Neil Gorsuch was voted onto the Supreme Court on April 7, 2017 after a convoluted confirmation process that stirred conflict between Democrats and Republicans and brought about change in Senate law.
Gorsuch served as a Federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. He was nominated by President Donald Trump in January 2017 to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016. Gorsuch is relatively young at 49, the youngest judge to be nominated since 1990. Gorsuch is a Republican who believes in originalism, or interpreting the Constitution with the same meaning as when it was originally written, unchanged for modern times.
Gorsuch is generally considered a well qualified candidate with no notably unusual beliefs or governmental history. However, conflict regarding the Supreme Court prevented a typical series of trials, and he faced major opposition from Senate Democrats.
Most of the current Supreme Court tension is a result of the Senate Republicans’ response to President Obama’s original pick for the empty seat. He nominated Merrick Garland, the Democratic chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. However, with the presidential election less than a year away at the time, Senate Republicans wanted to wait for the new president to appoint a judge, and Garland was denied a hearing. Senate Democrats, unsatisfied with Garland’s treatment, showed similar opposition to Gorsuch.
“From what I know, I think the Democrats need to move on from Merrick Garland and see Neil Gorsuch as a realistic, good quality, moderate candidate,” NHS senior Carly Lindsay said.
Criticisms of Gorsuch from Democrats on the floor included claims that he favors corporations over individuals, that his originalist point of view is too narrow minded and discriminatory for modern times, and that he plagiarized parts of his 2006 book, The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia.
Democrats’ general dislike for Gorsuch and animosity over Garland’s treatment ultimately led to a filibuster on the Senate floor.
“Unfortunately, due to unprecedented treatment, Judge Garland was denied a hearing, and this vacancy has been in place for well over a year. I just want to say that I am deeply disappointed that it’s under these circumstances that we begin our hearings. Merrick Garland was widely regarded as a mainstream, moderate nominee. However, President Trump repeatedly promised to appoint someone in the mold of Justice Scalia,” Senator Dianne Feinstein said at a Gorsuch confirmation hearing.
At this point in time, Republicans hold a 52-48 majority in the Senate. Only three Democrats voted for Gorsuch, which was not enough to reach the 60 votes required to appoint a Supreme Court justice. Determined to appoint Gorsuch, Republicans, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, employed the “nuclear option” and changed Senate law to require only a majority vote (51 votes). A vote of 54-45 confirmed Gorsuch in the final vote.
“When history weighs what happened, the responsibility for changing the rules will fall on the Republicans’ and Leader McConnell’s shoulders. They have had other choices. They have chosen this one,” New York Senator and current Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said to the New York Times.
The use of the nuclear option brings some potentially troubling future implications for Senate Republicans, should they ever want to filibuster a Democrat nominee and be thwarted by their own change in law. This decision will long outlast the situation at hand, and the justification for the action has come into question.
“If they eliminate the possibility of filibuster, that means whoever controls the Senate controls the Court. That takes away from our independent judiciary, and I think that might make it very political. That’s a dangerous precedent to set,” NHS U.S. Government teacher Candace Dietter said.
Gorsuch was sworn in on April 10th. His first week as a Supreme Court justice involves a separation of church and state case regarding the use of state funds to build a playground for a religious school. The case has been held for 15 months, presumably to avoid a 4-4 tie in the absence of a ninth justice, and Gorsuch now has the potential to set major precedents for a long-standing legal issue in education.
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