Democrats prepare filibuster as Gorsuch clears committee

WASHINGTON—The Senate Judiciary Committee approved Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch today, but Democrats have enough senators to filibuster the final vote—prompting Republicans to pull out the “nuclear option.”

Senators voted 11-9 along party lines to advance the nomination out of committee. Ahead of the committee vote, 37 Democrats pledged to filibuster Gorsuch when his nomination comes before the full Senate. Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), and Mark Warner (D-Va.) all announced Monday they will not support Gorsuch and plan to block the final vote. Republicans now have until the end of the week to decide if confirming Gorsuch to the Supreme Court is worth changing long-standing Senate rules.

In 2013, then-Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., changed Senate rules to confirm judges by a simple majority vote but left in place the 60-vote threshold for Supreme Court nominees. Current Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Sunday on MSNBC that Gorsuch will be on the high court by the end of this week. He said how Gorsuch gets confirmed is up to Democrats.

Republicans hold a 52-48 majority in the Senate and will need 51 members to change the rules— commonly known as the “nuclear option.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said while regrettable, he expects Republicans to approve the rule change, which means for generations to come the Senate can confirm Supreme Court justices without a single vote from the other side—leading to more and more ideological judges.

“The damage to the Senate will be real,” he said.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the No. 2 senator behind McConnell, downplayed the effects of changing the rules. He said approving nominees is different than adopting legislation because senators can amend bills and improve them—nominees require a simple yes or no. Because of that, Cornyn said he expects the 60-vote threshold for legislation to remain.

So far, four Democrats have decided to break ranks and support Gorsuch. Three are moderates up for reelection next year in states President Donald Trump won: Sens. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), and Joe Manchin (D-W.V.). The other, Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., is not up for reelection until 2022 but represents Gorsuch’s home state.

Bennet did not mention what he thinks about Gorsuch as a jurist but said he wanted to avoid a rule change at all costs.

“Using the filibuster and nuclear option at this moment takes us in the wrong direction. I have spent the past several weeks trying to avoid this outcome,” Bennet said in a statement. “I will oppose efforts to filibuster the nomination, and strongly encourage my colleagues not to use the nuclear option.”

Some Democrats have said they don’t believe Gorsuch will be an independent check on Trump or that they disagree with his judicial philosophy. But many continue to point to what happened last year with President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland.

After Justice Antonin Scalia died in February 2016, Republicans held Garland’s nomination open for nearly 300 days, blocking him from getting a hearing or a vote.

“I am still angry about the treatment of Merrick Garland,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., before voting “no” on Gorsuch.

But the few Democrats who support Gorsuch say they’re ready to move beyond the Garland bad blood.

“I was taught that two wrongs don’t make a right,” Heitkamp said. “There isn’t a perfect judge. Regardless of which party is in the White House, the U.S. Supreme Court should be above politics.”

With Gorsuch advancing past the Judiciary Committee, the Senate will move to a cloture vote to end debate on Thursday. With at least 41 Democrats expected to filibuster, McConnell and Republicans have until the end of the Friday to decide to deploy the nuclear option.

“Never in the history of the United States has there been a successful partisan filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee,” said Leonard Leo, Trump’s Supreme Court adviser. “Both the Constitution and Senate history expect that it takes 51 votes to confirm a Supreme Court justice, and that’s what Sen. McConnell is going to ensure if he is forced to do so.”