Historic Moment
The Senate Judiciary Committee has just advanced the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court to the full U.S. Senate. The vote was 11-9, along party lines.
Democrats have enough votes to stop Gorsuch’s confirmation under current Senate rules, but Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has vowed that Gorsuch will be confirmed, one way or another. That means he will have to change the rules from requiring 60 votes to pass, to a simple 51 vote majority.
This is a historic moment. No Senate Leader has ever changed the rules in order to force through any Supreme Court nominee.
Gorsuch is extremely conservative. After analyzing his rulings and opinions, statistician Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight places Gorsuch to the right of the late Antonin Scalia. Just one current Supreme Court justice is further to the right of Gorsuch.
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