Senate GOP goes ‘nuclear’ on Supreme Court filibuster The historic move paves the way for Neil Gorsuch to be confirmed.

Senate Republicans invoked the "nuclear option" to gut the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees Thursday, a historic move that paves the way for Neil Gorsuch's confirmation and ensures that future high court nominees can advance in the Senate without clearing a 60-vote threshold.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell moved to change the Senate rules after Democrats blocked Gorsuch's nomination minutes before, 55-45. All 52 Republicans then supported the vote to go nuclear, and Gorsuch subsequently advanced to a final confirmation vote with a simple majority.


"Our Democratic colleagues have done something today that is unprecedented in the history of the Senate. Unfortunately it has brought us to this point," McConnell said. "We need to restore the norms and traditions of the Senate to get past this partisan filibuster."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) tried to delay McConnell's move with parliamentary tactics, and pleaded for McConnell to reverse course.

"It doesn’t have to be this way. When a nominee doesn’t get enough votes for confirmation, the answer is not to change the rules, it is to change the nominee," Schumer said ahead of the vote.

But Republicans quickly sought a unilateral change to the Senate rules, the so-called "nuclear option" that eliminates the 60-vote barrier for Supreme Court nominees. The move ends another vestige of bipartisanship amid the war over President Donald Trump’s first pick for the high court.

After the vote, McConnell was seen high-fiving Secretary for the Majority Laura Dove, according to a source who viewed the event.

"Bad day for democracy," fumed Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) as he entered the Senate chamber.

The final confirmation vote for Gorsuch will be held shortly before noon on Friday.

Senate Democrats' blockade of Gorsuch on Thursday morning marked the first successful filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee in nearly five decades. Just four Democrats voted to advance Gorsuch’s nomination, which fell short of a 60-vote threshold in place until Thursday afternoon.

The Republican obstruction of Merrick Garland last year to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia ensured this year’s fight to fill that spot would be contentious. The nomination of Neil Gorsuch — an impeccably-polished jurist from the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals — did little to persuade most Democrats, who see his conservative views as far out of the judicial mainstream.

In turn, Republicans have argued that if not Gorsuch, Democrats would accept no Supreme Court nominee from Trump, forcing the GOP to deploy the controversial parliamentary maneuver to changing the precedent on high court picks by a simple majority vote.

"We will not allow their latest unprecedented act on judicial nominations to take hold," McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday morning, launching the tense debate. "This will be the first and last partisan filibuster of a Supreme Court nomination."

Democrats fought back against the notion that they will uniformly resist any Trump nominee.

“This idea that [McConnell’s] being forced to do this is utter bunk,” Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in an interview Wednesday. “Just like he wasn’t forced to do Merrick Garland. He’s making that decision.”

Senators cast their votes from their chairs, a rare move in today's Senate where lawmakers often mill around and pat each others' backs during a vote. A solemn mood settled over the Senate as the historic moment developed; at one point, Schumer's flip-phone rang and pierced the quiet chamber's silence. But there was also a sense of resignation to the whole episode: Schumer and McConnell had no back-and-forth over the nuclear option and there was no all-senators meeting to save the filibuster.

Ahead of the vote, 44 of the 48-member Democratic caucus vowed to block him from getting confirmed. The only Democrats who supported advancing Gorsuch on Thursday morning were Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Michael Bennet of Colorado. Manchin, Heitkamp and Donnelly are all up for reelection. Bennet has faced significant home-state pressure to back the Denver-bred Gorsuch, though he then voted to block Gorsuch after the rules change.

In turn, McConnell had already laid the ground work to invoke the nuclear option, which needs the support of just 51 senators. Liberal activists and Schumer himself openly doubted whether McConnell had the votes to change the rules, but even moderates like Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska opted to hit the nuclear button.

The Senate has previously been able to pull back from the brink; the so-called “Gang of 14” in 2005 staved off the nuclear option over judicial picks under the George W. Bush administration and a series of smaller gentlemen’s agreements were made during President Barack Obama’s tenure.

That all ended when then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) triggered the nuclear option in November 2013 to end the 60-vote margin needed to advance all presidential nominees except those to the Supreme Court. Still, the 60-vote threshold for Supreme Court nominees was considered so sacred that Senate Democrats refused to touch it at the time. Republicans, however, began floating a rules change for the Supreme Court as soon as they took the majority in 2015.

Reid's controversial rule changes — as well as McConnell's blockade of Garland — eliminated any sense of comity remaining in the Senate over judicial nominations, which had already been eroding for years.

"Merrick Garland, he was the ultimate filibuster," said Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) in an interview. "What I think is destructive is the finger-pointing back and forth. Everybody has to take responsibility for their decisions and their roles. We chose not to change the rules for Supreme Court."

Republicans now defend their decision as one returning the Senate to its historic norms of presidential deference, after savaging Democrats for making similar rules changes for other nominees.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) said the rules change is merely a return to the "status quo."

"This whole filibuster of judges was an invention of Chuck Schumer and people who thought they could make it more difficult for George W. Bush to get his judges confirmed," the Texas Republican said. “The way I look at this is it’s come full circle."

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As the pivotal vote neared, liberal senators gathered with activists from NARAL Pro-Choice America and other groups that have marshaled their members against Gorsuch. Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, the Democrats' earliest advocate for a Supreme Court filibuster, lamented the GOP's planned rules change as a "crime against the Constitution," drawing cheers from the crowded rally.

"Neil Gorsuch is a good lawyer," Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) told the activists. "There are lots of good lawyers out there. It's not enough to be a good lawyer."

A handful of moderates on both sides of the aisle have openly aired regrets as the chamber destroyed its long-cherished precedents.

"I’m just extremely sad," Manchin said. "Everybody took the easy way out. That’s all I’m saying. Everybody took it. Harry Reid took it in 2013, Mitch McConnell just took it in 2017. That means you don’t have to sit down and compromise."