domingo, 2 de abril de 2017

Democrats close in on 41 votes to block Gorsuch

Mitch McConnell reiterates that he's prepared to kill the filibuster to get the high court nominee confirmed.

By Seung Min Kim


Senate Democrats are quickly closing in on the 41 votes needed to block the nomination of Neil Gorsuch.



Neil Gorsuch almost certainly will end this week confirmed as a Supreme Court justice. And the Senate’s rules — indeed, the institutional character of the chamber — seem just as sure to end up severely eroded.

Senate Democrats are quickly closing in on the 41 votes needed to block the nomination of President Donald Trump’s first pick for the Supreme Court. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his GOP ranks aren’t backing down in the face of the filibuster threat, continuing to insist that Gorsuch will be installed as the next high court justice, whether Democrats like it or not.



The competing postures mean the Senate is hurtling toward the use later this week of the so-called nuclear option — changing the chamber’s rules with a simple majority so that Supreme Court filibusters can be cut off with just 51 votes, rather than the long-required 60-vote threshold.

Democrats say Gorsuch, who is expected to be approved by the Judiciary Committee on Monday, has only himself to blame for not earning their support.

“When Gorsuch refused to answer the most rudimentary questions in the hearings, after there were many doubts about him to begin with … there was a seismic change in my caucus,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And it's highly, highly unlikely that he'll get 60.”

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