President Trump Announces His Supreme Court Nominee

Judge Neil Gorsuch (R) listens as U.S. President Donald Trump (L) nominates him to the Supreme Court during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House Jan. 31, 2017 in Washington, D.C. If confirmed, Gorsuch would fill the seat left vacant with the death of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016.

(Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Oregon's Democratic senators have pledged to block President Trump's nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court, one of them circulating a statement within minutes of the official announcement.

A release from Sen. Ron Wyden's office at 5:10 p.m. -- ten minutes after the Facebook Live broadcast began from the White House -- called the Gorsuch nomination "a breahtaking retreat from the notion that Americans have a fundamental right to Constitutional liberties, and harkens back to the days when politicians restricted a people's rights on a whim."

Wyden cites Gorsuch's views on Oregon's Death With Dignity Act of particular concern. In 2006, the Supreme Court nominee cited the Oregon law extensively in a book where he argues against assisted suicide.

"His opposition to legal death with dignity as successfully practiced in Oregon is couched in the sort of jurisprudence that justified the horrific oppression of one group after another in our first two centuries," Wyden wrote. "No Senator who believes that individual rights are reserved to the people, and not the government, can support this nomination."

Sen. Jeff Merkley, on the other hand, had already been vocal about his intent to block any of Trump's nominees because of the way Republicans obstructed Merrick Garland, President Obama's pick to replace the late Antonin Scalia.

In his announcement following Gorsuch's nomination, Merkley characterized Trump's pick as an attempt to fill "a stolen seat."

"This is the first time in American history that one party has blockaded a nominee for almost a year in order to deliver a seat to a President of their own party," Merkley wrote. "If this tactic is rewarded rather than resisted, it will set a dangerous new precedent in American governance."

The senator insisted Trump should have nominated Merrick Garland, Obama's pick, for the open seat.

Last year, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pledged to block any of Obama's picks to fill the vacancy left by Scalia's sudden death. The Kentucky senator's insistence that the next president -- who wouldn't be elected for nearly nine months -- be the one to appoint a replacement incensed Democrats on Capitol Hill and beyond.

At least one Oregon representative, Earl Blumenauer, encouraged senators to follow McConnell's lead.

I encourage my Senate colleagues to give Neil Gorsuch the same courtesy Senate Republicans gave Merrick Garland. #SCOTUS — Earl Blumenauer (@repblumenauer) February 1, 2017

--Eder Campuzano

503.221.4344

@edercampuzano

ecampuzano@oregonian.com