The US Senate confirmed Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court Friday, culminating a 13-month fight over the vacancy and rewarding President Donald Trump by bringing a conservative tilt back to the bench.
The federal judge from Colorado crossed the finish line in a 54-45 vote, one day after Trump’s Republicans changed Senate rules to circumvent a Democratic blockade of his nomination.
“Today is a new day,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said ahead of the vote, seeking to put a positive stamp on what has been a contentious congressional process for the new Republican administration.
Gorsuch is “going to make an incredible addition to the court,” McConnell said. “He’s going to make the American people proud.”
The White House has said it expects Gorsuch — the youngest nominee for a generation — to be sworn in as early as Monday.
The 49-year-old judge has been hailed by Republicans as a worthy successor to towering conservative justice Antonia Scalia, who died in February 2016 as the presidential race was gaining steam.
His ability to write incisive rulings, his defense of a strict reading of the Constitution and his traditionalist views have fueled comparisons with Scalia.
But Gorsuch’s nomination was staunchly opposed by opposition Democrats, angry that Republicans refused to grant a hearing to then-president Barack Obama’s pick to replace Sc
McConnell had argued that since it was an election year, the next president should pick the nominee.
The Supreme Court is the final arbiter of many of the most sensitive issues of American life and law. Its members are named to life terms so their influence is long-lasting.
The nine-justice court has had one seat vacant for more than a year amid the ensuing political battle, with Democrats and Republicans trading bitter accusations of blame.
– Travel ban on horizon –
The fight came to a head Thursday as Democrats mounted a so-called filibuster that prevented Gorsuch’s nomination from advancing to a final vote.
Senate Republican leaders countered with the so-called “nuclear option,” a maneuver that changed the chamber’s rules so that moving Gorsuch — and all subsequent Supreme Court nominees — to a final vote requires a simple majority of 51 votes, rather than the traditional 60 votes.
The confirmation itself requires only a simple majority which Gorsuch easily received, with support from the chamber’s majority Republicans and a handful of Democrats.
Gorsuch’s confirmation is destined to shape the bench just as Trump is seeking approval of a key plank of his political platform: his executive order that halts entry to the United States from citizens of several Muslim-majority nations.
The so-called travel ban has been halted in lower federal courts, but experts expect it will make its way to the Supreme Court.
Stephen Yale-Loehr, who teaches immigration law at Cornell Law School, believes Trump has reason for optimism if his travel ban makes it to the high court for review, possibly later this year.
“The court generally defers to the executive branch on immigration matters because immigration touches on national sovereignty and foreign relations issues” Yale-Loehr told AFP.
“That may be particularly true” with Gorsuch on the bench, he added.
– ‘More partisan?’ –
While Republicans have trumpeted Gorsuch’s sterling reputation, Democrats expressed concern that he did not appropriately answer questions during his confirmation hearings about established precedent on race, education and abortion cases.
They also argued in days of Senate debate that his record shows he is a jurist who favors big business.
Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said Friday he hopes Gorsuch has listened to “our concerns about the Supreme Court increasingly drifting towards becoming a more pro-corporate court that favors employers, corporations and special interests over working America.”
As for changing Senate rules to ram Gorsuch through, Schumer issued a warning for the future for the Supreme Court.
“I believe it will make the Supreme Court a more partisan place. As a result, America’s faith in the integrity of the court, and their trust in the basic impartiality of the law will suffer,” Schumer said.
Gorsuch replaces another conservative, so his appointment does not dramatically alter the ideological makeup of the court. It is the next court appointment — whenever it comes — that would presage such a shift.
Professor Thomas Lee of Fordham University School of Law predicted that Gorsuch’s presence on the closely divided court will not automatically translate into more 5-4 wins for conservatives, at least not in particularly socially controversial cases.
Eighty-year-old Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1987, “will remain the swing voter,” Lee said.
“But some issues likely to be decided in the near future include questions of church-state relations regarding religion, exemptions for religious reasons, and state regulation of gun and abortion rights.”
AFP
cpcnews.org 