“The goal will be to get a conservative confirmed before the election,” said Sen. John Barrasso, left, the No. 4 GOP leader. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo GOP plans to steamroll Dems on Supreme Court pick Senate Republicans will move quickly to replace Anthony Kennedy before the midterm elections.

Senate Republicans plan to confirm a new Supreme Court justice to replace retiring Anthony Kennedy before the midterm elections, according to interviews with nearly a dozen Republican senators.

The Senate GOP is expected to execute a lightning strike confirmation despite their razor thin majority of 51 senators, which is effectively down to 50 as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) recovers from brain cancer. But because of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s rules change last year to push through Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, the GOP can unilaterally confirm a new justice without any Democratic support.


McConnell told reporters that the nominee will be confirmed before this fall; Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has said that historically it takes about two months on average from the time a president nominates a new justice to the time a Judiciary Committee hearing is held. What that means practically is the Senate is likely to have installed a firm conservative majority on the high court by the time voters go to the polls in November.

“The goal will be to get a conservative confirmed before the election,” said Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the No. 4 GOP leader. “I’m delighted to see President Trump have another opportunity to appoint another Supreme Court justice. And I’m sure he’s going to appoint somebody just like Antonin Scalia and Neil Gorsuch.”

Whether Republicans can jam through another Scalia or Gorsuch remains to be seen. GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska are moderate on social issues and will have heavy sway in what’s sure to be a narrow vote. Murkowski declined requests for comment in a brief interview.

Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) faces a difficult reelection in a swing state. And Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who is retiring, said that he and other senators won’t “rubber stamp” a judge just because it’s a Republican nomination.

But Flake, like most in the GOP, expects the president to nominate someone far more conservative than Kennedy, a long-standing swing vote.

“I can’t imagine right now the president going for a … Kennedy mold. It’s his choice,” Flake said. “This is the seat. The last one simply reaffirmed the balance. This is the change. That’s why I always thought the Democrats miscalculated by going after Gorsuch.”

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Trump also could pluck a conservative senator like Mike Lee (R-Utah) for the court. In a statement Lee said he would "not say no" to the opportunity if asked.

“I started watching Supreme Court arguments for fun when I was 10 years old," Lee said. "The president’s got a decision to make and I trust his ability to make it and make it well.”

Kennedy's retirement plunged the chamber into a state of excitement and frustration, but one thing was immediately clear: Democrats can’t band together to block the seat.

The party began calls to delay confirmation of the next justice as soon as Kennedy announced his retirement; if Democrats were to retake the Senate this fall, they could refuse to seat a new justice until the next presidential election or band together to vote down any Trump nominee.

“Our Republican colleagues in the Senate should follow the rule they set in 2016 not to consider a Supreme Court nominee in an election year," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. "Anything but that would be the absolute height of hypocrisy."

The demand largely underscores the futility of the minority party's efforts in tanking Trump's next nominee. The minority party’s filibuster of Gorsuch last year led to McConnell gutting the 60-vote requirement for Supreme Court justices, an escalation after Democrats previously eliminated the supermajority requirement for lower-level nominees.

So while Democrats can complain and delay the Senate's confirmation process for Trump's nominee, they simply can’t stop a Supreme Court justice on the floor unless they can convince a Republican to join them. One Democrat facing a difficult reelection battle in a state Trump won, Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, said Wednesday that he wouldn't rule out voting for the president's nominee, depending on who it is.

“They can’t block it,” said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas). “There are things you can do to drag this out, but I think they’re fairly limited. So I’m, like I said, pretty optimistic we can get this done.”

Grassley said Wednesday that he anticipates a nominee coming before the committee “in the weeks ahead,” underscoring that the GOP expects to waste no time. But he declined to put a definite timeline on it and said he had not been in contact with the White House yet on timing.

Grassley declined to commit to holding hearings before the fall and said it depends on when Trump makes a nomination.

But other Republicans were less circumspect.

“We’ll certainly get right to it as soon as we get a name,” said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the No. 3 GOP leader. “I can’t imagine a scenario where we have an orderly process and we haven’t completed it before” the election.

The Senate has already canceled much of the August recess, meaning McConnell has already cleared the decks for a seismic event like a Supreme Court confirmation.

“We will be here in August, and suddenly that decision might be more important in providing the time we need to also confirm a Supreme Court judge this year and do our other work,” said Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the No. 5 GOP leader.

In 2016, McConnell memorably declined to even give President Barack Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland a hearing, declaring that it’s up to the voters to decide who filled the vacancy on Scalia’s death.

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) suggested that under McConnell’s “tortured logic” of blocking Garland in February of an election year, he’ll do the same in the summer of a midterm election.

But McConnell said there’s no chance of that.

“There’s no presidential election this year,” he told reporters.

John Bresnahan and Nolan McCaskill contributed to this report.