Skip to content
  1. En Español
  2. Sala de Prensa

Everything You Need to Know In Advance of Today’s Votes on Judge Gorsuch’s Supreme Court Nomination

 

  1. Contrary to Republican talking points, the “first partisan filibuster” was, in fact, effectively mounted by Senate Republicans in 2016 when they blocked any hearing or even a cloture vote on President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland.
  • Congressional Research Service: “Of the six nominations made to vacancies that have existed during presidential election years since 1900, each was confirmed by the Senate.” [CRS, 3/3/16]
  • There is no precedent for the Senate refusing to act on a Supreme Court nominee because it occurred in an election year. According to CRS data, each of the previous eight nominations to Supreme Court vacancies that occurred during an election year was either confirmed or tabled by the Senate.
  1. The action Senate Republicans will be taking today is in no way equivalent to the 2013 rules change that came after years of Republican obstruction. Leader McConnell is proposing breaking Senate rules after one failed cloture vote.
  • Under all presidents before President Obama combined, cloture only needed to be filed on 68 nominations; in the first five years of President Obama’s term, Republicans refused to consent to votes and therefore forced Leader Reid to file cloture on 79 nominations.  [CRS, 3/15/17]
  • Because Republicans refused to consent to votes, President Obama‘s first-term circuit and district court nominees face more than half a year wait time from nomination to confirmation. Of the previous five Presidents, President Obama is the only one for whom both the average and median wait time for district and circuit court nominees was more than half a year. [CRS, 5/2/13]
  1. Just because he is polite and has a good resume does not mean Judge Gorsuch mainstream. In fact, Judge Gorsuch is an extremely conservative nominee hand-picked by right-wing special interest groups.
  • According to analyses of his record on the 10th Circuit conducted by the New York Times and experts in the Washington Post, Judge Gorsuch would be one of the most conservative voices on the bench.  The Washington Post experts said that “Gorsuch’s actual voting behavior suggests that he is to the right of both Alito and Thomas, and by a substantial margin.” That would make him the most conservative Justice on the court in recent memory.
  1. President Trump did not seek “advice and consent” from the Senate in selecting this Supreme Court nominee—rather, he “largely outsourced” the process to the Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society. Previous presidents have consulted with senators from both parties.
  • President Bill Clinton sought and took the advice of Republican Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch in nominating Justices Ginsburg and Breyer, instead of Bruce Babbit.
  • President Obama took the advice of Republican Senators when he picked Merrick Garland -- a consensus, mainstream nominee.
  1. In the past, when a Supreme Court nominee didn’t earn enough votes, the president changed the nominee. There is precedent for a president choosing a new nominee if their nominee could not earn enough support from the Senate.
  • ·         After President Johnson’s nominee for chief justice, Justice Abe Fortas, failed to earn enough votes on cloture, he withdrew the nomination.
  • After Judge Robert Bork failed to earn enough support, President Reagan nominated Judge Anthony Kennedy for the Supreme Court.

 

Previous
Next