Schumer says Dems will demand 60 votes to confirm Gorsuch

Erin Kelly
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., made it clear Wednesday that Democrats will filibuster President Trump's Supreme Court nomination of Neil Gorsuch, saying it is important that the Colorado judge be "mainstream" enough to appeal to at least some Democrats and attract 60 votes.

Under Senate rules, the minority party has the power to insist on a procedural vote known as cloture that requires the approval of 60 senators to end debate and proceed to an up-or-down vote on a high court nominee. Republicans have 52 seats in the Senate.

"We Democrats will insist on a rigorous but fair process," Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor. "There will be 60 votes for confirmation. Any one member can require it. Many Democrats already have, and it is the right thing to do. On a subject as important as a Supreme Court nomination, bipartisan support should be a prerequisite. It should be essential. That's what 60 votes does."

His comments came as Trump urged Senate Republicans to change Senate rules to invoke the "nuclear option," which would allow the GOP majority to confirm Gorsuch with a simple majority of 51 votes. That would effectively strip Democrats of their power to block the judge's confirmation.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has not said whether he will use the nuclear option. He is expected to try first to convince at least eight Democrats to join the chamber's Republicans to advance Gorsuch's confirmation. Although Democrats are insisting on the procedural vote, most of them have not yet said how they will vote.

"If we end up with that gridlock I would say, ‘if you can, Mitch, go nuclear,' " Trump said Wednesday.

Some Democrats, including Schumer, have expressed concern that the judge will not uphold abortion rights and will favor corporate interests over ordinary citizens.

McConnell called on Democrats to treat Gorsuch fairly.

"In the coming days, I hope and expect that all Senate colleagues will give him fair consideration just as we did for the nominees of newly elected presidents Clinton and Obama," McConnell said on the Senate floor. "This is a judge who is known for deciding cases based on how the law is actually written, not how he wishes it were written, even when it leads to results that conflict with his own political beliefs. He understands that his role as a judge is to interpret the law, not impose his own viewpoint."

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Gorsuch began making the rounds on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to meet with senators, including Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who has praised Gorsuch's qualifications.

The Judiciary Committee plans to hold a confirmation hearing on Gorsuch in about six weeks, said committee spokeswoman Beth Levine. That would put the hearing sometime in mid-March, giving senators time to meet with Gorsuch and review his qualifications.

McConnell and other Republicans were quick to point out that Schumer and other Democratic senators voted unanimously to confirm Gorsuch as an appeals court judge 10 years ago.

"There are still 31 senators in this body who voted for the judge (in 2006)," Grassley said.

Democrats responded that Republicans, including McConnell and Grassley, supported the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to be a district court judge in New York and then opposed her nomination to the Supreme Court when she was chosen by former President Obama. Sotomayor was ultimately confirmed and still serves on the high court.