Senate Confirms Neil Gorsuch As Next Supreme Court Justice After Republicans Go 'Nuclear'

WASHINGTON, DC — The Senate filled the long-open seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, making their next associate justice Judge Neil Gorsuch, who fell short of short of the 60 votes usually required confirmation but was approved after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel changed longstanding rules that reduced the minimum required votes to 51.

The vote was 54-45 in favor of confirming Gorsuch, bringing an end to a Republican no-holds-barred political battle to fill the vacant seat with a conservative who could influence rulings on nation's most important issues for decades to come. Following Justice Anthony Scalia's death February 2016, Republicans refused to vote on President Obama's nominee to replace him and used the 2016 campaign to pressure Donald Trump into promising to nominate a solid conservative should he become president.

Gorsuch will be sworn in Monday by Chief Justice John Roberts and then by Justice Anthony Kennedy, fulfilling requirements that Justices swear to two oaths, one judicial and the other constitutional. (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch for daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

A week after being sworn in, he'll hear his first arguments as from the Supreme Court bench.

“As a deep believer in the rule of law, Judge Gorsuch will serve the American people with distinction as he continues to faithfully and vigorously defend our Constitution,” Trump said following the vote.

Senate Democrats delayed the confirmation for as long as the chamber's rules would allow them. They filibustered to block the vote. Republicans made good on threats to resort to the "nuclear option," voting to end the filibuster and nix the 60-vote requirement designed to avoid confirmation of only judges who shared the political leanings of the party in majority control of the Senate.

Votes were cast in favor of confirmation by only three Democrats, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Donnelly of Indiana.

Sen. Johnny Isakson, a Georgia Republican, was the only senator who did not vote, missing because of back surgery.

"An historic moment," said Kellyanne Conway, a counselor to the president. "God bless Justice Gorsuch and his family."

Democrats criticized the Republicans for changing rules both parties had long abided by simply to push Gorsuch onto the court. Democrats rallied against Gorsuch, partly because of Republican refusal to give Obama's nominee so much as a hearing and partly because of rulings that Gorsuch has made favoring business owners over their workers.

"Changing the rules to jam through a right-wing, corporate-owned judge means the GOP will have to own the Gorsuch Court," said Massachusetts Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Oregon Democrat Sen. Jeff Merkley warned that the fraught nature of the Gorsuch's confirmation will haunt the court. "From today forward, every 5-4 decision with Neil Gorsuch in the majority will lack the same legitimacy it would have had before. Now, the Court is just one more political entity to be rigged in the political parties' favor, with dismal consequences for the American people."

Republicans excoriated Democrats for attempting to block Gorsuch. "This #SCOTUS nomination is the latest escalation in the Left’s never-ending judicial war, the most audacious yet, and it cannot stand," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in a tweet.

Republicans refusal to consider any Obama nominee to replace Scalia escalated the politicization of the confirmation process was the McConnell's precedent-busting change of rules frustrated Democrats further. Republicans argued that the changes were no more audacious than the Democrats made in 2013, when the controlled the Senate and barred the filibuster for lower judgeships and executive branch nominees.

There move , though, left the Supreme Court filibuster untouched to maintain minority party influence when the Senate considers nominees for the court.

Republicans "have had other choices,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said after he failed to convince Republicans that Gorsuch should not be confirmed if hecould not earn 60 votes. “They have chosen this one.”

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