Immediately after President Trump nominated Neal Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, Senate Democratic Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer released a statement that strongly suggested that Democrats intend to block Trump’s nominee.
In his statement, Schumer said:
A little more than a week into the Trump presidency, the new Administration has violated our core values, challenged the separation of powers, and tested the very fabric of our Constitution in unprecedented fashion. It is clear that the Supreme Court will be tried in ways that few Courts have been tested since the earliest days of the Republic, when Constitutional questions abounded.
Now more than ever, we need a Supreme Court Justice who is independent, eschews ideology, who will preserve our democracy, protect fundamental rights, and will stand up to a President who has already shown a willingness to bend the Constitution.
The Senate must insist upon 60-votes for any Supreme Court nominee, a bar that was met by each of President Obama’s nominees. The burden is on Judge Neil Gorsuch to prove himself to be within the legal mainstream and, in this new era, willing to vigorously defend the Constitution from abuses of the Executive branch and protect the constitutionally enshrined rights of all Americans.
Given his record, I have very serious doubts about Judge Gorsuch’s ability to meet this standard. Judge Gorsuch has repeatedly sided with corporations over working people, demonstrated a hostility toward women’s rights, and most troubling, hewed to an ideological approach to jurisprudence that makes me skeptical that he can be a strong, independent Justice on the Court.
Make no mistake, Senate Democrats will not simply allow but require an exhaustive, robust, and comprehensive debate on Judge Gorsuch’s fitness to be a Supreme Court Justice.
Schumer laid out a standard that Gorsuch is unlikely to meet, which makes it probable that Senate Democrats are going to block his nomination. The country will go through the political theater of meetings and hearings on Gorsuch, but Democrats have already publicly stated that they are going to force the Senate to require 60 votes on Trump’s nominee.
Sen. Schumer’s statement tonight made it look highly unlikely that Trump will be able to pick up nine votes to get his nominee to the needed sixty for confirmation.
Democrats haven’t forgotten the obstruction of Merrick Garland’s nomination, and it is going to be an uphill battle for Trump to get his Supreme Court nominee confirmed by the Senate.