Senate Democrats and their constituents are still “outraged” over the Republican treatment of President Obama’s failed Supreme Court nominee, and that lingering anger is why they’ll demand a rare procedural vote to advance President Trump’s nominee that will require 60 votes.
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“There are still a lot of people in my state, and across the country, who are outraged by the way Merrick Garland and Barack Obama were treated,” Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., told the Washington Examiner. “Outraged.”
Republicans refused to consider Obama’s nominee all last year, and now, Democrats seem increasingly inclined to hold up Trump’s nominee, Judge Neil Gorsuch. So far, Gorsuch’s stellar credentials and unanimous 2006 Senate confirmation to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals don’t see to be helping him.
Instead, Democrats appear prepared to require a vote to end debate on Gorsuch, a relatively rare procedural hurdle that hasn’t been used on a Supreme Court nominee in more than a decade.
Justice Samuel Alito, nominated by President George W. Bush in 2006, was the last Supreme Court pick to need 60 votes for confirmation, and it was a threshold required by Democrats. As much as Republicans didn’t like President Obama or his nominees, they did not insist on a 60-vote clearance for his first two Supreme Court nominees, Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.
Carper wasn’t the only senator to use the word “outrage” to describe why Democrats are putting up such resistance.
“What they did to Garland was an outrage,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told the Washington Examiner.
Only a few Democrats have said they would vote against Gorsuch so far, but those who have cited the GOP’s decision to freeze Obama’s nominee in 2016. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said Democrats shouldn’t try to examine the Gorsuch nomination on its own merits in light of how Republicans acted last year.
“This is the first time in American history that one party has blockaded a nominee for almost a year in order to deliver a seat to a president of their own party,” he said. “If this tactic is rewarded rather than resisted, it will set a dangerous new precedent in American governance.”
Carper and Kaine declined to say the Democratic procedural hurdle was a direct response to how Obama’s nominee was treated, but instead cast the 60-vote threshold as one that’s “fair” given the controversy surrounding the Supreme Court.
“It will be a 60-vote margin and I think that is the fair way to do it,” Carper said.
“You’ve got to get to 60,” Kaine said. He cited the importance of the Supreme Court, the constitution and even his opposition to President Donald Trump, whose first days in office have produced a string of executive orders reversing Obama administration policies.
“That’s appropriate given the high stakes of the court and it’s even especially given the actions of the Trump administration, highly appropriate,” Kaine said.
So far, most Senate Democrats seem to agree. Only Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has indicated he would help Republicans get the 60 votes needed to end debate on Gorsuch.
But there are only 52 Republicans in the Senate, which means at least eight Democrats will be needed to reach 60. If they aren’t there, Republicans will have to decide if they want to change Senate rules to allow a simple majority vote to end debate instead of a 60-vote supermajority, a move that would likely lead to even more Democratic outrage.
