What Is the Nuclear Option?

The Senate confirmed Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court on Friday after a rule change in the legislative body on Thursday made it impossible for Democrats to filibuster the nomination. What the rest are really mad about is the way the Republican majority treated Obama's nominee, Merrick Garland, denying that well-qualified judge so much as a committee hearing, much less a vote by the full Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky. signals a thumbs-up as he leaves the Senate chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, April 6, 2017, after he led the GOP majority to change Senate rules. "If he is instead a justice for the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation, that will spell trouble for America".

Lawmakers confirmed him in a 54-45 vote in a simple up-or-down simple majority vote.

"The Left and their Senate allies have spent weeks manufacturing outrage against Judge Gorsuch's impending confirmation to our nation's highest court". Many Republicans bemoaned reaching that point, too, but they blamed Democrats for pushing them to it. Democratic senators, including Florida's Bill Nelson, have expressed concern that Gorsuch is far to the right of the mainstream, but they wouldn't like anyone nominated by President Trump or any other Republican.

But despite the opposition to Gorsuch, his confirmation was never seriously in doubt and he flew remarkably under the radar.

After he is sworn in, Gorsuch will restore the court's conservative voting majority that existed before Scalia's death, and which could persist for years or even grow over the course of Trump's administration. Democrats were often drowned out and distracted by issues ranging from the investigation over Russia's activities in the 2016 presidential election to the March effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Gorsuch is expected to join a conservative-leaning voting bloc of justices, making five on the nine-member court.

Democrats can choose a ruling or two as alibis for opposing Gorsuch, but their real reason is two things that happened a year ago - the shabby treatment of Garland and the Electoral College victory of Trump. The ruling was later upheld by the Supreme Court. This issue is a favorite of conservatives and Gorsuch's beliefs align with those of Scalia and Justice Clarence Thomas. He is a graduate of Columbia University, Harvard Law School, and Oxford University, where he earned a doctorate in legal philosophy.

"The great project of Justice Scalia's career was to remind us of the differences between judges and legislators".

Then Justice Anthony Kennedy will ask his former law clerk and new colleague to take the second oath in a public ceremony at the White House. Gorsuch's mother, Anne Gorsuch Burford, was the first female head of the EPA under President Ronald Reagan. "It will make the cooling saucer of the Senate considerably hotter, and I believe it will make the Supreme Court a more partisan place".

She resigned in 1983 under controversy after refusing to turn over toxic waste records to Congress.

He served as a partner at a prestigious Washington Law firm, Kellogg, Huber as well as Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General.

Gorsuch and his wife, Louise, have two daughters.