“We are not going to settle on a Supreme Court nominee," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. | Getty Schumer takes hard line on Supreme Court pick

Chuck Schumer is throwing down the gauntlet on the Supreme Court.

The newly minted Senate minority leader took a hard line on Donald Trump’s yet-to-be-named pick to replace deceased Jusice Antonin Scalia, threatening to leave the empty ninth seat open indefinitely unless Trump nominates someone who could get broad support in the Senate — a scenario Schumer acknowledged is “hard for me to imagine.”


Though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s risky gambit to halt the confirmation process for Merrick Garland may have paid off, Schumer warned that Republicans will face payback for their year-long blockade of President Barack Obama’s nominee in due time.

“The consequences are gonna be down the road,” Schumer, a New York Democrat, said during an MSNBC interview Tuesday night. “We are not going to settle on a Supreme Court nominee. If they don’t appoint someone who’s really good, we’re gonna oppose him tooth and nail.”

When asked by host Rachel Maddow whether he would do his best to keep the Scalia vacancy open, Schumer responded without hesitation: “Absolutely.”

Though Senate Democrats acted unilaterally in 2013 to change confirmation rules for nearly all presidential nominations, they left the current 60-vote filibuster threshold for Supreme Court nominees intact. Republicans now control just 52 votes, so Democrats can exert considerable influence over whether Trump’s eventual nominee to the high court succeeds in getting confirmed.

Schumer predicted that Trump would not be able to put forward a Supreme Court nominee that both Democrats and Republicans would be able to support.

“They won’t have 60 votes to put in an out-of-the-mainstream nominee and then they’ll have to make a choice: change the rules,” Schumer said. “It’s gonna be very hard for them to change the rules because there are a handful of Republicans who believe in the institution of the Senate.”

But the Democratic leader added: “We are not going to make it easy for them to pick a Supreme Court justice.”