By all accounts, Judge Neal Gorsuch is shining at his confirmation hearings for his nomination for Supreme Court Justice. He is deftly handling every and all questions, showing up the Democratic senators on the Judiciary Committee on his vast knowledge of the law. Indeed, Gorsuch is demonstrating what ciphers people like Sen. Al Franken are. And so, as Hot Air informs us, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has declared that Gorsuch’s confirmation shall be filibustered. Clearly, a man like that should never be allowed near the Supreme Court.
The move, which may or may not be followed by vulnerable red state Democrats, seems to scotch a deal that would allow for Gorsuch’s confirmation to go forward in exchange for Republicans committing to not invoking the Nuclear Option for the next Supreme Court nominee.
The theory is that Gorsuch is not going to shift the ideological balance of the court as he is replacing another conservative, Antonin Scalia. The next nominee will likely replace a liberal justice, which would gain the court for the conservatives. Democrats want to prevent that from happening at all costs.
Why would Schumer declare a filibuster now and not later? One reason is that the liberal base of the Democratic Party is demanding it. Also Senate Democrats are still smarting from the reception that Judge Merrick Garland got when Obama appointed him to the Supreme Court seat that Gorsuch is now up for. They are spoiling for revenge, always a bad reason to pursue a political gambit.
It could be that Schumer is hoping that eight or so Democrats will save him by voting for Gorsuch, thus breaking the filibuster.
That way he will have satisfied his base and will have stopped the Republicans from invoking the Reid Rule, also known as the nuclear option, at least this time.
Because, of course, the Republicans will drop the nuclear option if Schumer forces them to. Gorsuch is so well qualified to be on the Supreme Court that filibustering him can be seen as motivated by nothing else besides political pique.
The Reid Rule having been invoked for Supreme Court justices cannot be uninvoked, which means that President Trump will in short order pack the court with conservatives changing the course of American jurisprudence forever.
