Oregon’s Sen. Jeff Merkley threatens to filibuster any Trump high court nominee

With hours of Justice Antonin Scalia’s death a year ago, Senate Republicans very quickly said, in effect, “Absolutely no” to the idea of confirming President Obama’s nominee, before President Obama had even chosen a nominee.

Spicer’s outrage at what Democrats may do rings hollow since the spot Trump is filling ― the seat of the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia ― actually became vacant during the presidency of Barack Obama.

It is noteworthy that the Supreme Court is now deadlocked with an even amount of justices skewing liberal and conservative.

In 1987, Ronald Reagan nominated Bork, an archconservative federal appeals court judge to replace the moderate Lewis Powell.

The two finalists reportedly are Thomas Hardiman, a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and Neil Gorsuch, a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

That led to the nomination of Judge Merrick Garland but he was never confirmed.

Gambling that Republicans would win the presidency in the November 8 election, McConnell argued that Obama’s successor should get to make the pick.

Likewise, if Trump is able to install another conservative pick that could set up the court for a series of potentially conservative decisions on everything from abortion to marriage equality over the next several years.

President Trump tells small business people on January 30, 2017 that he will announce his “unbelievably highly respected” Supreme Court pick on Tuesday evening.

The Republicans stole this seat from Obama.

Democrats feel the seat was “stolen, ” and some have pledged to try to block a vote on Trump’s nominee, no matter who it is. Because Republicans hold a 52-48 majority, they would need at least eight Democrats. President Trump said he supports use of the “nuclear option”, requiring only a simple majority, if democrats filibuster. A third person on the shortlist – Judge William Pryor of Alabama – has seen his chances diminish as some Republican Senate leaders have said his confirmation would be a hard.

Both Gorsuch and Hardiman would fit the conservative-leanings of Scalia, indicating that Senate Republicans’ efforts to maintain their ideological tilt in SCOTUS had paid off.

In the important Hobby Lobby case, Gorsuch sided with the business that did not want to pay for employees’ birth control as part of the Affordable Care Act.