Schumer: We'll Filibuster Gorsuch

Senate minority leader announces his opposition to Supreme Court nominee
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Mar 23, 2017 10:24 AM CDT
Schumer: We'll Filibuster Gorsuch
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of N.Y. speaks with reporters about his opposition to Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, Tuesday, March 21, 2107, on Capitol Hill in Washington.   (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The top Democrat in the Senate said Thursday he will oppose the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to serve on the Supreme Court and encouraged other Democrats to reject President Trump's choice, the AP reports. Republicans will need 60 votes to break the Democratic filibuster, the Washington Post reports, and it's not clear whether the necessary eight Democratic senators will vote with the GOP. Republicans have said they'll change the rules if need be so that a simple majority would confirm Gorsuch, but Schumer said, "If this nominee cannot earn 60 votes—a bar met by each of President Obama’s nominees, and George Bush’s last two nominees—the answer isn’t to change the rules. It’s to change the nominee."

Shortly before the Senate minority leader's announcement, Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, who faces re-election next year in a state Trump won, also announced his opposition. Casey said he had "serious concerns about Judge Gorsuch's rigid and restrictive judicial philosophy, manifest in a number of opinions he has written on the 10th Circuit." The opposition from the two Democrats came after two days of hearings in which Gorsuch emerged unscathed and with solid Republican support in the GOP-led Senate. The Judiciary panel is expected to vote in the next two weeks to recommend Gorsuch favorably to the full Senate. A number of other Democrats have also announced their opposition. No Democrat has yet pledged to support the judge, but Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said Wednesday he is open to voting for him. (More Neil Gorsuch stories.)

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