Justice Neil Gorsuch, President Trump’s selection last year for the Supreme Court, cast the deciding vote in a decision released Tuesday that sided with an immigrant fighting his deportation, The Hill reports.
“Gorsuch ruled with the court’s four liberal justices in favor of the immigrant, James Garcia Dimaya, who argued that his convictions on two burglary charges did not represent a violent crime.”
Rick Hasen: “Whatever else comes of the Donald J. Trump presidency, already he has perfectly fulfilled one campaign pledge in a way that will affect the entire United States for a generation or more: putting another Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court. The early signs from Justice Neil Gorsuch, who joined the Court in April, show that he will hew to the late Justice Scalia’s brand of jurisprudence, both in his conservatism and his boldness.”
“Usually it takes a few years to get the full sense of a new justice. The job provides awesome power, and new justices often are reluctant to issue stark opinions or stake out strong positions early on… Not so with Gorsuch. In a flurry of orders and opinions issued Monday, Gorsuch went his own way.”
Rick Hasen: “There was a lot of dissembling when Justice Gorsuch was nominated to the Supreme Court, that he was some kind of blank slate, without preconceived ideas about how he would rule as a Supreme Court Justice. Of course, this was a ruse to blunt public criticism. Many of us knew that he would be a very conservative Justice—the only question is if he will be more like Scalia, Thomas, or Alito.”
“Justice Gorsuch has been on the Court only a few months, and only heard one month’s worth of oral arguments. But today, on the last day of the Supreme Court’s term, we got a very good indication he will be most like Justice Scalia, and often voting with Justices Thomas and Alito, making Justice Gorsuch one of the most, or most, conservative Justices.”
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New York Times: “Justices interrupt one another all the time, and it may not be easy for the new justice to find his place and to raise his voice this week, when he hears his first arguments. But a new study suggests that Justice Gorsuch has two things going for him: He is conservative, and he is male.”
From the study: “Conservatives interrupt liberals at significantly higher rates than liberals interrupt conservatives.”
“And male justices, perhaps not surprisingly, interrupt female justices far more often than the other way around.”
Washington Post: “Newly confirmed Neil M. Gorsuch is likely to have an immediate impact at the Supreme Court, weighing in as early as next week on whether to consider expanding the breadth of the Second Amendment. He could play a decisive role this spring in determining how voting rights should be protected and in a major case on the separation of church and state.”
Judge Neil Gorsuch “was confirmed by the Senate on Friday to become the 113th justice of the Supreme Court, capping a political brawl that lasted for more than a year and tested constitutional norms inside the Capitol’s fraying upper chamber,” the New York Times reports.
“The development was a signal triumph for President Trump, whose campaign last year rested in large part on his pledge to appoint another committed conservative to succeed Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February 2016.”
Washington Post: “Gorsuch is expected to be sworn-in in the coming days, allowing him to join the high court for the final weeks of its term, which ends in June. It’s likely he will want to be sworn-in quickly — even if a ceremonial event is held later — so that he can get to work.”
“Senate Republicans changed longstanding rules on Thursday to clear the way for the confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch to serve on the Supreme Court, bypassing a precedent-breaking Democratic filibuster by allowing the nomination to go forward on a simple majority vote,” the New York Times reports.
“In deploying the so-called nuclear option, lawmakers are fundamentally altering the way the Senate operates — a sign of the body’s creeping rancor in recent years after decades of at least relative bipartisanship on Supreme Court matters. Both parties have likewise warned of sweeping effects on the future of the court, predicting that the shift will lead to the elevation of more ideologically extreme judges if only a majority is required for confirmation.”
Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch “copied the structure and language used by several authors and failed to cite source material in his book and an academic article,” Politico reports.
“The documents show that several passages from the tenth chapter of his 2006 book, The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, read nearly verbatim to a 1984 article in the Indiana Law Journal. In several other instances in that book and an academic article published in 2000, Gorsuch borrowed from the ideas, quotes and structures of scholarly and legal works without citing them.”
A White House statement: “There is only one explanation for this baseless, last-second smear of Judge Gorsuch: those desperate to justify the unprecedented filibuster of a well-qualified and mainstream nominee to the Supreme Court.”
James Hohmann: “On paper, this is a golden age for the GOP. There are 33 Republican governors, the most since 1922. In 25 states now, Republicans have unified control of the governorship and legislature. Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri and New Hampshire joined that club last November when the GOP took control of five more House chambers and two more Senate chambers. Today there are 4,195 Republican state legislators, compared to 3,132 Democrats.”
“Gorsuch, once confirmed, will be well positioned to provide the decisive vote on a host of issues that might help cement this Republican hold on power, or at least give the party a leg up in future elections. He could vote to allow states to restrict voting, give more leeway to partisans in the round of redistricting that will begin after the 2020 election and further loosen campaign finance limitations. Don’t forget Bush v. Gore, when the Supreme Court – on a party-line vote – delivered the presidency to George W. Bush.”
Senate Democrats “appeared to secure the votes necessary to filibuster the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch, sending the body hurtling toward a bitter partisan confrontation later this week,” the New York Times reports.
“With an announcement from Sen. Christopher Coons (D-DE) during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing to vote on Judge Gorsuch’s nomination, Democrats had found their 41st vote in support of a filibuster. The Senate Judiciary Committee was poised to approve the nomination later on Monday in a likely party-line vote to move President Trump’s selection to the Senate floor.”
“If the filibuster holds, Republicans have hinted strongly that they will pursue the so-called nuclear option, changing longstanding practices to elevate Judge Gorsuch on a simple majority vote.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) predicted that “it looks like Neil Gorsuch will not reach the 60-vote margin” needed to overcome a filibuster in the Senate, NBC News reports.
If there aren’t 60 votes, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) could use the “nuclear option,” changing Senate rules so only 51 votes would be necessary to confirm the nominee.
McConnell responded: “What I can tell you is Neil Gorsuch will be confirmed this week … how that happens will depend on our Democratic friends.”
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) “will vote to filibuster Neil Gorsuch, becoming the 36th Democratic senator to vow to block President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee from confirmation,” Politico reports.
“McCaskill’s announcement Friday pushes the Senate ever-closer to a major confrontation next week over the chamber’s rules. If Democrats can secure five more votes to deny Gorsuch the 60 votes he needs to advance, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is likely to gut the supermajority requirement on Supreme Court nominees using the ‘nuclear option.'”
“Do they really think history books or the American people will look kindly on them for filibustering this amazingly well-qualified and widely respected nominee?”
— Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), quoted by the Washington Post, on the pending confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.
Politico: “McConnell’s attempt to buck up his GOP ranks, relayed by three sources in attendance, underscores the high stakes of the Gorsuch battle as the Senate barrels toward a likely nuclear showdown next week: His confirmation is, to put it mildly, a can’t-lose for Republicans.”
“That was true after Senate Republicans waged a yearlong blockade of Merrick Garland that positioned the GOP to pick someone else now. But the spectacular collapse of the Obamacare repeal effort last week makes Gorsuch all the more urgent for President Donald Trump and reeling Hill Republicans.”
“Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch’s path to 60 votes is rapidly closing — setting the stage for a nuclear showdown in the Senate as soon as next week,” Politico reports.
“Senior Democratic sources are now increasingly confident that Gorsuch can’t clear a filibuster, saying his ceiling is likely mid- to upper-50s on the key procedural vote. That would mark the first successful filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee since Abe Fortas for chief justice in the 1960s.”
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) announced he would oppose Judge Neil Gorsuch’s appointment to the Supreme Court “and join other Democrats in filibustering the nomination, making it likely that the judge will struggle to find the support needed to clear a 60-vote procedural hurdle,” the Washington Post reports.
Schumer said Gorsuch “was unable to sufficiently convince me that he’d be an independent check” on President Trump and is “not a neutral legal mind but someone with a deep-seated conservative ideology.”
Politico: “A group of Senate Democrats is beginning to explore trying to extract concessions from Republicans in return for allowing Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch to be confirmed… The lawmakers worry that Gorsuch could be confirmed whether Democrats try to block him or not — and Democrats will be left with nothing to show for it. That would be a bitter pill after the GOP blocked Merrick Garland for nearly a year.”
“The deal Democrats would be most likely to pursue, the sources said, would be to allow confirmation of Gorsuch in exchange for a commitment from Republicans not to kill the filibuster for a subsequent vacancy during President Donald Trump’s term.”
Rick Hasen: “Triggering a fight over the filibuster will gain attention, but Democrats can only do it once. The Gorsuch nomination restores the balance of power on the Court to the position it was in before Justice Scalia’s death.”
“Maybe I’m nerve dead but I’m really not feeling it.”
— Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), quoted by CNN, on whether there’s pressure to block Neil Gorsuch’s nomination.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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