obama, the ability to fill the seat,” Feinstein said.

Feinstein criticized Gorsuch’s rulings against a fired truck driver and an autistic child and faulted his actions as a lawyer in Republican former President George W. Bush’s Justice Department regarding detainee interrogation techniques critics called torture.

Feinstein also said she was disturbed by the millions of dollars of “dark money” from anonymous donors backing advertising and political advocacy by conservative groups to help Gorsuch win confirmation.

For the record…

These Democrats and one independent who have announced their opposition to Gorsuch and willingness to block the nominee:

Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin

Sherrod Brown of Ohio

Tom Carper of Delaware

Bob Casey of Pennsylvania

Kamala Harris of California

Ed Markey of Massachusetts

Jeff Merkley of Oregon

Bernie Sanders of Vermont

Chuck Schumer of New York

Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island

Jack Reed of Rhode Island

Tom Udall of New Mexico

Patty Murray of Washington

Ron Wyden of Oregon

Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts

Bill Nelson of Florida

Mazie Hirono of Hawaii

Al Franken of Minnesota

Debbie Stabenow of Michigan

Dick Durbin of Illinois

Gary Peters of Michigan

Chris Van Hollen of Maryland

Chris Murphy of Connecticut

Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire

Kirsten Gilibrand of New York

Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota

Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire

Tim Kaine of Virginia

Martin Heinrich of New Mexico

Cory Booker of New Jersey

Maria Cantwell of Washington

Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada

Tammy Duckworth of Illinois

Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut

Brian Schatz of Hawaii

Claire McCaskill of Missouri

Jon Tester of Montana

Dianne Feinstein of California

Mark Warner of Virginia

Patrick Leahy of Vermont

Chris Coons of Delaware

Anna Galland, executive director of MoveOn.org Civic Action, said on Monday, “Resistance activists nationwide are cheering for the vast majority of Senate Democrats who have united to deny Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, the 60 votes required for confirmation.