Washington – The top Senate Democrat said Thursday he will oppose President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee and lead a filibuster of the choice, setting up a politically charged showdown with Republicans with far-reaching implications for future judicial nominees.
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New York Sen. Chuck Schumer criticized Judge Neil Gorsuch, saying he “almost instinctively favors the powerful over the weak” and would not serve as a check on Trump or be a mainstream justice.
“I have concluded that I cannot support Neil Gorsuch’s nomination,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “My vote will be no and I urge my colleagues to do the same.”
Shortly before Schumer’s announcement, Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, who faces re-election next year in a state Trump won, also announced his opposition. Casey said he had “serious concerns about Judge Gorsuch’s rigid and restrictive judicial philosophy, manifest in a number of opinions he has written on the 10th Circuit.” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., also announced he would oppose Gorsuch.
Democrats are still furious that Republicans blocked former President Barack Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, and the seat on the high court has remained vacant for 13 months and counting. The GOP insisted that the next president make the nomination.
Liberals have pressured Democrats to resist all things Trump, including his nominees, although Gorsuch emerged unscathed from two days of testifying.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., now must decide whether to take the same step his Democratic predecessor did and change Senate rules to confirm Gorsuch and other Supreme Court nominees with a simple majority rather than the 60 votes now required to move forward.
“Gorsuch will be confirmed; I just can’t tell you exactly how that will happen, yet,” McConnell said in an interview with The Associated Press earlier this week.
The Judiciary panel is expected to vote in the next two weeks to recommend Gorsuch favorably to the full Senate.
Democrats Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ed Markey of Massachusetts have declared their opposition.
No Democrat has yet pledged to support the judge, but Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said Wednesday he is open to voting for him.
Hearings for a Supreme Court nominee usually dominate Congress, but that’s not been the case over the four days of hearings. The Republican push to dismantle Obama’s Affordable Care Act and the controversy surrounding the investigation into contact between Trump associates and Russia overshadowed the hearings.
On Thursday, lawyers, advocacy groups and former colleagues got their say on Gorsuch. Critics said he tended to rule for powerful interests and against workers, the disabled and environmental groups, but those who worked with him over the years sought to assure senators that he goes into each case committed to hearing and evaluating all points of view before making up his mind.
The American Bar Association’s Nancy Scott Degan explained how a committee evaluating Gorsuch came up with its highest rating of well qualified. She said the committee contacted almost 5,000 people nationwide who might have knowledge of his qualifications. They examined his qualifications based on integrity, professional competence and temperament.
“The scope of our investigation was deep and broad,” Degan said. “We do not give the well-qualified rating lightly.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., also noted that Garland received the ABA’s well-qualified rating, but didn’t get a hearing. Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah said he agreed that Garland is a wonderful person and well qualified.
Retired U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Deanell Reece Tacha served with Gorsuch and told senators he brings to the bench a powerful intellect and does not use his role as judge for anything other than deciding the case before him.
Some witnesses who were critical of Gorsuch worried that he would not be a strong check on executive overreach. Elisa Massimino, president and CEO of Human Rights First, described him as someone “who wouldn’t stand up against a presidential power grab,” stemming from his service in the Justice Department during the Bush administration. And a Colorado man criticized Gorsuch for ruling against his autistic son in a case, saying Gorsuch’s opinion eviscerated the minimal education requirements schools must provide disabled children.
Obama was the master of “executive overreach”. Trump doesn’t come close. The “ruling against his autistic son” (apparently the 2008 case) was UNANIMOUS because there are rules in play the court had to follow, and those rules required the court to follow judicial precedence in their decision, whether they liked it or not. The only ones who can overturn the precedence is the Supreme Court, which by the way, actually overturned it during these hearings! And the allegation he would give in to a “presidential power grab” is absurd, because as a strict constitutionalist, he would oppose anything that the constitution does not grant the president. These Democrats are simply projecting their own behaviour, ruling by ideology instead of law, unto their opponents.
IF HITLER, YEMACH SHEMO, WAS A DEMOCRAT shumer would vote for him.
Americans OPPOSE Shumer for all he DIDN’T do for America – come November – he’ll become an ordinary citizen or a “has been”
Schumer has moved into a position that places his stupid mouth in front of us far more often than ever before. My feelings of shame for having him as my senator grow daily. This is all partisan politics, and that is obvious to anyone who graduated kindergarten. And that is not his position, nor is it the deserving dynamic of the nomination/confirmation process.
The nominee refused to refused to prejudge anything that would automatically color his ability to judge if the case were brought before him. Quite a few nominees by Obama did the same thing, and Schumer was encouraging about them. These Democrats are interested in themselves, not their constituents. I wish them early retirement.
This vile act by the democrats is more proof that their priority is not doing the work of the American people or its welfare; they have one agenda and one agenda only; trying to limit all Pres. Trump’s accomplishments. Anyone who backs these traitors, much less votes for them is just as much an American traitor and has been overtaken by their hatred.
Let’s hope that the Republican Majority in the senate will grow to 60+ in November as a punishment to Dems for playing Partisan politics. As much as the Republicans didn’t bring Merrick Garland to a hearing or vote they still behaved and some GOP senators even voted for Sotomayor & Kagan.
Chucky Schumer you’re time will come… hopefully soon!!
No worse than the Trumpublicans refusing to even hold hearings on Judge Garland.
No hearings on any of Trumpollini’s agenda until we see his tax returns.
#2 , Chucky voted against the Iran deal and against Obama in all fairness. I do not like the man or his views. But I don’t think he is traitor and disagree with your comment.
#7 The KKK and neo nazis all voted republican. Yup all 100 of them out of 60 million Trump voters.
qazxc, whats up with your obseesion over Trump’s tax return. We saw his 2005 return and you were caught with your pants down. He paid a 25% tax rate more than Buffet.