Watch Replay: Neil Gorsuch Confirmation Hearings Begin

Judge Neil Gorsuch appeared before the Senate Monday beginning at 11 a.m. Eastern, marking the start of a contentious battle over the open seat on the Supreme Court.

Republicans have fervently defended Gorsuch's qualifications to be a justice on the highest court in the country. Democrats, while they strongly differ ideologically with Gorsuch, have largely based opposition to President Trump's nominee on the fact that Republicans refused to hold a vote on President Obama's pick, Judge Merrick Garland, when he was nominated for the same seat a year ago.

And Garland's name was mentioned frequently in the Democrats' comments today.

“We’re here today under very unusual circumstances,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat. “Merrick Garland was widely regarded as a mainstream moderate nominee."

Sen. Richard Durbin, the Illinois Democrat, said that his party members' consideration of Gorsuch was "a courtesy which Senate Republicans denied to Judge Garland."

Durbin also threw out a dig at the President Trump: "You’re going to have your hands full with this president. He’s going to keep you busy."

Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, compared the Republicans' blocking Garland to President Franklin Roosevelt's attempts at court-packing.

"Republicans are guilty of their own court-unpacking scheme in that their blocking of Merrick Garland was never grounded in principle or precedent," he said.

Republicans praised the nominee and urged their counterparts to consider him fairly.

"Consider the nominee on the merits — nothing else," said Texas Republican John Cornyn.

Sen. Ted Cruz, another Texas Republican, argued that the GOP's obstruction on Garland, and the Republicans' subsequent electoral wins, made the case for Gorsuch even stronger.

"His nomination carries with it a super legitimacy that is also unprecedented in our nation’s history," Cruz said.

While appointing a justice was once seen as a more procedural part of American government, in recent decades it has become a deeply contentious and ideological process.

Watch a replay of the proceedings below.

Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images News/Getty Image