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President Trump nominated conservative Judge Neil Gorsuch of Denver to the Supreme Court on Tuesday — a move Democrats vowed to fight even before his name was announced.
“I took the task of this nomination very seriously,” Trump said as he presented the justice nominee and his wife, Louise, in an announcement at the White House. “Judge Gorsuch has outstanding legal skills.”
He added: “The qualifications of Judge Gorsuch are beyond dispute.”
Gorsuch took the podium and talked emotionally about how he “missed” the justice he would be replacing, the Late Antonin Scalia.
“I pledge that if I am confirmed,” he said, “I will be a faithful servant to the Constitution and laws of this country.”
Gorsuch, 49, a fourth-generation Coloradan who sits on the US Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Philadelphia, will restore the ideological balance that existed before Justice Scalia’s sudden death in February 2016 left a gaping vacancy.
The Harvard grad is a conservative Republican and a champion of religious liberty known for his crisp and pointed writing style.
He has slammed liberals for an “overweening addiction to the courtroom” and last year hailed Scalia as a “lion of the law.”
A study led by Mercer University law professor Jeremy Kidd concluded that Gorsuch was the second-most similar to Scalia of the 21 prospective justices on a list Trump released during the presidential campaign.
He has a decade-long record on the federal bench, and won unanimous Senate approval for his appeals court post in 2006.
But he will face tough grilling from Democrats on the Judiciary Committee and, surviving that, when the full Senate votes on his nomination.
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) vowed to stage a filibuster on the Senate floor even before the pick was announced.
The nomination came after an extraordinarily contentious day in the nation’s capital, with Democrats still furious over the president’s temporary travel ban on immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries.
Fast-moving developments included:
About 250 people gathered outside Schumer’s Midtown office in the afternoon, and a larger demonstration in the evening at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn was headed to his Prospect Park home.
Schumer led the effort to delay a vote on Sessions using a procedural trick known as the “2-hour rule,” which bars Senate committee meetings from continuing past 2 p.m.
Democrats on the committee gave lengthy speeches, with Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) dragging out the clock for 23 minutes, in part by reciting a speech from former President Ronald Reagan.
Schumer announced his intentions on Twitter — mid-hearing Canlı Bahis — at 1:21 pm: “The American people need answers on exec orders from Sen. Sessions. Jud Cmte shouldn’t proceed until we get them so I’ll invoke the 2hr rule.”
Judiciary Committee chair Sen. Chuck Grassley — who gave Democrats the leeway to vent — said the vote would be delayed until 10:30 a.m. Wednesday once he learned Schumer had invoked the maneuver.
As Democrats fought to delay hearings on Trump’s Cabinet picks, the White House and GOP senators fought back furiously.
Administration spokesman Sean Spicer angrily called the delay tactics “ridiculous.”
“The mere idea they’re not even showing up to hearings is truly outrageous,” he said.
Finance Committee chair Orrin Hatch ( R-Utah) went further.
“They ought to stop posturing and acting like idiots,” he griped. “I’m very disappointed in this kind of crap. This is the most pathetic thing I’ve seen in my whole life in the United States Senate.”
The Democratic walkout stalled deliberations because Finance Committee rules require at least one Democrat to be present for votes.
Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) said the move was unprecedented: “We did not inflict this kind of obstructionism on President Obama,” he said.
But in 2013, when Democrats controlled the Senate, Republicans boycotted a committee vote on Gina McCarthy to head the Environmental Protection Agency, temporarily stalling it.
Trump, the former star of “The Apprentice,” had summoned Gorsuch and his other top finalist, Thomas Hardiman, 49, of Pittsburgh, to appear in DC, setting up a dramatic reality-TV-like reveal of the winner.
Republicans hoped an announcement this week on the Suprme Court choice would provide time for confirmation before the Senate recess scheduled to start April 8, and potentially let the new justice hear cases during the high court’s current nine-month term.
Democrats will be hard-pressed to stop the nomination given the 52-48 advantage Republicans hold in the Senate.
Under current rules, Republicans need 60 votes to bring the nomination to the Senate floor if the filibuster proceeds.
But Republicans could eliminate the filibuster for Supreme Court appointments with a simple majority vote — invoking the so-called “nuclear option.”
Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has vowed lawmakers will confirm Trump’s nominee.
The political leanings of the court nominee are of vital importance to Democrats as the new court could decide cases affecting controversial issues such as immigration, voting rights, abortion, affirmative action and transgender rights.
“It’s really important we have a mainstream nominee, and the way to do that is to require a super-majority vote, as we have now,” Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat, said Monday.
Democrats are still smarting from Senate Republicans’ refusal to consider President Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to fill the Scalia seat. That nomination would have given the court a majority of Democratic appointees for the first time since 1969.
The nomination could be one of several for Trump. Three other justices — Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer — are at least 78.
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