Neil Gorsuch confirmation vote

“Our Democratic colleagues have done something today that is unprecedented in the history of the Senate”, he said.

(Senate Television via AP). Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. speaks on the floor of the Senate on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, April 5, 2017.

The daylong debate on the Senate floor was full of finger pointing, with members of both parties claiming the Senate would not be in this situation if the other side hadn’t played politics in the past.

With the failure of Republican healthcare legislation in Congress and with federal courts blocking the president’s ban on people from several Muslim-majority nations from entering the USA, securing Gorsuch’s confirmation took on even greater importance for Trump, who took office in January.

Following the rule change, the Senate voted 55-45 to end debate on Gorsuch’s nomination with Democratic Sens.

Adam Winkler, a law professor who specializes in American constitutional law, said he thinks having only eight justices has profoundly impacted Supreme Court rulings.

Democrats ended the filibuster for executive-branch and lower-court nominees when they were the majority party in 2013, following years of Republican obstruction of Obama’s nominees.

“The primary driver of the majority’s decision to steal the Senate seat was to sustain the flow of dark money that is corrupting our elections”, he continued.

Jeff Merkley started talking Tuesday evening and was still going more than 13 hours later as he accused Gorsuch of siding with corporations over regular people, likening Gorsuch’s approach to that of Antonin Scalia, the justice who died previous year. “The consequences for the Senate and for the future of the Supreme Court will be far-reaching”, the Post reported Schumer said prior to the vote Thursday.

The move could change the Senate and court for generations. It came Thursday on a procedural motion.

Typically, 60 votes are needed to both halt a filibuster and confirm presidential nominations.

“This will be the first – and last – partisan filibuster of a Supreme Court nomination”, McConnell said of the history-making step. The Senate then voted to change Senate precedent for Supreme Court cloture votes from the 60-vote threshold to a simple majority of 51. They declined Wednesday to say if they will support ditching the 60-vote threshold for Supreme Court nominees.

In order to bypass Democrats’ opposition, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky invoked the so-called nuclear option.

Nevertheless McConnell and company forged ahead, infuriated by Democrats’ insistence on filibustering what Republicans consider a mainstream Supreme Court nominee.

Democrats had earlier Thursday voted to block Gorsuch’s nomination, in what was expected to only be a temporary delay.

The vote was a delaying tactic by Democrats.

The tit-for-tat maneuvers – filibuster followed by nuclear option – are nearly certain to change the tone and temper of the Senate, and lead to more fringe high-court justices being approved on either political side. Merkley questioned whether Republicans were moving quickly to end debate on Gorsuch’s nomination “before that information becomes public”. The final vote is expected sometime Friday evening. “This will be the first, and last, partisan filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee”. “But Judge Neil Gorsuch is going to be on the Supreme Court, and I’m prepared to do whatever it takes to put him there”.

Democrats opposing Mr Gorsuch said they believe he would favour corporations over workers and would be on the far right of the court.