Senate Democrats have the votes to try to block Gorsuch

Three days of formal debate begin Tuesday with Republicans planning to confirm Gorsuch by Friday. In fact, the business of filibustering judges is a fairly recent invention, ironically, of the now-minority in the Senate – the Democrats – and in particular, Sen.

But South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham warned: “If we have to, we will change the rules”.

Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat who does not sit on the Judiciary panel, made a similar announcement in a statement as the panel was meeting. As a Supreme Court Justice, Judge Gorsuch shows promise that he would uphold the rights of all people – immigrants and native-born citizens alike.

That makes him the fourth Democratic senator to break from the ranks, and the only one from a state that voted against Donald Trump.

If a filibuster isn’t avoided though 60 votes in the Senate, McConnell will have no other choice, said Graham, and that will be devastating, as it will end a “tradition of the Senate” in which presidents can pick their justices. “The principles that have defined the Senate are crumbling, and we are poised to hasten that this week”, Coons said.

“I can not vote exclusively to protect an institution when the lives of hard-working Americans are at risk”, said Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who was the 40th Democrat to say he would refuse to move the nomination forward.

Schumer said Sunday he didn’t expect Gorsuch to receive the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster threat. However, Democrats maintain that Republicans already altered the landscape in 2016 with their failure to hold hearings for then-President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland.

USA Today wrote in favor of Gorsuch’s confirmation on Sunday. But he says he will not try to block a vote. My counterpart Senator Schumer once called it the “gold standard.’ [His decisions were] in the majority 99 percent of the time, 97 percent of his rulings were unanimous, only reversed one time in a case in which he participated by the Supreme Court.that’s why he will ultimately be confirmed”. Democrats pushed through a rules change lowering the vote threshold on all nominees except for the Supreme Court from 60 to a simple majority.

Presidents change and lawmakers come and go, but The Times is always here, and FREE online. “This says more about the Senate than it does Judge Gorsuch”.

Barring the distant chance of an agreement being reached behind closed doors to advance Gorsuch’s nomination, Democrats will carry through a successful filibuster of Gorsuch on Thursday.

Obama nominated Garland more than a year ago but the Senate’s majority Republicans put him on ice, declining to give him a hearing.

Republicans may then resort to the so-called “nuclear option”, changing the rules to ram through their nominee.

If the Judiciary Committee approves Gorsuch, intense floor debate is expected to continue throughout the week.

Durbin has joined the Democratic filibuster attempt, but the editorial concluded Gorsuch should be confirmed. Michael Bennet won’t support a filibuster of Judge Neil Gorsuch, describing Democratic efforts to block the Colorado native as taking the Senate in the “wrong direction”. The Iowa Republican is accusing Democrats of “moving the goal posts” in their assessment of Gorsuch.

Gorsuch’s nomination to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia, with whom he shares an “originalist” philosophy of constitutional interpretation, is unlikely to tip the ideological balance of the Supreme Court. Patrick J. Leahy, the senior-most Senate Democrat and a former chairman and ranking member of the Judiciary panel.

If Democrats mounted a filibuster, Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was expected to seek a change in Senate rules allowing a simple majority of the 100-member Senate to confirm the nomination.

Donnelly faces a tough re-election battle next year.