With some Democrats vowing to block Neil Gorsuch’s ascent, Mitch McConnell could change rules to lower confirmation threshold to 50 votes

Donald Trump has urged Republicans to use the so-called “nuclear option” to force through his supreme court nominee against Democratic opposition.



The US president named the conservative judge Neil Gorsuch on Tuesday night to fill the vacancy on America’s highest court left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia nearly a year ago.

Some Democrats – still smarting from Republicans’ 10-month refusal to give Barack Obama’s nominee a hearing, anxious to avoid another conservative seat on the bench, and keen to give Trump a black eye – have vowed to block Gorsuch’s confirmation.



NRA cheers nomination of Neil Gorsuch, seen as gun rights defender Read more

The Senate is split between 52 Republicans and 48 Democrats. If Republicans are unable to assemble a bipartisan coalition that includes at least eight Democrats to clear the way for a confirmation vote, they could unilaterally change the rules to eliminate the 60-vote threshold.

On Wednesday, Trump explicitly backed Republican Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell if he decides to use this “nuclear option” manoeuvre. “Yes, if we end up with the same gridlock we’ve had in Washington for longer than eight years, in all fairness to President Obama, a lot longer than eight years,” he said in the White House.

“If we end up with that gridlock, I would say, ‘If you can, Mitch, go nuclear.’ Because that would would be an absolute shame if a man of this quality was put up to that neglect. I would say it’s up to Mitch, but I would say, ‘Go for it.’”

Trump told conservative interest groups – including Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association – in the Roosevelt Room that he hoped Democrats would find his choice acceptable.

“We want to watch him go through an elegant process as opposed to a demeaning process,” he said of Gorsuch. “They’re very demeaning on the other side. They want to make him look as bad as possible. Of course, the media can very demeaning, as well.”

Trump noted that Democrats had previously supported the Oxford University-educated, Denver-based Gorsuch, currently on the 10th circuit court of appeals. “I think there’s a certain dishonesty if they go against their vote from not very long ago. He did get a unanimous endorsement … You can’t do it better, from an educational ... from any standpoint. A great judge, he’ll be a great justice. I feel it’s very dishonest if they go back.”



The nomination of Gorsuch, 49, looks set to trigger a bitter political showdown as Democrats seek make it a referendum on the Trump presidency. The liberal base is clamouring for senators to use the same hardball tactics that Republicans employed to block Obama’s pick Merrick Garland. The seat remained empty for 10 months and the court operated with eight justices as McConnell maintained that only the next president should make the nomination.

But some Democrats are wary about appearing obstructionist, especially against someone who is seen as a principled conservative with clear qualifications. If they were to force the “nuclear option” now, it would leave them unable to block a future nominee who might be more extreme.

The vote also poses an exquisite dilemma for Democratic and independent lawmakers in conservative states, where interest groups are pressuring them to support the nominee. Twenty-three Democrats and two independents are up for re-election in 2018, including in 10 states won by Trump. However, there was little evidence that Republicans were punished by voters last November for their opposition to Garland.

By Wednesday, a handful of Democrats had announced their explicit opposition to Gorsuch. Still more took the cautious route, saying his record raised “deep” and “serious” concerns but deserved a a fair hearing nonetheless.



Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware who sits on the Senate judiciary committee, which will hold the confirmation hearing, said Gorsuch deserved a hearing and committee vote but was undecided on a filibuster.

“It is of course only human to want some revenge for this unprecedented theft of a vacant [supreme court] seat,” Coons told reporters on Wednesday. “Our challenge is to not act in petty ways but to try and act in more balanced and constructive ways.”

On the floor of the Senate, minority leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats would require 60 votes to confirm Gorsuch. “If this nominee cannot meet the same standard that Republicans insisted upon for President Obama’s supreme court nominees – 60 votes in the Senate – then the problem lies not with the Senate, but with the nominee,” Schumer said in a floor speech.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York said on Wednesday: “I plan to stand up for individuals over corporations and oppose his nomination, and I will insist that his nomination meet a traditional 60-vote threshold.”

Republicans welcomed Gorsuch’s nomination and praised the president for honoring his commitment to appoint a conservative justice who is opposed to abortion rights.



On Wednesday morning, Gorsuch made his first trip to Capitol Hill as nominee for the supreme court to attend meetings with a number of senators who will help determine his fate. He was accompanied by the vice-president, Mike Pence, for a meeting with McConnell.

“I think the president made an outstanding appointment and we’re all thrilled and looking forward to get the confirmation process started,” McConnell said, foreshadowing the entrenched battle ahead.

Speaking on the Senate floor, McConnell said he expected to see Democrats “giving the new nominee a fair consideration and up-or-down vote just as we did for past presidents of both parties”.

At the White House, press secretary Sean Spicer reiterated praise for Gorsuch while echoing the president in referring to “the late great Antonin Scalia”, whose judicial philosophy was similar to Gorsuch’s.

Spicer railed against Senate Democrats for “getting in the way” of Trump’s efforts to “make America great again” and urged a speedy vote on Gorsuch, whom he described as having “widespread support”.

Spicer confirmed that Gorsuch called Merrick Garland immediately after leaving the announcement event on Wednesday but avoided referring to Republican treatment of Garland’s nomination in 2016, instead comparing Gorsuch only to Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.

After Tuesday night’s announcement, hundreds of activists rallied outside the supreme court in a protest organized by a coalition of progressive groups that are mobilizing the resistance to Trump’s supreme court nominee. The speakers demanded Democrats reject Gorsuch, casting him as an “ideological warrior” who championed corporations over average Americans.

Liberals have raged against senators who did not explicitly reject Trump’s nominee. They argue that the president is operating outside political norms, for example with his executive order temporarily banning refugees and travellers to the US from seven Muslim-majority countries.

Charles Chamberlain, executive director of the pressure group Democracy for America, said: “Donald Trump’s Muslim ban is unconstitutional and un-American. Americans nationwide are looking for leaders in Washington who will stand up and fight in complete and absolute rejection of the Trump agenda as it stands right now.



“Until the Muslim ban is repealed, we demand total opposition to all of Trump’s appointees, to Trump’s nominee for the supreme court, and to any legislation coming out of the Trump administration. No exceptions.”

Gorsuch expected to follow Scalia's lead in opposing abortion on supreme court Read more

Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said: “After unnecessarily holding open a vacancy on the supreme court for nearly a year under President Obama, any effort now by Senate Republicans to rush this process should be resisted.”

But Marge Baker, the executive vice-president of People For the American Way, one of the groups organizing the campaign against Gorsuch, downplayed any concern.

“We are actually pleased at the response from Democrats,” Baker said. “It is absolutely appropriate for senators to take their time on this.”

She noted that at least five senators had already announced their opposition to Gorsuch, and more Democrats expressed concerns over his record of siding with big corporations and business interests.

Republicans were quick to accuse the Democrats of hypocrisy in an online video. Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, said: “In a direct contradiction to their calls last year to fill the vacancy on the supreme court, the Democrats’ new threat to filibuster President Donald J Trump’s supreme court nominee is hypocrisy at its finest.”

She added: “The Democrats’ blind opposition to such a mainstream conservative nominee makes clear they are more interested in playing political games than giving a voice to the American people in our nation’s highest court.”

The supreme court vacancy was seen as a crucial issue in Trump’s election battle with Hillary Clinton. His choice of Gorsuch was widely hailed by conservative groups as evidence that he had kept his promise.

Republican senators from all wings of the party were also enthused. “There’s nothing not to like about Neil Gorsuch,” said Jeff Flake of Arizona. Even stronger praise came from Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who said Gorsuch “is the kind of person that the founders envisioned sitting on the supreme court”.

Republicans unanimously dismissed any lingering hard feelings from the Senate’s refusal to hold hearings on Garland,. “I think that’s a bogus argument,” said Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. “I thought it was a bit unfair when you look through the history of the country when a vacancy occurs in the last year of a sitting president and the primary process is almost over ... if that’s the reason they use, it’s a bogus reason.”

Others thought that Trump’s victory in November was the ultimate appeal to authority. As Ted Cruz told reporters after the announcement, the election “was a referendum on the supreme court and the direction it would go ... the choice was given to the people and we the people spoke overwhelmingly”.

If confirmed, Gorsuch would restore the court to the conservative leaning it held with Scalia. But he is not expected to call into question high-profile rulings on abortion, gay marriage and other issues in which the court has been divided 5-4 in recent years. A bigger battle may loom over the next occasion there is a vacancy.